Category: Blog

Today is the closing date for representations on the permission to operate. This is a separate process to the planning permission.

I have emailed the following representation to the relevant officer in the Environment Agency.

Dear Sir,

I write with reference to the above permit application submitted to you, regarding the development of the Barton Renewable Energy Plant by Peel Energy.  I wish to object to the environmental permit application for the following reasons:

I believe that such a contentious plant requires a thorough and comprehensive Health Impact Assessment. It is recognised that the site borders an Air Quality Management Area at the M60 with already high levels of NOX and particulates. Additionally there are worryingly high concentrations of respiratory health problems downwind of the site. See the Salford Advertiser article attached highlighting the prevalence of lung disease.

Residents need assurance that the existing health problems will not be exacerbated and I do not believe we can have that assurance without the thorough assessment.

The concerns about this plant are real and widespread. I believe that the submission is insufficient to address those concerns at without a Health Impact Assessment, and residents are going to feel that the permission process has been a sham.

We need to believe that the health implications have been thoroughly assessed down to street level. Too much of the application as it stands considers the emissions as in a vacuum when our air is already polluted and we need to understand how even a small further deterioration will impact on health of residents.

Please acknowledge receipt of this email.

Yours faithfully,

Mike Cordingley
Councillor for Gorse Hill

image: developer’s publicly distributed supportive material

The Chief Executive of Trafford Housing Trust, Matthew Gardiner has written on his blog of his hopes for the Government’s Big Society programme. Matthew is not someone normally associated with political eulogising, so his words are interesting. He writes;

if The Big Society is about reversing that trend and giving power back to individuals, as well as providing a fund of resources that communities can access, then I think it is a game changing movement. This way it will produce stronger citizens, more resilient societies, the essential ingredients that you would need to do away with organisations like ours.

Most of the focus nationally has been on whether The Big Society has been just a cover for cuts. The debate has been about the money. The money is actually a secondary question; because at the heart of ‘The Big Society’ lies a much more fundamental question over the role of people versus state, and we need to tackle that point of principle before we can even begin to look at how the policy is resourced.

For the past seventy years or so, there’s been a general political consensus that the state should take on an increasing role in allocating resources to communities and individuals. The Conservatives have always advocated delivering greater freedoms to the wealthy, through private health and education, but they have never deviated from the consensus that the state is the amniotic fluid that succours the grateful or ungrateful masses. Whether the state is represented by Government Department, Local Authority, Registered Housing Provider or state sponsored charity like NSPCC is really a matter of detail, the state looks after us from the moment we’re born to our burial in the ground. And as the state has increased its role, it seems to me that neighbourliness and collectivity has decreased. It’s interesting how people describe different facets of the State. It is ‘our’ army, ‘our’ health service, ‘our’ roads, ‘our’ parks but it is never ‘our’ Strategic Partnership, ‘our’ Local Transport Authority, ‘our’ Government Office North West. Much of the state has become distant, objects of contempt or bureaucratic obstacles to our own ability to shape our lives and community. Politicians like to be able to say they did this or they delivered that, but the reality is that no politician as far as I’m aware has ever financed a project, laid a brick, or prescribed medication in their role as a politician. And as the language of politicians and bureaucrats has diminished the role of the citizen (it’s their taxes), the individual has become increasingly disinterested in their community. I believe that Socialism has never been about disenfranchisement or surrogation of our influence to our benign political representatives.

The Big Society does have an attraction as a concept to me. I do believe it can be viewed as ‘Power to the People’ rather than ‘Power to the State’. It’s telling that no section is more contemptuous of the Big Society than those on the right of the Conservative Party who see the only legitimate lever of power as the amount of money in a persons pocket. I want to see more of that wealth being used for the public good and I want to see the super-rich taxed more, but I want to see communities mobilised into taking more responsibility for their neighbourhood and their neighbour.  Most of all I want communities to be able to take credit for what they have done, and politicians take credit for enabling rather than doing. To me that is socialism and I’m not going to take a partisan position against the concept just because Cameron is for it and the chattering Guardian establishment is against it.

Mike Cordingley
(Personal View)

What has the image got to do with big society?
Perhaps it’s nothing more than not waiting for the state to give permission.

“IMG_7569 Aert van der Neer 1603-1677 Amsterdam Paysage d’hiver avec patineurs Winter Landscape with Skaters 1655s Leipzig Musée des Beaux Arts” by jean louis mazieres, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Trafford Council are implementing huge cuts to their budget despite being sheltered from the worst of reductions in Government Funding compared to the most deprived areas like Manchester and Salford. The Conservative draft budget shows savage cuts to all service areas. At the same time, the numbers of directors continues to grow, glossy magazines continue to be distributed and the Town Hall offices are being replaced.

As the following table shows, nearly £5m is being axed from the Children’s and Young Service Budget and over £6m from Communities and Well Being including nearly £4m being cut from services for older people.

Table 11: Draft 2011/12 Budget	Proposed Budget 2011/12 £000	Change £000
Children & Young People	27,450	(4,953)
Communities & Well Being	56,560	(6,241)
Economic Growth & Prosperity	3,106	(1,055)
Environment, Transport & Operations*	28,390	(766)
Transformation & Resources	15,805	(1,983)
Council-wide	27,592	4,824
Total All Services	158,903	(10,174)

What the table doesn’t show is the continued intention to handover £21m to Lancashire Cricket Club, the Conservative Council’s pet-scheme. Children’s centres are expendable whilst an Ashes Test is perceived as vital.

