Canal27ways

Category: Council

  • Never goin’ to smell the bran again…

    Never goin’ to smell the bran again…

    Sad to see Kellogg’s shut down its ovens for the last time. The last bake at Trafford Park seems to have taken place without ceremony.

    The big ‘K’ has been a visual marker on the skyline for as long as I can remember. Yet it’s the sounds and smells I’m most in tune with. I live within earshot of the Kellogg’s empty trailers bouncing over the humps at the warehouse and downwind of the malty scents blowing over our neighbourhood. I don’t think I’ve come to terms with the fact that its end is nigh.

    What comes next? I don’t think it’ll be residential. We’ll just have to see. Slightly worrying, but we’ll have to wait and see.

    Manchester United (Wharfside) Consultation

    Kellogg’s sits outside the consultation area, but not that far outside. Trafford is continuing its consultation on development of the eastern part of Trafford Park centred on the relocation of the Manchester United stadium and there’s some events planned for the next few weeks.

    Manchester United is renowned for the care and consideration it gives to its fans. Trafford is renowned for its integrity in consulting residents. What can go wrong?

    Coming Dates of consultation drop-ins

    Ruth Hannan from Gorgeous Gorse Hill has helpfully put together questions she wants answering from the Gorse Hill community point of view. These may trigger your own questions.

    I definitely would like to seek assurance that both new and existing permit schemes would be fully financed by Manchester United.

    Consultation Documents
    Ruth’s Response

    Continuing Fallout from Trafford’s Children’s Services Report

    The opposition parties in Trafford continue to use social media to exert pressure on Tom Ross and his Labour Group over the critical report.

    They’re being premature. The users of the service deserve an authoritative explanation of how the deterioration occurred before the blame is apportioned. The Corporate Director of Children’s Services seemed to suggest at Scrutiny that the data was being reported. Surely, this needs investigating and we need to understand the role of the Chief Executive.

    Labour has been understandably quiet. They’re in the firing line. However, they need to be held to their promise for:

    “independent review of why the deterioration in the front-door service was not identified and remedied sooner, including examination of what information was available to senior officers and elected members, what warnings were escalated, what assurance was provided and whether scrutiny arrangements were sufficiently robust.“

    I would have the thought that the conclusion of this report was the right moment to look at appropriate changes of personnel including the political.

    Coming up at Council

    The Sale Waterside PFI agreement is the subject of the next Council executive meeting on the 21st September. I would have thought this was quite an important issue for Sale Town Centre, given how important the canalside is to Sale. We’re probably going to be excluded from the tasty stuff as it’s likely the public will be excluded.

    Also on the coming Agenda:

    • A supplier for Trafford’s EV charging infrastructure
    • End to End Fostering Hub

    Total Ninja – Trafford Park

    Watersmeet Litterpick

    Trafford Lib Dem Campaign for Transparency over Potholes

    I’m not a Lib Dem but I think they make a good point about Trafford’s attitude to potholes. And there is clearly need for transparency.

    Their petition is here. Fix our roads – Trafford Liberal Democrats

    I’ve not signed it. I suspect it’s mainly for harvesting contacts but I would really like to if they used something like Change.org.

  • Extraordinary Council Meeting

    Extraordinary Council Meeting

    This was the meeting calling for resignations and self condemnation of pretty much everybody

    I previewed the meeting last week.

    The clash came to pass last night in the council chamber. Labour won. They had the votes.

    Most of the speakers were attacking Labour and a picture was painted of a Council Executive who were inward looking and lacking in curiosity.

    That narrative didn’t meet much challenge.

    My regret is that I’m still not actually sure how Trafford’s Executive were unaware that the issues highlighted in Ofsted’s opening paragraph had come about. I was hoping Children’s scrutiny the previous evening would have extracted something approaching a definitive answer. It would require some ‘first principle’ questioning.

    • How the ‘front door’ is monitored,
    • how failings would come to light,
    • how they are reported up the line

    All we have is the Ofsted verdict

    Since the previous inspection in 2022, when services in Trafford were judged as requires improvement to be good, leaders have been ineffective in recognising, prioritising and making improvements to some service shortfalls. Practice with children in care and for some care-experienced young people has improved, but there has been a serious deterioration in service areas, such as front door response.
    This has left some children at risk of harm.

    Leadership Culture

    I don’t think we’ll ever get a comprehensive answer to whether the culture set by Trafford’s political leadership played a part.

