Canal27ways

Category: Community

  • I don’t like Full Council and I’ve never been that fond of cricket either

    I don’t like Full Council and I’ve never been that fond of cricket either

    I’ve not been looking forward to full-council. There’s something very League of Gentlemen about the exaggerated amateur dramatics that you can get sucked into. It was quite funny that it clashed with Old Trafford emptying at the same time. It was fancy dress outside and (maybe) inside.

    We have two hours and thirty minutes for a council meeting. This was my first council since coming back and if anything, it’s got worse. I’m not going to go into all the issues but I think we can do better.

    These would be my proposals for improvement

    • We should remove prayers from the main body of the meeting.
    • Questions to the Executive are not working.
      We’ve made questions totally incomprehensible to the general public because it’s only a supplementary question that gets verbally spoken.
      Questions are important, but this is farcical if all the public hears is something like “So when are you going to do it?”.
      My view is that questions are so important we need to take them out of the Council Meeting and give them their own regular space. The next council meeting is in October – questions will arise before then and we need a facility to ask them that’s subject to public oversight.
    • Reports to the council are usually important. They don’t always get the time they deserve. Scrutiny might have a formal role.
    • Political motions are the main course of the meeting. They’re what gets us there. In reality most of the time, they’re of the moment and you’d struggle to find many that had a lasting impact. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that we have them. We need a facility for democratically coming together as an area to pronounce on what is deemed important. They’re a vital cog, even if a lot of the time it’s just political jousting.
      It’s just the Parties are losing the ability to draft a motion to maximum effect.

    The anatomy of a motion

    There’s actually not that much variation in motions. The Greens use a ‘preamble’ but essentially they should follow the pattern….

    This Council notes that…

    This Council believes that…

    This Council resolves to…

    There’s a reason for the pattern. The first part should just be facts. This council notes that the house was flooded. This council also notes that drainage has been reduced.

    The beliefs section can be more contentious but better to keep as much straightforward as possible eg. This council believes that flooding is avoidable and that regular maintenance is essential…

    It’s the ‘resolves to’ section where you’re trying to make your point and highlight differences.

    Keep the motion succinct. You also want to decide what is a ‘win’ – winning the vote or forcing the majority party to vote it down. I sat there amazed on Wednesday – most of the time I couldn’t work out what the opposition parties wanted to get out of their own motions.
    The Tories came with one motion against changes in firefighting provision that they ended up voting against. Maybe they just wanted to make a petty point on Andy Burnham, but they ended up voting against a motion that requested further investigation into the proposals to downgrade Sale fire-station. They completely wasted their advantage.
    The Greens had a motion on recreating a Greater Manchester Assembly. A lot of Labour people actually regret like I do, the original Greater Manchester Council being closed down by Thatcher. But the Greens got carried away and entered a whole shopping list within the motion of other things they wanted scrapping or introducing. I spoke in favour of a Greater Manchester Assembly, but was quite comfortable voting down the motion. They should have kept it simple.

    Back to those questions to the Executive

    A lot of people are raising this same question with me:

    When we can expect weed spraying to begin?

    Below is the written answer from the Executive Member

    The programme of weed spraying commenced on the 10th July 2023. The spraying is expected to take 4 – 6 weeks based on the current forecasts for July and August. An email detailing this information was sent to all members on Friday 30 June. The teams progress through the borough on a ward-by-ward basis. With some wards being larger than others it is difficult to say when the teams will be in a particular ward in advance with any accuracy at this time however, weekly communications to ward members will be issued to keep members up to date on progress.

    By Elections

    I don’t mind admitting I stayed up late for the 3 by-elections. Uxbridge was a disappointment, my suspicion is that had we given time to explain how few vehicles would be impacted by ULEZ, we’d have sailed through. You don’t change your policy in the middle of an election. So I went to bed very cross.

    Co-op Party AGM Gtr Manchester

    I really like the Co-op Party and I’m proud to be a member. We seem to get so much more business decided.

