Trafford awaits its provisional financial settlement
Might even be today, but more likely tomorrow or Thursday.
This is the week where councils learn the amount that central government is going to top up their funding.
We know the general rules that are going to apply. We know that the Government wants to support councils with high levels of deprivation.
Last year Trafford had to apply for exceptional financial support which allowed the council to increase council tax beyond the normal capping of 4.99% and it provided the ability to borrow up to £9.6m to support the council’s in year budget.
The council are currently anticipating a modest underspend of about £0.5m on this year’s budget. That would allow either reducing that £9.6m capitalisation for the year; or a small boost to the reserves.
If it’s feasible, I’d prefer supplementing the reserves. In my view, they’re far too low.
A favourable settlement from government will help narrow the funding gap. If it’s unfavourable, it presents some difficult choices.
The Institute for Financial Studies (IFS) put out some analysis of the government’s budget approach for local government last month and it’s hard to see Trafford being one of the winners. Most of the policy shifts seem to work against Trafford, so it’s definitely a worrying wait but we’ll see.
I’m a member of the Council of Governors for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT). We met last week for our December development day. The intention was to provide an overview of various strategies and programmes. The health landscape is rapidly changing in Greater Manchester.
One of the key elements of the model is the locality neighbourhood. The axiom behind the model is that we can best improve health outcomes through provision in the community rather through an an over-reliance on hospitals. The locality neighbourhood aims to provide the pathways within the community that enable this to happen.
We’re in the middle of winter pressures that have come early this year. Already, initiatives like the new Single Point of Access clinical triage hub (known as the SPoA) are making a difference. The SPoA has been up and running since mid-November, directing patients who would have likely been conveyed by ambulance, away from our Emergency Departments (ED) and to a more appropriate setting or service which better meets their needs. In the first two weeks, 50-60% of patients referred to the service have been diverted. We expect to see the volume of referrals increase as there is greater awareness of this new option to GPs and the ambulance service. Clearly, initiatives like this emphasise the importance of our community provision.
It would be remiss not to link to the nhs advice on knowing where to go and what to do in terms of health provision at this time of the year.
Our mission
More generally, we looked at MFT priorities and how we were peforming against the targets for the current year as well as looking forward to the coming year.
I think what I take from this work is how much depends on the Trafford provision. We’re not yet where Manchester is with Hospital at Home and district nursing. That has to be a priority and I know it is.
Treasury Management Report (A quietly well-performing aspect of the Council. Regardless of political complexion, this team is tasked with managing both our debts and financial assets)
I did as I was told. I kept my mouth shut as instructed. I voted as whipped.
Ultimately, it was a mix of posturing and moral scolding. The more we are removed from the neighbourhoods we represent, the more we inhabit an alternate universe. Nobody wins and you won’t hear of these motions again. It’s just hierarchies reinforcing themselves. The people sat on the council dais win. That is all.
We’ve got to find new ways of highlighting serious issues.
Council Finances
The period from October to December is typically the time when the next year’s budget comes together. Assumptions are made about the Government’s settlement and other unknowns such as pay settlements.
I notice my old friend, former Councillor Jonathan Coupe, has been raising the absence of a draft budget.
Screenshot
I was scheduled to be a member of a scrutiny committee from late summer. It never met and meetings scheduled for December have now been cancelled. Jonathan is right to question where we are.
I think this tells you how much depends on the final Local Government Settlement. We are never given the actual date, but it was the 18th December, which triggered our application for Exceptional Financial Support from the Government in 2024. Given that £9.6m of that financial support was not consolidated, but was actually a borrowing facility that will have to be paid back over time, I would have preferred a worst case budget for 2026/27. I hope the Government understands the financial precipice I suspect we’re standing over.
The monitoring report for the current year is to be presented at tonight’s executive. It looks like we’re on course to spend that £9.6m capitalisation. All things being equal, that would leave us needing to make up that £9.6m just to stand still without any increases in costs.
The government has recently published its fair funding review. We won’t know the full impact until the settlement is published, but prioritising support for the most deprived councils won’t necessarily help Trafford.
Executive Meeting 8th December
Apart from the current in-year budget position there’s a couple of other items on the agenda;
Potential compulsory purchase New Street Altrincham – L&Q have a development there.
Memorandum of Understanding with L&Q on future working collaboration
I would have preferred this memorandum of understanding to have undergone pre-decision scrutiny. Were L&Q working collaboratively when they emptied Circle Court?
Activation of Trafford’s Cultural Strategy – go ahead for Trafford Is… platform
Urmston Plan – all councils do this type of thing and you’re left feeling wouldn’t it have been better to just do some implementation. We knew that the Urmston Market site was frustrating residents. Has this ‘plan’ brought about any resolution?
Advanced Manufacturing Skills Programme – our contribution to a GM wide programme.
Planning Committee applications
None within the ward, but Stretford Town Centre is important to many of our residents. This will be heard on Thursday evening.
Lacy Street – Residential development (use class C3) of 53 dwellings with associated amenity space, access, car and cycle parking, external landscaping, drainage and other associated works.
