Category: Blog

Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights

The recent local election results have reshaped Trafford’s political landscape. Voter turnout increased significantly from last time, reflecting the strength of the message voters were sending. The Green Party has emerged as the most popular in Trafford, but the electoral map suggests an upcoming period of no overall control. It is unlikely that this situation will reverse in the near future.

From Wikipedia: Trafford UK ward map 2026 – 2026 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election – Wikipedia

Several incumbents were unseated by new challengers, signalling a clear demand for change. The extent to which this reflects a desire for a change in government, or a shift within Trafford itself remains to be seen. What is certain is that it was never an endorsement to continue as before.

Sadly, I think Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford’s Labour Group has given himself too little time to reflect on changes that could improve the party’s local fortune. He’s made minimal change to an executive that too often takes a back seat to both the leader and to senior officers. He’s got to be prepared to show the door to those underperforming and not wait for the electorate to do the job for him, particularly since the electorate have just demonstrated that they will often take out the better members of his team.

The loss of two good cabinet members has forced a minimal change on Tom and I do welcome the promotions of Keleigh Glenton and Barry Winstanley to the executive. I just think Tom should have made deeper changes. We have been hopeless at communicating on the most basic universal services that the public judges us by.

The Labour Party has lost the art of talking to and listening to people. How often do our lead members go out in front of residents to explain the state of their roads or why bins are not emptied etc? Their answer to everything is to tell us report, but there’s no engagement on the question as to how it’s allowed to happen in the first place. Too often it feels like we’re dealing with a pencil monitor. You need the right chit or you won’t make progress. If we do the right thing, jump through the right hoops to report and it’s still not done, then you can go to your ward councillor, but they never get an answer as to why it’s allowed to happen in the first place.

There’s genuine opportunities to improve the relationship with voters, but it won’t be done via short form videos on TikTok and Instagram. It requires lead members who genuinely look like they take responsibility for their service areas, are willing to go out and engage with the public, take some flak, show some empathy and follow up.

Labour’s on course to lose control of Trafford Council next year. It has a choice to just carry on as it is doing and blame it all on Labour’s national leadership or it can start properly communicating and explaining how it’s meeting various challenges.

Featured image created by Gemini AI: https://gemini.google.com/share/84281c664184

June 3, 2026
One week to go

There’s an election going on. Who’d know it?

It’s a daily conversation on the media. We’re told it’s going to be a defining moment. Yet in Trafford, speaking for myself, in Lostock and Barton ward, it doesn’t feel to have caught alight.

I know the Labour team here have been working hard, I’ve even delivered a couple of leaflet rounds myself, but where’s the buzz? And ok, I’d like to think we’ve worked hard as Labour for the ward, but we know that Brand-Labour is not at peak popularity, so why is it so quiet?

I’ve seen a few Green Party posters and garden stakes, so there’s some activity out there and they’re on record as saying they’re targeting Longford ward. I received a national leaflet from their party, but nothing local.

I know Reform voters will be an element in this election. Reform have been the big winners in council by-elections this past 12 months. However, those by-election wins were not achieved under the radar. They employed the exact same methods that the established parties apply. We all saw them pile into Gorton and Denton. Yes, I know they have their own TV station and are skilled in social media, so they’re not without election resources that are being applied in Lostock and Barton, but there’s still no substitute for knocking on doors. I think Reform will be delighted to get to 250 votes here.

The Conservative Party in Trafford is an enigma. They remain the natural challenge to Labour in Lostock and Barton, but they’re flailing. The centre ground abandoned, I see no evidence of a strategy to capture the agenda beyond riding the occasional wave of discontent.

Making up the five parties, we have the Forward with Timperley Party standing as Lib Dems here. I’m being rude, but they really do need take an interest in life outside Timperley. If anybody here has received engagement from the Lib Dems, I’ll take that back.

I think the energy of an election can be a good thing that enables the repair of a party to begin, but where is that energy? The demographics of Trafford still have favourable segments for Labour, the so called Urban progressives and those with young families, for example. So, it will retain a good portion of its vote. At the same time, those segments moving away from Labour are spreading themselves thinly across too many alternatives. There’s a sense that Labour are braced for a trap-door to open, but watching their opponents fight over the lever. I don’t know how it will pan out but my feeling is that the lever will be barely pulled.

Most of the postal votes are already in I think, so for many the election is over. But where was the debate, where was the challenge?

Elections are a time to scrutinise.

I want to celebrate Labour’s family hubs, the sure start centres of today, but I want the party to be challenged on whether they’re reaching every family that needs them.

