Category: Blog

Call in Request -LACK OF CONSULTATION WITH PARENTS/LACK OF INFORMATION

The parents feel very strongly that there has been a lack of meaningful consultation with the Council concerning this decision. A 5,000 named petition has been signed by people objecting to the decision. There are a range of concerns consisting of whether there will be enough places at a new Academy, particularly in the long term when it’s planned to build 900 dwellings around LCCC – year 5 is already at capacity, and there is a lack of vacancies at any other school – a lack of information about what will happen in September, whether siblings will be guaranteed a place – severe disruption to children’s education – parents whose children are not yet in secondary education haven’t been given any information and haven’t been invited to any consultation, yet this decision affects their lives – the Stretford High School land should not be sold and the capital receipt given to LCCC, particularly so when the site of the proposed school is barely large enough for a new enlarged school – the 6th Form provision has been dropped from the original proposals for a new school. These are just a few of parents’ concerns, there are many more issues. The parents are also concerned that the decision on moving to statutory closure consultation has been made and the Executive will sign funding agreement with the Department for Education prior to the completion of the statutory consultation. This to them seems to be completely wrong and unacceptable. These concerns need to be heard by the committee and we suggest parents are invited to the call-in meeting so that the committee members can listen directly to those concerns.

Dave Acton – Labour Councillor for Gorse Hill
Mike Cordingley – Labour Councillor for Gorse Hill
Dave Jarman – Labour Councillor for Longford

The Old Trafford stadium is 100 years old today. Still think they could do a lot more for their neighbourhood. Gordon Brown has had a good day in the polls; or at least the lead is shrinking; unlike Chelseas’s.

This story highlights just how out of touch Tories are. Gating schemes don’t just deter burglaries and anti social behaviour, they can create communal spaces that give pride to neighbourhoods.

See earlier story

It’s proved to be one of the most controversial proposals in recent years. I’m deeply disappointed that we were never allowed by the ruling Conservatives to properly scrutinise the proposal, to look at alternatives, or to test the amounts required to restore Ashes cricket. The suppression of debate in council or executive has been scandalous.

However, we are where we are and the application has reached planning stage and the options for further examination are diminishing. Given that we’ve not been able to satisfy the most unsceptical eye that this is has been properly tested by Trafford, we’re left with lodging objections to the proposal. I’d much rather we’d been allowed to properly scrutinise and look at ways to support test cricket that didn’t impact on the scope for developing the Academy, that didn’t run the risk of creating gridlock, but the scope for realising a really exciting development has been wasted.

For the record I’ve included my objection to the proposal:

I believe that the proposal will generate levels of traffic that are unsustainable without prejudicing the free movement of traffic along Chester Road.

Introducing a right turn into Tescos for customers coming from Stretford will cause gridlock. Traffic is often already reduced to single file as buses stop traffic on the inside lane.

Additionally, the transport assessment takes no account of plans to ramp up permitted custom at White City together with an application to build a supermarket there.

There is a lack of analysis in the submissions as to whether Chester Road can cope with a second large superstore in this proximity. Since there is already
permission for food retail at White City, clearly the planning authority should take cognisance of that development.

Although the playing field upon which the Tesco is to be built has not been utilised for the past few years, it is not clear that the proposed much larger (and yet to be formalised) academy will not require its use. There seems to be an implied assumption that the grounds of the academy can be supplemented by
taking from the park with associated loss of amenity. In any event, the store takes much needed green space, in comparison with the White City proposal which is brownfield under any definition.

The argument for permitting the Tesco is in respect of the planning gain afforded by the regeneration of LCCC. It’s clear that LCCC needs regenerating but it’s not clear that their business case stacks up. Everything is predicated on the winning of Ashes cricket back to Old Trafford. There is no guarantee that
the bid will be successful, there’s no guarantee that even if it is, that the derived income will be sufficient to finance the borrowing. I would want
to see much more independent scrutiny of the business plan before proceeding.

There is loss of public funds associated with this proposal and it requires that residents ignore the degree of trust that is being placed upon the success
of the cricket ground’s future management. It is not clear that the local authority has tested whether the cricket club needs the £21m. With better management, could the call on public funds be reduced and hence the case for the Tesco part of the development be completely nullified?

Mike Cordingley

The conservatives have come up with their answer to the My David Cameron site based on that strange Cameron photo. I’m therefore not sure I’m supposed to appreciate the Conservative equivalents; but apart from one or two they’re not bad. The Winterton picture is the winner

See them all

Manchester Evening News Article. It’s good coverage on this controversial school closure. The Tory led council has got itself into a complete muddle over this issue and the anger of parents is completely justified. The sensible approach is to put the brakes on all decisions and start consulting properly.