From the Canal to Sevenways

Category: Blog

  • Assisted Dying

    Assisted Dying

    This is a very personal view below. I’m not in favour of introducing voluntary euthanasia and at the same time just like everyone else, I can imagine circumstances in which it would be an option. The main point I’m making is that the debate in parliament did not come close to giving due cognisance to the issues.

    There’ll be those that say, indeed did say, that parliament was at its best in debating the assisted dying bill. I profoundly disagree. I felt it was timid, superficial and overly sanitised. I’m not sure the significance of what they were doing was embodied in the debate .

    Societies of all creeds and none have rejected suicide since time immemorial. The fact of the repulsion being so universal suggests something deeper than scripture. Suicide challenges us both in imputing those who survive and in the abandonment of our shared life journeys. I don’t know anything more guaranteed to provoke introspection than the suicide of an acquaintance, no matter how distant.

    There were those in Friday’s debate that wanted to somehow make the act of ending one’s life something different than suicide. There was even a point of order to say that the use of the word suicide was offensive. They didn’t say what the correct words were, or why it was not suicide, just that suicide was an offensive word. This particular snapshot encapsulated the superficiality of the whole debate, the word ‘suicide’ was frowned upon, ‘euthanasia’ was mentioned only once and the method of assisting death (killing themself) hardly touched upon. How can this tiptoeing around the issues be a serious engagement with the subject?

    We really need to be asking ourselves; why now? It’s not as though the pain and indignity at the end of life only began in the new millennium. What is it about our generation that says we want control over our death? Why is the taboo over suicide breaking down now? There may be good answers to all these but I didn’t hear them during the debate.

    I wanted to hear more about how we’re going to avoid creating new taboos. Are we entering a period where choosing to let nature take its course will be frowned upon? The infirm should think of all the work we’re putting on the medical profession and our families. Isn’t it just irresponsible not to ask for the poison?

    The Dutch Health minister who introduced euthanasia to the Netherlands later regretted rushing through the legislation there. By 2017 it accounted for nearly one in 20 deaths. Canada is not far behind. The Netherlands experience probably tells us that this will become normal here. Opinion polls suggest the public wants it. I get that. But that’s no reason for parliament to be so saccharine in weighing up the issues.

  • Le Tour de Barton

    Le Tour de Barton

    A trip around the ward to check out what’s happening

    Kellogg’s Closure

    Although the Kellogg’s factory is just outside the ward boundary, the warehouse and loading bays are ours. There’s a perceptible slowing down of activity on the site. It’s rare to encounter an incoming HGV on Park Road now. Landscape maintenance has lost its edge. It’s sad seeing the slowdown. Manufacture might continue for a few more years, but the focus is shifting to what happens next. The land remains allocated for industry in Trafford’s strategic plan. We’ll have to see if that changes. I’ve not heard any discussions. These are quite large parcels of land and there may be more than one solution.

    Barton Dock Road and underpass

    I don’t remember a time when there wasn’t a cycleway down Barton Dock Road. It was there when Massey Ferguson was there. It might even go back to the war. Trafford Park has always had a lot of workers travelling by bike. So it’s sad to see parts getting overgrown. I’m going to try to get Amey to attend to it.

    For some reason, the underpass is decked with Red Bull cans, dozens of them. We have had some rough sleeping there in the past. It might be happening again although there was no obvious sign of bedding, just the empty cans. I’ve reported.

    Surf Centre and Therme

    There are no visible signs of life at either of the two proposed water-based projects on Barton Dock Road although, by coincidence, new planning applications have come in both for Therme and the site of the Surf Centre. I suspect the surf centre is only one of many options for that site, but I’d love both Therme and the Surf Centre to happen!

    Link to latest Therme planning application

    Link to latest Surf Centre site application

    Asda Crossing

    There’s been some bad press lately for the company. They’re slipping down the Supermarket popularity charts. Having said that, the Trafford Park store tends to be my supermarket of choice largely because it’s so accessible by bike. I just wish they’d improve their bike parking. If you’re blessed with a segregated cycling route all the way to your front door, make the most of it, get rid of the wheel bender brackets and install some proper stands! Please!