    The members of the Executive very much set themselves apart from the wider body of councillors. They don’t ask questions of wider councillors. They may have friendship groups to confide in, but it doesn’t seem to be a core value to be interested in the ward councillor’s perspective. This being the case, it hardly seems incongruous if there has been a lack of curiosity in terms of performance.

    There seems to be a culture of mutual comforting and reassurance amongst the cabinet. Consensus is reinforced. It would cause gross offense to demur.

    It is literally true that executive members challenging the consensus is now always in the past tense.

    This bias towards consensus permeates the council’s values

    I’ve never been a huge fan of Trafford’s ‘People Plan‘. Its EPIC Values have always seemed a little passively introverted to me, I’d like them to be more challenging, more focused on improvement.

    EPIC Values

    I almost think we hard-wired this failing into the culture. Still doesn’t explain everything, but I suggest that there are issues still to be solved beyond a simple change of personnel.

    The council meeting was interesting, we did get to hear the occasional line that set my alarms ringing;

    • “We’ve already dealt with”,
    • “Changes are in progress”,
    • “We’re going to be open, we don’t need to have a formal arrangement”

    We’ll have to see whether the Executive changes. I think one interesting consensus, certainly across the opposition parties, but I think into Labour backbenches was dissatisfaction with the scrutiny function. I hope that will be picked up.

    Link to Archived Video of the Proceedings on Youtube

    Overall, I think it was a worthwhile meeting. I don’t think resignations at this stage are a good idea, so I was happy with the way the votes went. It would be nice to think they take a broad view to some of the system failures that have taken place in my view, rather than the fault of a few individuals. And I’d really like the leaders to look in the mirror, have their behaviours contributed?

  • Council gets to lock horns over Children’s Service Failings

    Council gets to lock horns over Children’s Service Failings

    Previewing a big week for Trafford Council with Children’s Scrutiny on Tuesday and a full council on Wednesday.

    August is usually a quiet month for councillors, but two critical inspections have created a political crisis, and the Conservatives weren’t going to let this go without another vote of no confidence in Labour’s leader, Tom Ross.

    Conservative Motion

    It’s nearly 2500 words. That’s huge for a motion – 4 pages long.

    Link to the full Conservative Motion

    If you can’t face 2500 words, the motion can be split into two halves.

    First Half – What has happened

    The conservative motion opens with the historically correct reminder that in 2015 Trafford’s children’s services were judged to be ‘Good’ whilst under Conservative control.

    It goes on to say that subsequent reviews marked a decline (under Labour control) culminating in the current review.

    It criticises Trafford’s leadership (Labour’s) for not being on top of performance shortfalls throughout this time.

    Second Half – What is to be done about it

    The Conservatives say the council should:

    • Record its profound concern and apologise to children and families
    • Thank its frontline officers and foster carers
    • Recognise the record as representing a serious failure of governance and accountability
    • Declare a loss of confidence in its political leadership
    • Call on the leader (Tom Ross)to resign
    • Call on the Council Executive to recognise its part in this and look to restoring confidence in political oversight
    • Establish an independently chaired Children’s Services Improvement and Assurance Board
    • Require the administration to publish an improvement plan with regular reports to children’s scrutiny
    • Require a specific report into failings in the ‘front door’ to children’s services and the failures in oversight.
    • Look for commonalities in the preparation for each of the negative Ofsted reports
    • Receive a further report at full council as to progress
    • Affirm that it’s about day to day standards not just for Ofsted

    Thoughts on the motion

    This is a better motion than we’re used to from the Conservatives and I suspect they’ve had some help. It gets a little bit messy towards the end by being too prescriptive, but overall it does what the Conservatives want it to do.

    Labour’s response

    I really expected Labour to take a position that the Conservatives had rushed to produce a purely political motion when the seriousness of the situation called for a measured approach that had already begun. I expected them to simply vote against this motion. Instead, they’ve made amendments.

    Labour Amendments to Conservative Motion

    I’m really surprised how much of the Conservative Motion survives amendment. It leaves a lot of the tale intact.

    Additional Points inserted by Labour’s Amendment

    The narrative history in the first half of the motion is tweaked to include a number of mitigating factors.