    We passed a motion supporting the mutalisation of United Utilities on Saturday. It reflected our values – the motion will progress to regional conference. We didn’t need to spend hours debating the point and sometimes unanaminity is more powerful than having the last word.

    Last few meetings at my Old Trafford school

    Had to ride to Old Trafford four times over the week, despite the last governor’s meeting being held the previous week. The school has broken up for summer now but we needed to mark the occasion.
    Good luck and Best wishes to all the children moving on to their secondary school. You will all make your mark on the world. I’m expecting great things from your your young lives!
    I’ve been chair of governors twice now – a short time at Barton Clough when it was in crisis and we brought in Tony Rae and lately at Old Trafford Community Academy with co-heads Judith Stott and Nicola Davenport. It was great to meet up with those Headteachers again at Old Trafford last week.

    Anthony Rae, Judith Stott and Nicola Davenport
    Anthony Rae, Judith Stott, Mike Cordingley and Nicola Davenport – Ms Stott’s Last Day as head

  • What a week!

    The induction’s over. It’s been quite a heavy week as the routine starts to kick in.

    Labour Away Day – Saturday

    Political parties are strange things. People have different motivations. Whether to rule or to represent, how to shape our local places, climbing up the ladder to get a better job.

    So, we’re a disparate group when we come together and even if an ‘Away Day’ feels a bit incongruous, it’s not without its merit.

    We have 41 Labour Councillors out of 63. Ten of these councillors are on ‘the Executive’. That means a lot of Councillors aren’t. This is not a problem if the Executive value and use their fellow councillors. Hopefully, there’s churn in responsibilities too. We can remain cohesive. It just mustn’t be taken for granted.

    It’s an interesting time to be Labour. It was remarked upon that we were all to the ‘left’ of Keir Starmer. He’s picked his team and they’re sticking to a script. I rather like that he’s holding back on commitments, but wish he’d learn some economics, beyond Milton Friedman, Thatcher’s mentor.

    Prepping for Planning – Monday

    I quite enjoy my monthly tour of Trafford in preparation for planning on Thursday. This time I took in Davyhulme, Timperley, Sale, Old Trafford and Hale. Then it’s putting some notes together and sending off some queries to planning officers.

    All Day School Governor Commitment – Tuesday

    I’m school governor at two schools but withdrawing from both. With Planning Committee and a new role with Manchester Foundation Trust, I’m just finding it impossible to juggle the time. It’s primarily evenings but today included a meeting with the Academy Trust. I love both my schools but you’ve got to manage your time. The evening was in a sense a normal governors’ meeting but it was the last governors’ meeting to be attended by Judith Stott. Judith has been Headteacher there for 28 years. That’s a big wrench. I’ve valued working with her. She always puts the children first.

    Judith Stott

    Hospital Trust Meeting – Wednesday

    I was warned this was a demanding role but took it anyway. I’ve joined the governing body attached to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT)as the council’s nominee. Just to put this in context – MFT is the largest employer in Greater Manchester with 28,000 staff.

    The Chief Executive updated us on strike action and presented the annual account which will be made public once it’s been formally listed in Parliament.

    Much of it was similar to a council committee meeting. We had a presentation from the auditors who happened to be the same as Trafford Council’s auditors, and there were quite a few familiar faces in the room.

    Greater Manchester’s health organisation is undergoing quite an upheaval with the new integrated care partnership (ICP). Priorities are tackling inequalities. We’ve got to make it real. I wasn’t happy with inequalities of provision within Trafford during Covid. Actually, I was incredibly angry about it at the time and that will be a test for me.

    Evening Meeting of Scrutiny – I only watched this online but it was important viewing. Scrutiny was looking at the seven-year review of the Amey contract. I am of the view that there’s still enormous room for improvement, essentially in bringing Trafford back to a borough that looks and feels loved. We’ll know more when the review is actually tabled for approval rather than just a PowerPoint.

    Planning Committee – Thursday

    Quite a heavy meeting but we got through it. I’m happy we made the correct decisions. They won’t necessarily be the popular decisions but we have to apply the guidance unless there’s a compelling reason not to.