    That crossing outside Asda that links to the Trafford Centre needs to be more responsive to allow the crowds to cross. It’s an incredibly long wait for the lights to change even when the traffic is barely moving. The Bee Network is improving crossings across GM. I’m asking them to look at the Asda crossing.

    Bee Network Publicity 31st August 2024

    Church of All Saints, Barton on Irwell, Barton Swing Aqueduct and their joint Conservation Area

    Note: All the interior photos are from the Greyfriars website

    The church is Trafford’s only Grade 1 listed building north of the River Mersey. We’ve got a small number of Grade 1s in around Dunham Park and Hale, but nothing as highly regarded as this up here.

    Nikolaus Pevsner described the church as (Edward) Pugin’s masterpiece. It sits with Barton Swing Aqueduct (listed class 2 + star) in its own conservation area. You would not know it. The area opposite is a dumping ground for old fridges and mattresses and the swing bridge is looking unloved.

    According to April’s ‘Tablet’, the Greyfriars who are the current custodians of the church are moving on. I want to engage with Trafford’s heritage officers to prioritise this conservation area.

    I also want to visit the church and attend a service there. Definitely on my to-do list.

    Trafford Centre Premier Inn

    An application has been submitted to demolish the former premier inn next to the motorway (not to be confused with the one on Trafford Boulevard). This one has been empty for a few years.

  • Visit to One Trafford

    Visit to One Trafford

    This morning, I went with a cross-party selection of Trafford Councillors to Tatton House in Baguley which is the main base for the mix of council and Amey staff that make up the Trafford Partnership.

    I really dislike the Amey contract – it places far too much control in the hands of a private company. The visit hasn’t changed my personal view that in 2028 we have to say that the contract won’t be extended. I’m not totally against contracting out services like bin collections, most councils do it, but Trafford’s almost complete handover was ridiculous and not a model that others have followed.

    Despite my abhorrence of the arrangement, the staff that work from Baguley are excellent. It’s a tragic constant of privatisation, whether it’s the water utilities pumping sewage into rivers or different modes of public transport, the staff on the ground always do their best.

    There are successes, our recycling rates are high. We compete with Stockport as to who has the best recycling in GM. There is a real prize for reducing it further as we pay more in the waste levy than we spend on the entire Amey operation, which begs the questions as to how can we increase recycling further. What is the upper limit subject to current practices of packaging etc?

    I think it’s also worth asking what the incentives are to people for whom there are much more pressing priorities than the council making a saving. For a lot of people, the link between their well-being and council finances is more tenuous than some councillors assume is a given. We can do more with communities both in terms of empowerment and delegating spending.

    Achieved a success whilst there in the offer of an extra marked disabled space to Lostock Court on Barton Road. They’ve had two spaces for years, but pressures and changing need caused some of the residents to come to me last year (it’s taken that long) to ask for an additional space. A letter will be going out soon making that offer. I’m really pleased with that.

    It was an enjoyable and informative visit. There’s some real stars there on both sides of the contract divide. As always, I really welcome your feedback particularly on the One Trafford arrangements.

  • Mission – To achieve a state of Happiness in Council Finances

    Mission – To achieve a state of Happiness in Council Finances

    Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen, nineteen and six, result happiness. 

    Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and six, result misery.

    Mr Micawber’s Principle from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

    Mr Micawber’s rules for personal finance are still cited. They rather disregard mortgages and credit, but they still have some worth. The one area in which the rule still pertains with absolute adherence is in local government finance.

    The work on the Trafford Council budget is usually largely decided upon by this time of the year. It’s never been an easy task, but we would normally have made our choices and be ready to prepare for the February Budget Meeting of Council. Our choices this year are awful and they’re getting worse.

    It’s not just in Trafford either. Strange words and numerals, ‘section 114’ have started to be heard regularly in news bulletins usually accompanied by the more familiar phrases, “council” and “bankruptcy”.

    A Section 114 notice is not bankruptcy as a normal business would see it, but no one wants the commissioners in!

    In the context of how private businesses manage their accounts, the circumstances of a council having to issue a Section 114 notice bear no resemblance to that of a business facing bankruptcy. It’s just one year where the council’s expenditure is forecast to exceed its projected income. For the chief officer of a council though it’s just about as bad as it can get!

