Sunday 13th December

Last Opening of Gorse Hill Hotel. Attend meeting of residents concerned at the loss of a pub that’s been a fixture through two world wars and 100 years of Gorse Hill. Very linked to Manchester United, it’s seen bad times before, but it’s owners Greene King have had enough and the pub has new owners/leaseholders.

There are different rumours as to the plans for the pub. My number one priority is to ensure the building is protected. Until residents tell me otherwise I’m convinced that the building is an essential part of the Gorse Hill scene. Although we’ve got problems with some of the shops, particularly ‘Fancy a Nibble’, the Gorse Hill frontage remains a beautiful set of buildings and the pub is a vital piece in this jigsaw.

Clearly those attending the meeting were very keen that a pub continues and we’re going to explore options in that direction. Communication with the new owners is urgent. I have a lot of sympathy with the view that new owners and management could turn the pub into something much more welcoming and successful than has been the case in recent years.

We don’t have a huge number of pubs in our part of Stretford. The Melville has seen a lot of investment and it’s vastly improved. The Sip Club on Barton Road is a welcome addition and very popular. Other than that, it’s the Bishop’s Blaize, Robin Hood, Quadrant or Gorse Hill; all quite large traditional pubs. If we’re to lose the Gorse Hill it will leave a gap to be filled and I hope someone steps in.

Monday 14th December

Scrutiny meeting looking at educational inequalities. Trafford is rightly proud of its educational performance. It achieves a lot and with less money per pupil than other authorities.

One area of concern is the gap in attainment between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. This is particularly acute at age 16 and GCSE performance. For instance in 2014, in Trafford 79% of non-disadvantaged pupils achieved 5 good A-C passes, whilst among disadvantaged pupils (those receiving pupil premium) it was 44%, so the gap is greater than the national average. That said, the actual performance of disadvantaged pupils in Trafford is considerably better than average, 44%(Trafford) v 36%(national).

So the aim of scrutiny is to look at lifting the performance of disadvantaged pupils even further whilst maintaining the high performance in Trafford. We’ve got some great head-teachers from the Stretford and Old Trafford area helping us. At the same time we learned that there are other schools who won’t engage with Trafford at all – academies don’t actually have to, but it’s still disappointing when some of them take that stance.

We did learn that the task for schools in identifying families potentially entitled to free school meals was difficult for them and that some local authorities made the task easier, Manchester was cited.

Interestingly, the very next day, Frank Field was introducing a private members bill to automatically register children for free school meals. Giving children a decent lunch is vital. It has the additional benefit of accessing pupil premium funding in that under-registration is distorting the current figures.

Frank Field wrote this Guardian piece in connection with his bill 

Tuesday 15th December

First day in weeks where I had no meetings to attend. Did some casework but no meetings; yippee!

Wednesday 16th December

Litter pick in Gorse Hill – This was only a short litter pick but it’s amazing how much stuff is picked up and how well received people view it. I know not everyone feels residents should be doing this, but I’m convinced we should. We really want people to stop dropping so much litter.

Thank you to all who turned up to the litter pick in Gorsehill yesterday #BeResponsible #LoveWereYouLive pic.twitter.com/kOZLAArG8L

— Trafford Council (@TraffordCouncil) December 17, 2015

Thursday 17th December

Library volunteering. The last before Christmas. Lostock College and the volunteers have achieved a huge amount in keeping the library open. We need more volunteers, but keeping the library open after Trafford withdrew funding is something to celebrate. Made me read more too.

Guardian – Losing Libraries would be a national disaster

The fate of libraries nationally is in the news this week. I’m convinced that a mix of voluntary and publicly funded libraries has to be the way forward. The alternative is a minimal provision only providing to a lucky few in close proximity to a rare surviving library.

Friday 18th December

Meeting of Transport for Greater Manchester – Metrolink and Rail Committee

We looked at performance over recent months. Badly hampered by flooding. Our line, the Manchester Oxford Road to Liverpoool Lime Street Line that runs through our ward with stations at Humphrey Park and Trafford Park in our ward is again one of the three worst performing routes in terms of punctuality and cancellations. Despite the franchises changing imminently and Arriva taking over, I predict it will remain one of the three worst routes. The big problem is that the line and particularly the stretch through Manchester is running beyond capacity. The Ordsall Chord when it finally is constructed will supposedly help.