The recommendation is for members of the committee to grant this application from Trafford Council. I’m on record as opposing it as an unsuitable use of this prime location.
It’s hard to imagine a less walking/cycling friendly junction. Just as the Urmston plan is advocating raised crossings, Stretford proposes fast corners to the junctions in the centre of Stretford. Front doors and gardens onto Chester Road are brave at best.
Following one of the worst council meetings I can remember and there’s been some bad ones, it was nice to confirm I’ve got tickets for Neil Young / Elvis Costello in the summer.
Music is important to me. I’m still searching for a radio feed that gives me a perfect mix and no talk. BBC 6 music is closest in my tastes, but they hardly ever shut up.
……and the same goes for council! – 😊
I sometimes listen to Radio Paradise from the states. And I’ve been playing Fip Monde from France for (+15) years since it was featured on the Today programme – it’s world music and it’s rare to hear anything I’ve heard before. Still more often than not I just ask Alexa to play a particular song and let the algorithm take over.
Regardless of this December is the time for the music streamers to tell listeners what they’ve been listening to the most and I can never resist checking it.
This is mine. I’d love hear yours. I don’t know how accessible they are if you’re not signed up. I know I can still play somethings on Spotify despite not being with them for a long time.
Council has been cancelling meetings during by-elections. They’ve always done it. It’s always been a problem, but we’ve worked around it. Having two consecutive by-elections has broken the system in my view, we’ve had no budget scrutiny, we’ve a huge backlog in performance reports. I have tried to identify the constitutional basis for this suspension. I’ve looked at the government advice and LGA. The advice is actually to carry on business as normal. So there’s no basis for this suspension. I tried to raise this as a point of order.
I was not allowed to raise an unconstitutional act as unconstitutional, since the act wasn’t in the constitution. My head is spinning.
Davyhulme Sewage Works is a fascinating place. I was one of three Trafford councillors to take up a guided tour provided by United Utilities. It’s a place I’ve always been aware of; famously because of its smells, but also because of the space it takes up alongside the ship canal. As a youngster I used to cycle over to Barton Airport to watch the planes and we’d take short-cuts over water courses and outflows to get to the locks. It’s a huge site.
The pong associated with the sewage works has noticeably receded. I’m not going to pretend it’s a become a canal-side idyll, but there’s no doubt there’s been significant improvement. It was also apparent that the technology is also improving even if the basic infrastructure still has components of the original 1894 works.
Davyhulme is long associated with technological innovation and we really don’t give enough attention to the development here in 1914. Searching the web just throws up the odd burst of enthusiastic exaltation popping up anywhere in the world.
Examples from the web
En 1914, les chercheurs anglais Ardern et Lockett découvrent que la dépollution est beaucoup plus rapide lorsque l’eau usée à traiter est mise en contact avec une biomasse épuratrice [4] déjà formée. Ils déposent ainsi le premier brevet sur le procédé d’épuration qui sera dénommé procédé à boues activées.
A Call for Recognition of Ardern and Lockett in Trafford
How did we come to miss celebrating the centenary in 2014? Ardern and Lockett are celebrated by sewage engineers all over the world. Why no statues, no streets named after them? Are we ashamed of poo?
Where are we now?
The process Ardern and Lockett developed is still in use all over the world. The demand on it has never been greater. Of course it’s been improved and there are new investments coming through.
Davyhulme wastewater treatment works is set to undergo an initial investment of around £350m over the next five years to ensure it meets the needs of a growing population and higher environmental standards that will improve water quality in the Manchester Ship Canal.
Clearly, I welcome this investment. However, it is long overdue.
I don’t believe that water should be privatised. It is to the everlasting shame of the Conservative Party that we allowed our infrastructure to deteriorate to such an extent that processes I’m so proud of at Davyhulme and each and every other treatment works have to by-passed when the capacity can’t cope with sewage discharged directly into the rivers and canals.
We are where we are and whilst I abhor the use of rivers, I’ve got to recognise that the infrastructure that first receives the rain water as it comes down on us in ever increasing downpours is under the council control.
We’ve got to keep our drains and sewers clear. We’ve got to encourage each other to respect the drains and toilet flushes. Wipes should never go down the loo. Even if the manufacturers claim their product to be bio-degradable, the wipes never degrade quick enough not to contribute to the giant fat-balls that block the sewars. And even when the wipes make it through the system, they’ve still got to be removed and taken to landfill.
Mea Culpa
It’s not just wet wipes. I might not be guilty of disposing of those in the system, but I saw the amount of grit and small pebbles that make it through to Davyhulme, which is but a small proportion of the amount building up in our drains.
It was impossible to avoid thinking of ‘Stretford Beach’ and the amount of pebbles building up from there in the drains. Should we ever be using pebble and grit in ways that it’s impossible to avoid large amounts entering the drains?
Let’s keep the drains flowing.
Finally,
Strongly recommend a visit to Davyhulme Sewage Works. It’s absolutely fascinating.
Edward Ardern smoking and William Lockett sat front right (photographer unknown)
Featured image at top of post is copyright of United Utilities and is published under legitimate interest use.
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