Canal27ways

Category: Community

  • 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.


    • Couple of pieces of Casework

      Couple of pieces of Casework

      This week has brought a couple of pieces of casework that have not resulted in complete resolution (though have managed to get a couple of potholes fixed) but still worth the work in pursuing further.

      Potholes in Lostock

      There’s a lot of potholes in Norwich Road at its junction with Moss Vale Road. They’re not deep, but they are plentiful and the road looks a mess. Because they’re not deep, the holes do reach the criteria to be repaired. I’m arguing that the criteria should be tweaked to bring in sections of road where like Norwich Road, there’s been a systemic failure in a small section of road.

      Barfoot Bridge

      A resident noticed that the Bridgewater Canal aqueduct over the River Mersey was displaying visual signs of decay. I raised it with officers of the Bridgewater Canal and they’ve been to inspect.

      The bridge seems to have weathered the recent storms and high water level in the river, but it’s worth giving consideration to the longer term. They’re hoping to bring forward the next more extensive inspection and have engaged a consultant of arched structures to look at the longer term. We want it to survive in perpetuity, so it’s worth following up on this.

    • Putting Children back to first priority

      I am really pleased that Andy Western – leader of Trafford Council has made the comments I’m sharing below.

      It’s something I’ve been uncomfortable with since the outset of the first lockdown. I was never happy that schools were shut down. With hindsight, I can see we needed a pause to get on top of the virus. However, I was very supportive of Kate Green’s stance that children needed to be back at school at the earliest date. She took flack for that position.

      It’s never been the loss of examinations that’s been my prime concern. With the right provision of lifelong learning, this can be addressed; and maybe even improved upon, as we’ve never been good at it. Now it’s imperative, perhaps at last we can dream of the universal provision we dreamt about when Labour created the ‘Open University’.

      I agree with Andy that it’s the loss of socialisation skills and friendship forming that’s the real worry. We’re seeing an increased prevalence of mental health problems and worsening anti-social behaviour. I sense there’s a stronger element of pure anger contained within the motivations for that behaviour than I have seen before. I get that anger. I get angry at those who pontificate at parents for the reaction their children are demonstrating.

      It’s something that we’re going to have to address and there’s an urgent need for the conversation to really get started. That conversation has primarily to be driven by the young people and we need to find new ways of getting the voice of those most at risk from problems we’ve created. The catchup plan needs to be owned by those children and it needs to continue to be owned by them as they move through their life. We owe it to them.