Saturday 19th December

Son Joe is up from London. Family time.

Have a Happy Christmas!

Mike Cordingley

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 7th November

Attended target cafe in Gorse Hill to meet with Paul, Marge and Mary of Love Gorse Hill. We’re working hard to make sure council’s new contractor, Amey maintains a high standard match day operation. United were playing West Brom that day. One of the key actions on match day is to ensure the litter bins are emptied before the fans arrive, if the litter bins are full, we can’t expect the fans to use them. We have problems where the fans alight from coaches coming in from the faraway places united fans live, they empty out the refuse from their journey onto our streets. We’re not going to solve the problem without help from the council and its contractor so we have to keep them on their toes.

 The Target Cafe is a great resource and at the same time I got to hear Debbie (Cllr Walsh’s daughter) sing at the cafe. It made for a really nice lunchtime and lovely to spend a Saturday when I’ve not been delivering leaflets or knocking on doors for Labour.

Sunday 8th November – Remembrance Day

Rather than go to the civic ceremony at the Stretford Cenotaph, I attended the smaller ceremony at the All Saints Church on the Lostock/Stretford border. It was a chance to hear the new vicar Revd Luke Maguire. I’m a committed non-believer, but it’s important.

Monday 9th November

Almost 11 hrs of interviewing for a new Family Support and Safeguarding Lead at Barton Clough.

Tuesday 10th November

Strong Communities Board received update from Jamie Whyte on latest deprivation statistics for Trafford. Most areas are doing ‘relatively’ well compared to the national average. This might mean we’re becoming better off, but could equally mean we’re simply not declining as badly as other areas. It’s really a system of ranking – but all neighbourhoods in Gorse Hill have risen in that ranking.

Also looked at revised partnership strategy. I’ve been hugely critical of the partnership in the past. It doesn’t seem to have delivered very much and hasn’t really been a partnership in any meaningful way. The new structure at least seems to be pointing in the right direction.

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On the way back from the town hall I got chance to pop in to Floors2go. A resident had mentioned they weren’t entirely happy that Floors2Go had put a marketing banner in front of the Gorgeous Gorse Hill planters on Chester Road. Got to say Floors2Go were brilliant about it – took the banner down immediately and asked that they could put it back for weekend promotion. More than happy with the compromise. Well done Floors2go!

Wednesday 11th November

Meeting at town hall with Locality Partnership admin. Full Council meeting in the evening. You can watch the council meeting here

The Conservatives were not answering questions and there’s a concerted effort from them to stifle and obfuscate. I’m not a fan of full council meetings. Families affected by withdrawal of home to school transport for a significant proportion of older (post 16) young disabled people really didn’t get a chance to hear any meaningful defence of those changes.

Thursday 12th November

Regular library volunteering in the afternoon.

Planning meeting in the evening. Great news that the Station Road flats were rejected. Really pleased with that. This was probably my highlight of the week. That patch of ground alongside the railway might not mean much to councillors from Hale but it really is a pocket sized park. It may be brambles and scrub but it’s blackberry picking in the summer and bird song in the spring. One notoriously right-wing Conservative took offence at the description of the patch as park, the idea that something ‘owned’ could be a park was anaethema to him. I disagree profoundly. 
To be fair though – he still voted against the development.

Also on the planning agenda was Pomona. I still don’t believe these two blocks on the Manchester border are the best designs aesthetically but they’re a darn sight better than those on the Manchester side. I did object to the original designs – I do believe we need homes though and I don’t subscribe to the objections coming from those who believe we should not be building homes there.

Friday 13th November

Transport in the morning. I need to record that I voted against allowing dogs onto Trams. I know it was controversial to some but I was convinced the trial should not go ahead. The proposed trial was to allow dogs in carriers similar to the one shown at the top of this post. I didn’t buy the argument that this was at all workable – what is the passenger to do with carrier(s) when they alight from the tram? Others wanted muzzled dogs. I just don’t think the tram is an appropriate vehicle to take dogs. Most correspondence I received was against it and I am not going to hide from the fact that I am too.

Meeting with Stella Creasy in the afternoon. I’m a big fan. I like that she sees activism as something other than hand-wringing.

Image by Károly Váltó from Pixabay