We’ve seen a lot of road patching in the last couple of months, are we extracting value for money? Are the patches going to last? Are they sufficient quality? Other parties should give their alternative approaches.

Labour at least has a manifesto. I have not been able to find a manifesto from any of the other parties standing here in Lostock and Barton. Isn’t that appalling!

I want to know how other parties propose how to address Trafford’s continuing budget deficit. Trafford’s Conservatives have put together a video at least touching upon the issue, even if their identified waste had no connection to the budget.

Despite the absence of contesting programs, the one thing I will guarantee is that all parties that don’t lose all their seats, will see the election as ringing endorsement of every approach each party adopts for the next 12 months.

Lastly, despite my criticism of each and every party, the greatest culpability probably lies with ourselves. We don’t have to allow this state of affairs. We’ve never had greater ability to hold hustings and publicise them. We have allowed ourselves to be passive observers of an election when it’s our only chance to hold our borough’s leadership to account. It doesn’t have to be like this.

Prediction Votes

Most Votes across Trafford Labour Party
2nd Green Party
3rd Conservative Party
4th Reform Party
5th Liberal Democratic Party

I’m not going to predict seats. There’s some close ones, so it’ll be interesting nonetheless.

Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vehicles-racing-on-a-racetrack-12646461/

April 30, 2026
Sciencing Health

Delivering world-class research and innovation that improves people’s lives is a core objective of our hospital trust.

We know that research-active hospitals deliver better care with lower mortality rates and provide a better experience for patients.

Major clinical breakthroughs – from developing the world’s first bedside genetic test to prevent permanent deafness in newborns, to delivering world-first treatments for Hunter Syndrome – have taken place within our hospital trust.

As a Governor appointed by the council sit on our Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, I have the privilege of attending governor development days to familiarise various aspects of work in the hospital trust. This week’s development day was a doozy.

The morning talk was a series of presentations, the afternoon we had the chance to see the research going on at Wythenshawe.

Some projects are cutting edge technology and others are really about reaching deep into communities to raise awareness and encourage people to come forward.

We heard about developments in identifying harmful micro-organisms in lungs. In Intensive Care there is a need to quickly identify which anti-microbial drugs will work and which anti-microbial drugs will not work (because the bugs are resistant to the anti-microbial). One way of identifying the best anti-microbial drug is by looking at the DNA of the bug using DNA spectrometry. This can give much quicker results than traditional methods. The speeds in obtaining these results is improving as is the portability of the equipment. They’re using handheld devices when it used to require a machine the size of a fridge.

Higher prevalence of a chronic kidney disease within Afro-Caribbean communities is known to be associated with a gene that a minority of people carry, but there remains reticence in coming forward. We heard from outreach nurses that were raising awareness as well as trying to build a cohort of people to track.

It’s a feature of these types of work that they need volunteer participants. Sometimes participation brings its own rewards, e.g. access to cutting edge drugs or treatments for rare conditions. However, often participation is purely a selfless act.

It was very much a consistent complaint that Wythenshawe’s chronic car parking shortages do have a particular impact. The example given was that volunteer participants do not want to spend 30 mins looking for somewhere to park their car.

There’s obviously ambitious development plans for Wythenshawe Hospital, but they’re not going to come to fruition quickly. We’re going to have to return to this issue. I think my inclination is to reserve more parking for the research function. I don’t think we’re talking a huge amount of car parking, but obviously it would have an impact on others.

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/medical-practitioners-doing-a-research-8442280/

March 8, 2026
Setting Trafford’s Budget Pt 8 The Budget is published.

The Final Budget has been published, ready to be put to council on the 5th March.

Trafford Council Budget 2026-27.

In terms of spending choices, as one would expect there’s not a huge difference from the draft budget released in January. The proposed net budget is £274m compared to the £277m originally projected, which is good. It’s about the only good thing on show.

We knew that the Government had determined that we needed to be able to increase Council Tax by an additional 2.5% compared to the standard rise. That 7.5% is therefore built into this final budget.

We’ve been granted the facility to borrow £12.64m for the coming year. This is on top of borrowing £9.6m or thereabouts for the year that’s coming to an end.

Borrowing is not routine, it’s a seismic change.

The act of borrowing to support day to day spending has always been outlawed and rightly so! I don’t like it at all. Fundamentally, it’s borrowing from future budgets. It’s particularly worrying when future finances do not look any rosier.