    Commissioners called in on a Section 114 notice, never use the poker!
    (unless they have to)

    Trafford needs to get itself into a position where it has sufficient income to cover the statutory functions it is obliged to provide in 2024/2025. It will have to do so either by increasing its income or by reducing that expenditure.

    Sources of Council Income

    Council Tax is the main source of income. Trafford has traditionally kept council low. Since 2010, the council’s ability to increase its council tax has been limited with a period of effective freeze followed by percentage caps on increases. As a consequence, if anything, Trafford has fallen further behind.

    Nevertheless, despite the capping of council tax, the degree to which Trafford relies on Council Tax has increased. In 2008 council tax made up 55% of our income, this year it makes up 58% of our income. The Government has decreed extra responsibilities such as Public Health, but accompanied by lower levels of central funding.

    Line graph comparing Trafford's Council Tax with England and GM average

    Decline in Central Funding

    Fees and Charges

    Sales, Fees, Charges and Rents brought in £46m this year and I’m sure there’s an expectation to bring in more next year. The sale of council properties and assets is an exhaustive process. It can be counterproductive and increasing fees and charges beyond what the public will tolerate is a fool’s errand.

    Undoubtedly, there’ll be some increases. For instance, I don’t have any explanation as to why we don’t charge for Sunday parking but it wouldn’t bring in huge amounts.

    So, Council Tax has to go up again from April!

    Our Income

    We know that council tax will rise is schedule to rise by 4.99% including 2% dedicated to social care. On top of our council tax income, we’re granted various amounts from Government as well as Business Rates. By December our total funded spending was scheduled to be £212m.

    The Government describes this figure as the Core Spending Power of a Council.

    Our Spending

    The latest published figures show a projected expenditure of £218m. This figure was included in November’s draft budget. It’s clearly out of date. However, whilst the leadership team were tasked with getting this figure down, we know that actually, the £218m figure has been growing. So it’s getting harder. The government has found another £500m nationally for social care but our share in Trafford won’t be enough on its own to bridge the gap.

    If our Council Tax was at the average level in Greater Manchester we would not have this gap, but it would require Trafford to break the Government’s cap on Council Tax increases to get there.

    We’re in an especially difficult position because our reserves are so low. We will have to use reserves in the current year.

    Whilst the Tory Government has been using Local Government to carry so much of the austerity burden, I’m not expecting any future Labour Government to ride up over the hill and bestow their beneficence on Trafford. We are not in a good position.

    I suspect we’ll have to make some painful choices, but we’ll get to a balanced budget. We need to get to a position that is sustainable for a few years and that’s going to be incredibly difficult.

    Mr Micawber was wont to say “Something will Turn Up!”.

    I don’t think it will!

  • Latest Stretford Consultation: heights, greenspace and parking

    Latest Stretford Consultation: heights, greenspace and parking

    I suppose I ought to make a full disclosure: l am on the record as preferring the demolition of the Mall and pretty much most of King Street apart from the former Post Office.

    I felt the old town centre was turned in on itself and didn’t even attempt to capture passing walking trade coming from the Metrolink or bus connections. I overwhelmingly lost that argument. The majority wanted to retain and improve salvageable assets in the then-existing layout. I get that and I’m happy to support the regeneration of the town centre via the retention of parts of the Mall that have had the roof removed.

    Generally, I think there’s a consensus that the centre should be smaller and that the night-time economy; restaurants, entertainment and bars should play an increasing role. There’s a general acceptance the space created in reducing the Mall can be used for housing. Nevertheless, it’s vital that the town centre continues its day job of performing as a place for routine shopping and services. I sense that the scale of retail is still not settled.

    We know that King Street is the retail heart of the centre and that links via King St Square to Quality Save and Little King Street next to the multi-storey car park.

    Known retail arteries of redeveloped town centre

    What I don’t know is what is going on around that new ‘central park’ just below the multi-storey. If those blocks are purely residential I think we have a problem. On the other hand, if the ground floors are taken up by prime retail like Marks and Spencer, or similar then that changes everything.

    This image below hints at shop fronts surrounding the central park. I wish they were more explicit as it makes all the difference to my thoughts on the Central Park in the consultation below.