The cuts will mean front-line staff are sacrificed but the ever increasing number of Directors need new Town Hall accommodation at a revenue cost of £1.4m a year (for the next three decades).

The Government are asking Councils to look at their senior Directors and explore sharing the senior teams with other Councils. How can we justify such excessive expenditure on the Town Hall if we can’t guarantee we’ll need it more than a few years into the future? The local Tories argue that their grandiose plans will be cheaper than patching up and making do, but the cuts we’re suffering now will continue in a calculated assault into the coming years. Clearly we can’t guarantee what sort of Town Hall is going to be suitable, or the numbers of senior management needing offices in Trafford. The present expansion of the senior management is not sustainable in even the medium team. We’re going to face a time quite soon when there’s so many ‘Generals’, we’ll not have any ‘soldiers’ to man the front-line.

Trafford Town Hall by Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dear All,

It’s February already and it only seems a couple of weeks ago that we were in the middle of the Christmas festivities!!!!

January has been and gone and with it, a little bit of a mixed bag in relation to crime within the area. The vast majority of crimes are showing reductions but rather than give you lots of percentages, I thought that on this occasion, I would let you know just how many key crimes had occurred in January, compared to the same period in the previous year.

Personal Robberies increased from a very low figure of 3 last year, to 6 this January. The majority of these have involved bags/mobile phones being snatched from people as they have been walking along the road. The level of violence used during these offences has been minimal but I will endeavour to ensure that we continue to identify patterns/locations where these are occurring and deploy staff accordingly.

Burglaries have reduced from 29 to 25 offences this January and whilst only a small reduction, when you go back even further to January 2009 when we suffered 34 burglaries – you will clearly see that we are definitely moving in the right direction with the one offence that the public really fear.

Vehicle crime continues to fall, Theft of motor vehicles reduced from 9 to 4 with a big drop in Theft from motor vehicles from 16 to 3 and when you consider the number of vehicles that regularly visit the area for the football matches, these figures are all the more remarkable.

Criminal Damage offences are also showing encouraging reductions from 45 to 39 and again, if you go back to January 2009 when we had 66 offences of Damage recorded, I am sure that you will agree that the trend is encouraging.

Finally and perhaps one of the reasons that we are showing reductions in the majority of crime categories, is the massive reduction in reports of ASB with 217 being recorded last January compared with 126 this January. This is by no means a fluke. I am convinced that all the partnership work that is being undertaken is starting to pay dividends, Operation Stay Safe on selected key dates, the Kickz football project, Y Street at places such as Gorse Hill Studios, enforcement at problem licensed premises and numerous ABC contracts have all contributed to the ASB reduction which in turn impacts on other crimes.

As usual, I will be in touch with any noteworthy incidents/information over the coming month but if you need to speak in the meantime, feel free to give me a call.

regards

Andy

Inspector Andy Sutcliffe
Stretford Neighbourhood Policing Team
M Division – Trafford
Greater Manchester Police

photo supplied with the update

I’ve received the latest quarterly performance from Trafford’s police team. The performance from the Stretford team is particularly striking. Well done to Andy Sutcliffe and all the men and women who’ve made a real difference.

Commentary:

We have reduced crime in all areas compared to last year, resulting in 160 fewer victims.

We have done a lot of work to clamp down on the use and sale of illegal drugs, which I believe is linked to other crimes such as burglary, robbery and anti-social behaviour. For example, a person was jailed for six years in December after he was found guilty of possession of cocaine with intent to supply and possession of heroin with intent to supply. The drugs were found in his flat when a search warrant was executed.

Antisocial behaviour has dropped by 40 per cent compared to last year. We have done a lot of work with housing associations and Trafford Council’s asb team to evict problem tenants from their properties. Following complaints of asb and alcohol sales to underage drinkers we also successfully opposed a convenience store when they applied to transfer the licence to another holder. The application was unsuccessful. This week we also became the first area in GMP to successfully apply for a section 160 order. This will prevent all alcohol sales in a designated area around of Old Trafford ahead of the weekend’s FA Cup fixture against Liverpool.

Vehicle crime has dropped by 59 per cent and this is, in part, due to our high visibility and plain clothed patrols in hot spot areas, in particular on Manchester United match days when the volume of parked vehicles in the area increases significantly.

Image: “Insignia of the Greater Manchester Police” by The Laird of Oldham, CC BY 2.0

I’ve received the following advice from the Stretford Neighbourhood Police Team in response to recent burglaries in the Barton Road area of Stretford.

Dear resident,

I am writing to inform you that your neighbourhood has recently been targeted by burglars.

We are working to tackle this by increasing Police patrols and targeting known criminals.

One in three burglaries happen when doors and windows are left open or unlocked. Help us to help you avoid becoming a victim of burglary by following a few simple steps.

• Lock all external doors and windows whether you are at home or not.
• Leave a light on or use plug in timers to operate lights and radios
• If you have an alarm use it every time you go out or go to bed

We would urge you to report any suspicious activity, as by working together we stand a better chance of catching those responsible.

If you have a policing issue in your area or wish to speak to an officer please contact the Stretford Neighbourhood Policing Team on 0161 856 7655 or email Stretford.Area@gmp.police.uk

For non-emergency calls or to report a crime call 0161 872 5050 or for more information visit gmp.police.uk. Only call 999 in an emergency where there is a threat to life or crime in progress.

You can also call anonymously with information about crime to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

Email Sent from Greater Manchester Police

“Burglary” by Alpha Photo, CC BY-NC 2.0