Community Infrastruture Levy

When major housing or retail developments are built, it often places a burden on Council’s to support the development with infrastructure. The classic example is extra classrooms in a school when a development increases the school age population.

Currently developers have been expected to make a Section 106 contribution to the council which is a national scheme. The Government is changing this and largely allowing Councils to come up with their own schemes. Some council’s, mindful of the need to encourage growth, have decided not to impose any levy. Trafford feels it should and I do tend to agree with them.

I’m not hugely impressed with all aspects of the Government’s parameters they are setting for Councils. And whilst local schemes have merit, there is a cost due to the complexity of each individual scheme. The Govt is being much more prescriptive in preventing the contributions developers make on each scheme to be pooled across the borough. The idea of a central pot that the council can use to address priorities is gone. The contribution now has to be applied to the specific neighbourhood. So consultants have been brought to make sure the scheme is robust and to ensure it doesn’t deter developers. Edit This may have been the intention in 2012. It has been the case that all Trafford’s strategic CIL (the largest portion) has gone to the Trafford Park Metrolink line.

Whilst it may seem attractive to stop contributions going to the other side of the borough, when you consider that affordable housing projects are exempt from the scheme, and as you see below, the contributions levied in places like Hale and Bowden will be much higher per development, it’s inevitably going to see more money going there than here.

Private market houses in:

Cold market sub-area £20 (e.g. Old Trafford, Partington)
Moderate market sub-area £40 (e.g Stretford, Urmston)
Hot market sub-area £80 (e.g. Hale, Bowdon)

The rates above are per square metre – so you can see that a large house in Hale will generate a considerable levy to stay in Hale. The argument is that Hale is a very much in demand place to build compared to Partington. Or as they put it – the market is hot rather than cold.  (perhaps they watch a lot of these home makeover shows on TV)

 

 

 

The consultation will now go ahead.

Scrutiny Report on Domestic Violence Strategies in Trafford

A very lengthy report – nevertheless, I do worry that many of the 24 recommendations were based on anecdotal evidence.

It seems telling that this Conservative Council has cut the budget to Trafford’s Women’s Aid by 42%. Scrutiny acknowledge that this cut with more anticipated for next year will put “enormous pressure to maintain service levels. Given that the committee recognises that the cost of this crime could be as high as £5m across Greater Manchester over 5 years, one has question whether these budget cuts to Women’s Aid are actually going to cost us more in the long run.

The Scrutiny Report on Dentistry in Care Homes was also presented. Not much to say about that except that it shouldn’t take a scrutiny committee to ensure elderly residents are not waiting for weeks to get much needed dental care.

Commonpersoon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Model (author’s face) with make up to represent domestic abuse victim. Graphic has space on the right to add text and be used in human rights campaigns.
File

A house worth £11,250,000?

That money could buy 80 decent family homes.

With architecture owing its inspiration (it seems to me) to a Scooby Doo cartoon episode; and landscaping designed for the Telly Tubbies, it’s pretty hideous to be honest.

However, the house in Bowdon was shortlisted for Trafford’s design awards, so it’s obviously impressed the Tories.

But, the equivalent of 80 family homes?

At that sort of price it would obviously fall into the target catchment for the Mansion Tax proposed by Vince Cable but rejected by the Conservatives. I want Labour to pick up that particular baton. Critics may argue that it’s the politics of  jealousy It’s not. Labour became so paralysed with fear with regard to charges of taxing aspiration that we failed to tackle a tax system loaded in favour of the very wealthy. The house value may be the equivalent of 80 family homes but the Council Tax is the equivalent of just two.

Read more in Manchester Evening News

Save Trafford General A&E Meeting

In a packed Community Centre in Flixton last night, the senior officials leading the reorgansitation of health services on our patch came to address the worries of local people.

People came to find out what was planned, why it was happening, and how quality healthcare would be delivered. That was what they came for, but the presentations were lacking in substance.

Leila Williams, Head of Service Transformation NHS Gtr Manchester, spent a long time explaining that the aim was to ensure more people were treated at home which was proven to produce the best outcomes, but the audience quite rightly asked ‘what has that got to do with closing A&E?’ The audience had turned up to have specific concerns addressed about A&E and it seemed the officials were reluctant throughout to tackle those concerns head-on.