    Consultation

    The latest consultation covers three aspects. It covers:

    • the maximum heights of apartment blocks,
    • the realignment of the central park strip of green space.
    • a revision in car-parking to retain surface parking for Aldi,

    Maximum Heights

    The architecture is important. The consultation is on a desire to increase the height of blocks close to the centre to 12 storeys. This is still 3 storeys shy of Circle Court at Lostock Circle, so it’s hardly massive. And while Circle Court became hard to update, it was never the scale that was the problem. It was a very popular block with tenants.

    Judging by public submissions, however, not to mention social media, these medium-sized towers do seem incredibly unpopular with Stretford residents. My problem is that they’re hidden away. I really want Stretford to have active frontages facing on Kingsway and Chester Road. The interior elements of the centre should be peeping out and enticing me to shop. The apartments should work with the retail elements to put people and movement in at ground level.

    It doesn’t look at this stage that the residential is integrated with the retail elements very much at all. As a whole, the development looks to be zoned. I don’t mind the heights so much as the fact residential elements are not working with the retail elements as much as I had anticipated.

    I’m hoping the computer-generated images are just illustrative. There are many examples of really good integration between retail and residential. It’s nothing new, Paris managed this more than 100 years ago.

    Reorientation of Central Park

    We were discussing this on Facebook. I think we came to the conclusion that it would work better as a paved square area. I wonder if the aspiration for green space is working against good design. It does deserve to be the prime area in the whole development with the best retail units.

    Aldi retail surface car park

    I hate this proposal. It cuts Aldi off leaving no interplay with the town centre. The ‘left-turn in, left-turn out’ proposal is awful, putting more traffic onto the roads, looking for somewhere to do a U-turn. Lastly, the car park itself works as barrier for those walking from the Sevenways direction.

    Summing Up

    On the whole, this is still exciting. I’m not sure the consultation has helped. It’s not easy to consult on heights of buildings without understanding how the buildings interact with the centre. All the focus has been on King Street and Little King Street. The town centre is so much more than this. I can’t pretend to like the arrangement with Aldi but there are hints there are contractual obligations that have to be met. I’d love to see Central Park become a town square with good quality retail on four sides. I’m still hopeful.

  • Trust me, I’m a politician. How can we regain the trust we’ve lost?

    Trust me, I’m a politician. How can we regain the trust we’ve lost?

    I picked up Anthony Seldon’s book at Stretford library. It was published just as the MPs’ expenses scandal was peaking so perhaps a little out of date, but it got me interested in the latest figures which are summarised below:

    • 35% of the UK population stated that they trusted the national government, which is lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (41%).
    • 42% of the population reported that they trusted local government and 55% trusted the Civil Service.
    • Trust in public services was higher than trust in the national or local governments, with the NHS the most trusted public service (80%), followed by the courts and legal system (68%).
    • 75% of the population believed that the UK government should place a higher priority on creating conditions for businesses to thrive, 64% said they should place higher priority on reducing climate change and 54% believe they should place higher priority on reducing the national debt.

    Office of National Statistics – Trust in Government 2022

    So, only 35% trust the national government and 42% trust their local council. I’ve seen some commentators conclude this is a plus for local government. I’m not so sure. By definition, councils are in your neighbourhood. A high proportion of a council’s services are universal; and even if we’re not receiving a particular service, it’s likely we know someone who is. Yet, 58% don’t trust their local council. I think that’s pretty bad.

    It would be interesting to see how much councils trust their residents. Trust is generally seen to be a two-way process. If councils don’t trust their residents, it would perhaps give us a clue as to why trust has broken down.

    It seems pretty obvious that neither the leadership of the Conservative Party nor of the Labour Party trusts their own members. As a constitutionally defined democratic socialist party that’s a bit of a problem for the Labour Party and one that we’ll have to tackle.

    I think this breakdown in trust is dangerous. Other countries have not deteriorated to the extent that the UK has. We saw what happened with Brexit and more than anything, that had to be about trust.

    Clearly, I have my own ideas, but firstly, I think we should be asking you. What needs to happen to restore trust in our democratic institutions?

    I look forward to hearing from you