Given this is a three year settlement, you would hope we could see light at the end of the tunnel, but there’s no sign yet of a balanced budget, albeit there is a narrowed gap in 2028.

I learn from the local democracy reporting service that Sefton is looking to a fire sale of assets to balance its budget. This seems to require Government permission.

Liverpool Echo Sefton selling off assets to balance budget

Trafford hasn’t committed using receipts from its land sales. However, the land sales plan routinely contains the paragraph:

Receipts generated from the disposal of sites as detailed in Category 1 and returns from development of sites detailed in Category 2 are currently earmarked to directly support the Capital Programme, although these could also be used to support the wider strategic management of Council borrowing.

They’ve not used receipts before, as far as I am aware, to support the management of borrowing, but we’ve never been in this position.

The more I think of Trafford, Warrington, Cheshire East and Sefton, the angrier I get on their behalf. I can’t believe how passively we’re all accepting this absolutely dreadful settlement from Government.

Yes, there’s an argument that our council tax level in Trafford is somewhat adrift from what it really ought to be to deliver the standard of service people want, but the comparison with Manchester’s settlement is just too extreme. The difference that’s going to become apparent between Old Trafford and Whalley Range is so unjustifiable it needs to be screamed at Government. I’m appalled.

Budget Documents

The 26/27 Final Budget Proposals (109) pages
Key Parts –
Report of the Director of Finance and Systems on the
Robustness of the Proposed Budget Estimates and the
Adequacy of Financial Reserves (Page 9)
Financial Background (Page 33)
The Budget – Page 59
Savings Proposals – Page 86

Capital Spending

Treasury Management (Debt and Reserves)

Fees, Charges and Allowances (everything from parking to cremation charges)

Budget Scrutiny Response These are the executive’s answers to the recommendations of the scrutiny committee.
(The Scrutiny don’t seem to have been given access to questions over financing the budget gap. It’s certainly not raised.)
Given that effective scrutiny was particular emphasis of the peer review of Trafford, I don’t know that this serves Trafford.

February 19, 2026
Getting tetchy!

I read a really good piece in the Manchester Evening News by Hannah Richardson. It captured perfectly the mood of Trafford Council.

The Conservatives blamed Labour, Labour blamed the Conservatives, and the Greens pointed the finger at every other party present.
Hannah Richardson MEN

Manchester Evening News

We’re still waiting for the Government’s decision. It normally lands by the end of January, so everyone’s feeling a bit on edge.

Somerset Council has already had to postpone their budget meetings in the absence of the final settlement.

One can imagine that the team led by Nico Heslop (Director of Finance) at MHCLG has had its work cut out in listening to the protestations of councils like Trafford over the proposed settlement.

My guess is that we will learn our fate this week. It will be good to channel all this nervous energy into constructive activity.

The Conservatives as main opposition party will want to put an alternative budget forward. The other parties might want to propose tweaks. They clearly need to see the Labour budget first.

If the law dictates that it all has to be done and dusted by March 11, we really need that final settlement agreed.

Link to Manchester Evening News Article on the Council Meeting of 28 January 2026

January 31, 2026
Setting Trafford’s Budget – it’s over to the Government

There’s been a couple of meetings this week. We’ve had the formal posting of the Draft Budget at the Public Executive. That was followed by the first meeting of scrutiny committee in relation to this year’s budget.

Normally, the scrutiny committee would have begun looking at this much, much earlier. They’d have looked at options and they’d have looked at the longer term context. Personally, I regret the omission of that earlier work. Scrutiny would have added to the case being made to government. We are where we are and I’ll leave that particular issue at that.

The Executive meeting was rather long, but the draft budget was formally adopted. This means we’ve set a balanced budget only on the basis of a £20m facility to borrow, that can only be granted by government in the form of Exceptional Financial Support(EFS).

It’s now down to the government whether to grant EFS in the form we’ve proposed (a loan) or in some other way. There’s an intense dialogue ongoing with Government and lobbying alongside our MPs. That won’t let up, but the government is moving from consultation to finalising the settlement and tabling the regulatory instruments.

I have no idea what to expect from Government and there is nothing to be gained by speculating at this late stage.

Let’s hope that there’s a route that puts us on a sustainable financial footing.

I did receive responses to the questions set out in the 5th piece. My verdict on the budget for children’s services being tight was conceded. We’re at a place where all the budget lines are tight. I think we just wait for the settlement now. All options are possible, worse, same and getting better. Fingers crossed.

Photo by Suki Lee: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-hourglass-14826119/

January 16, 2026