The Management Case

The key elements that I picked up in what was a frustrating dialogue:

Trafford’s A&E was the 2nd smallest in the country

The numbers coming through the doors didn’t allow for the best range of conditions to be handled. Ambulances were already diverting stroke sufferers to Salford, Trauma to MRI.

The small size of Trafford meant it was difficult to recruit the best staff – the vision for Trafford General was to provide services where it could be a centre of excellence, for instance it was developing proposals for an Orthapedic Centre.

Whilst the professionals didn’t focus on the cost, it was a recurring underlying theme. And since it wasn’t highlighted there was little audience focus on the fact the NHS was being required by this Conservative Government to make ‘savings’ (see conclusion below)

The Residents’ Case

One man had resisted obtaining medical advice over his sudden deterioration in health until he was finally persuaded to take himself to A&E at Trafford where he was quickly diagnosed as being in a critical condition as a consequence of peritonitis. Since he’d left it to the last moment to attend A&E, would he still be here had the A&E been less local?

This to me is a critical question. I’ve seen estimates that lives would be saved through the centralisation into specialist urgent care services but does that take into account instances like this. Had this man had further to travel to A&E would he have left it still later to present himself? And had he consequently died, would the remoteness of the A&E be considered a factor in the cause of death. Whilst it might even be true that specialisation and centralisation could save some lives, might it not be true that it costs others theirs.

I was also concerned by a resident from Partington. The more services are removed from Trafford General, the more isolated Partington becomes. Whilst Salford is only a couple of miles away from much of north Trafford, both it and Central Manchester are far more difficult to reach from Partington.

There was quite a lot of criticism over the fact that the investment in Altrincham General was continuing when they had nearby Wythenshawe Hospital to call upon. It was clearly voiced that Altrincham is listened to whilst Urmston and Stretford are ignored. People near me remembered the criticism expressed in the letters page of one of the local papers by a Consultant from Trafford General over the continued misplaced priority in providing a new Altrincham General.

In Conclusion

I thought that my colleague Councillor Jo Harding, who is Save Trafford General’s campaign co-ordinator got it spot on in her very good summing up:

We are yet to be convinced that risks have been addressed.

We are yet to be convinced that the capacity is available elsewhere.

We are yet to be convinced that Trafford General’s A&E is being given a fair crack to reach its full potential.

The financial aspect of this really angers me; and in this I turn my attention on those bloody Tories in Government. The repeat offenders – they did their best to run down the NHS during the 80s and 90s; and they’re doing it again. Their reorganisations are sucking resources away from health provision. And we’re about to lose A&E. Locally they’ll purport to be supporting Trafford General, but they’ll continue to back Lansley in demolishing the NHS.

Trafford General Hospital by Bill Boaden, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Times has been running their Cycle Safe campaign to identify hazardous road layouts for cyclists. Unsurprisingly, the Barton Road / Chester Road Gyratory has received a lot of criticism. The cyclist heading from Barton Road towards Altrincham finds themself merging into the fast third lane of the main arterial route.

Sometimes there are no clever solutions to hazardous junctions but on this occasion a potential fix has been put forward by ‘Tom’ on Urmston.net.

I’m drawn to this layout of Tom’s. I think it has merit. Instead of the Manchester bound traffic heading along the direction of Barton Road before swinging right, the Manchester bound traffic sticks to the line of Chester Road. What do you think?

Dave’s Advertiser Column

I always look forward to election day whatever the outcome. I never forget how hard we the people had to fight for every man and woman to have the vote. Incredibly, it’s still less than 100 years since the battle was finally won for every adult to have a say in the running of their towns.

And as I reflect back at the outcome of Thursday, I pay tribute to everyone involved, from the staff at the polling stations to the candidates and campaigners of all parties, and most particularly the voters. There were cheers and tears at the end of it all, and aching limbs, but I never forget how privileged we are compared to so many in this world.

Well the votes have been counted, so what was the verdict? Decisively, Trafford voted Labour. We won the most votes right across the borough. The people have given us a clear mandate to challenge these Tory policies that are proving so damaging: the privatisation by stealth of our NHS, the cuts to our Police and Fire services. We might still have a Conservative Council but Labour won the popular vote in Trafford.

So it is with renewed energy that we come out of the election and new Labour councillors in Sale Moor, Urmston and Broadheath. We will be stepping up our work right across Trafford in our communities and alongside businesses to build our local economy, protect vital services and above all, to deliver a future for our youth.

David Acton
Leader of Trafford Labour Group