    Focus on the Allotment – Friday/Sat/Sunday

    Screenshot of Facebook Post announcing Moss Park Allotments open 16th July to display a stunning, award winning allotment site in Stretford with a large variety of well-tended plots bursting with ideas.

    That’s quite a build-up for our allotment site and with all the council induction and then having covid – our plot wasn’t at its best. So quite a bit of graft was required to make it presentable. I love our plot anyway. Some nice feedback on Sunday morning too from visitors.

  • AI puts the mystery back into doing the Councillor thing

    AI puts the mystery back into doing the Councillor thing

    As I strolled through the streets of this typical neighbourhood, an inexplicable feeling tugged at the back of my mind. It was as if there were a hushed emptiness lingering in the air, whispering secrets that went unnoticed by most. I couldn’t shake off the sense that there were more vacant houses than usual, their windows peering into an abyss of abandonment. Curiosity drove me to investigate further, and with an insatiable urge, I delved into the realm of statistics. What I discovered both startled and confirmed my suspicions. The data reflected a stark reality, substantiating my intuitive perception: the number of empty houses had indeed risen significantly. The numbers, like silent witnesses, silently echoed the story that my senses had perceived, unravelling a tale of shifting tides and changing landscapes in our community.

    I couldn’t find the words so I asked ChatGPT to ‘write me a paragraph on sensing that there were more empty houses than usual and finding that the statistics were backing me up’. I know it’s not the best-crafted instruction that’s ever been written, but I love what AI came up with. It’s a lot better than noticing on a leaflet-round that it’s the third seemingly long-term empty house that you’ve come across, and then picking up on similar instances on your next round.

    It was the Friends of Carrington Moss people who serendipitously supplied some statistics that pointed to it being much more than a coincidence.

    I don’t want to be drawn into the debate about whether Carrington Moss should be built on, or at least not in this instance. However, I do want to focus on the figures. They’re telling us that the extra homes we’re building are not providing the extra number of households we would expect. This is not due to demolition as we’re using a net additional dwellings figure. It might include some that are in the process of being emptied as is currently happening at Circle Court. I can’t think of anything major in 2021 that would account for Trafford’s figures, but they’re the worst. There’ll be some that have become Airbnb and similar. My instinct says the amount becoming Airbnb is nowhere near these figures but the number of empty homes could be a major factor.

    The council will have figures on empty properties. I am hoping they are equally high. We’ll see, but it seems definitely worth pursuing.

  • Stretford gets a new look Kingsway

    Stretford gets a new look Kingsway

    The team working on a new configuration for Kingsway alongside Stretford Mall put their ideas on show at the weekend. The headlines are more trees, a reduced carriageway to one lane and new crossings.

    It’s a pretty brave decision to reduce the traffic capacity, but Edge Lane and Urmston Lane are single-carriageways and so there’s a consistency to the traffic flow. Nevertheless, there was quite a lot of scepticism on display at the presentation event. I just hope their modelling is right.

    My view is that it’s worth pursuing. For most of the day, the two-carriageway Kingsway acts as a race track and is totally inappropriate for a town centre.

    However, making it a single-carriageway carries risks. There needs to be enough room for buses to stop without blocking traffic. The bus lay-bys on these designs don’t look big enough, especially if we’re hoping to get more people on buses.

    I’m also concerned that the entrance to Kingsway from Barton Road is widened to allow for two lanes, then quickly narrows to one. To me, that’s a bottleneck for no good reason. It should be one lane throughout the distance except at the exit to allow for right turns.

    It looks like the crossings are without pedestrian controls. I’d like to be reassured that these are totally accessible to all users including vision-impaired users and others.

    I hope they’ve ticked all the boxes. The new design looks good but it only needs a slight miscalculation for it to be calamitous. Those bus stops need to be bigger.

  • Lead Councillor brings Trafford up to Speed on the Cones

    Lead Councillor brings Trafford up to Speed on the Cones

    Hardly a week passes without a new thread on Facebook or Twitter about the cycle lanes going through Stretford. The main complaint has been the lack of transparency and news about what’s going to happen to them. Will they be made permanent? Will they be taken out? Will the cones be there forever?

    There’s been some changes to Trafford’s leadership since the election and Councillor Aidan Williams has been added to the cabinet to take on Climate Change and Transport Strategy.

    Councillor Williams took the opportunity of addressing a petition to give a wider update on the A56 last week when Council met at the town hall. The actual petition sought to exploit unused rail space alongside the Stretford Metrolink all the way down to Sale to provide additional cycling capacity. The council leadership agreed to explore the potential of this proposal but highlighted the limited access as an issue that meant it could never offer an alternative to the A56 for short journeys on bikes.

    The cycle lanes have been frustrating for drivers and cyclists alike. Now that Councillor Williams is in place, we’re beginning to get coherent messaging. First indication was a tweet that Aidan put out in mid July, a simple tweet that made its way to both the Manchester Evening News and the Messenger.

    The update at last Wednesday’s council meeting built on the information given out in the tweet. The council is going to consult on permanent cycling infrastructure in Stretford linking it via the Talbot Road scheme and (Old) Chester Road that gives Stretford continuous segregated cycling to the Manchester border. The design and landscaping within the town centre itself will be wrapped up within the town centre masterplan there.

    Full Text of Speech


    Personally, I very much welcome this. It’s beginning to join up cycling facilities. We need to see what they come up with at the Talbot Road junction because that’s still dangerous and if the test is a 12 year old being safe, we’re still a long way from that. But hey, this is so much better than what we’ve been used to.

    I’m really pleased that we’re getting some transparency now and it sounds like Councillor Williams wants to listen to all interested parties. Clarity is vital. We now know that cycle lanes won’t be installed along Chester Road in Gorse Hill. That will disappoint many, but at least knowing it, means that we can focus getting more crossings of that road. A crossing at Gorse Hill Park gates is an absolute must.

    And we still urgently need that pedestrian phase at the Park Road/Derbyshire Lane junction so people can walk to Stretford without having to sprint. If Councillor Williams’s Transport Strategy responsibilities extend to getting people across roads, we’ve got a chance to start seeing some real improvements.

    • Canvassing Kingsway Park

      Canvassing Kingsway Park

      Things I heard:

      Better maintenance of drains and general upkeep of streets wanted including weed control

      – I heard this from quite a few residents. It’s a difficult one but we shouldn’t dismiss it. There was one grid pointed out to me that actually looked as though it had been cleaned. I might be wrong but if we have residents who believe their streets are not being serviced, and it worries them, shouldn’t we be giving better data. They’re paying council tax but we’re giving back information that’s borderline facetious describing the leaf clearance in terms of its weight in elephants. If residents want to know when and how often their grids ought to be cleared and whether that has happened we should be telling them.

      I do think there’s a discussion to be had about street upkeep more generally. Cheap black tarmac patching on pavements highlight the fact that the pavements were originally laid to a standard that we’ll never match again. Whilst hopefully we can fund better than we do now, it’s probably unrealistic to think councils will ever realistically have sufficient funds to bring pavements and roads to a standard that people truly aspire to. How did that happen? Looking at it from a lay perspective, it looks to me that we’ve gone backwards even allowing for the increased workload we place on roads and pavements. Are we really using low tech and manual labour to standards lower than we used 100 years ago? Have councils and highway authorities demanded the sufficient improvements in technology and productivity that we’ve seen in almost every other field of work?

      We really do need to enforce encroachment of vegetation onto the pavement. We’re denying people the right to move about freely if they’re pushing a pram or using mobility aids. This was raised by a resident in connection with a near neighbour and she’s absolutely right to raise.

      I thought it interesting that one resident felt political parties ought to be more capable of working together. It’s polarised. I don’t know how we can change that.

      Doorstep conversations are always interesting and provocative. I always come back with more challenges to the way we do things.