    • The budget for Children’s Services was reduced by the Conservatives after the ‘Good’ Ofsted
    • Within the latest ‘Inadequate’ Ofsted there some recognition of improvements in specific areas, notably report writing and support for children subject to protection plans
    • There had been a 60% increase in demand in the past 12 months
    • Ofsted recognised corporate and political commitment to children and that there had been additional investment
    • The ‘Expert Advisor’ being sent in by the Dept for Education as a consequence of the ‘Inadequate judgement’ will have a positive diagnostic input

    The above points are quite reasonable inclusions. It leaves the basic narrative intact. However, one of the smallest amendments in that first section is perhaps the most controversial.

    In 2026, Ofsted again found that leaders did not fully understand the scale of serious problems until inspectors arrived and did not possess a wholly accurate self-assessment of service quality and impact.

    is amended to

    In 2026, Ofsted again found that service leaders did not fully understand the scale of serious problems until inspectors arrived and did not possess a wholly accurate self-assessment of service quality and impact.

    The Ofsted report does not distinguish between service leaders, corporate leaders or political leaders. I really don’t like this particular amendment, leaders should stand with their teams, not washing their hands of them. I’m not impressed at all by this amendment and perhaps it highlights bigger issues.

    Amendments to the 2nd half of the Conservative motion

    They add some new measures

    • Recognise the record as representing a serious failure of governance and accountability
      (is softened)

    The amendment deletes the paragraphs criticising the council leadership and executive.

    It adds some new measures

    • Seek support from an independent improvement partner through a local authority that demonstrated outstanding practice in Children’s Services
    • Bring tangible and practical improvements to partnership working in Trafford including partners in health and Greater Manchester Police.
    • Calls on all partners in Trafford to recognise the challenge and allocate and identify dedicated and consistent resources to Trafford and the new Improvement Board.

    Labour has the numbers, if its councillors turn up

    This will be one of those meetings that will have the strongest of three-line-whips. It used to always be impressed on new councillors that there may come a time when councillors are expected to fly home early for important votes. It actually did happen famously about thirty years ago with regard to Greater Manchester’s Public Transport Authority when the votes across the councils of GM were almost in balance.

    I think we’re slightly softer these days, but it’s hard to see how an executive member could stay in post if they miss Wednesday’s vote.

    Had I still been a councillor, I would have supported the Labour Leadership and voted for their amendments. I would have blamed the leadership for their lack of openness. I would have told them in the corridor they’d brought this on themselves, but I would still have voted for them. I’m glad to be out of it.

    It needs stating

    There needs to be changes in how Labour’s leadership in Trafford operates. They’ve been found wanting.

    Scrutiny

    Scrutiny of Trafford’s approach to the Ofsted verdict is actually the day before council. Sadly, it’s just a verbal presentation. Whilst it will be worth watching on Youtube, its hard to see how much input scrutiny is going to be allowed to make. I hope I’m wrong.

  • Not Good – Inspections of key services confirm Trafford’s worst fears

    Not Good – Inspections of key services confirm Trafford’s worst fears

    Adult and Children’s inspection Reports across Greater Manchester

    Adult Social CareChildren’s Services
    BoltonGoodFeb26GoodSep23
    BuryGoodJun26Requires ImprovementJun25
    ManchesterGoodAug26OutstandingOct25
    OldhamGoodFeb26GoodMay24
    RochdaleGoodJun26Requires ImprovementFeb23
    SalfordInadequateMay26GoodNov23
    StockportGoodMay26Requires ImprovementMay25
    TamesideRequires ImprovementJun26InadequateDec23
    TraffordRequires ImprovementAug26InadequateJun26
    WiganOutstandingMar26GoodOct25

    Trafford has found itself in the unenviable position of receiving two critical inspection reports in quick succession. There’s been a political furore and urgent meetings in the middle of August have had to be scheduled.

    Adult Social Services

    Because all of Greater Manchester’s Adult Services have been inspected in quick succession, I think it’s useful to compare these across Greater Manchester.

    Most of our neighbours have been rated as ‘Good’.

    Wigan are rated as ‘Outstanding’.

    Salford have been given an ‘Inadequate’ mark.

    That leaves Tameside and Trafford as ‘Requiring Improvement’.

    Children’s Services

    The inspections into Children’s Services have been taking place over a much longer period going back to 2023. Trafford is the only Greater Manchester Council that’s had an inspection this year. Trafford’s Children’s Services have been rated as inadequate.

    The opening paragraph of the inspection report is corruscating.

    Since the previous inspection in 2022, when services in Trafford were judged as requires improvement to be good, leaders have been ineffective in recognising, prioritising and making improvements to some service shortfalls.

    Practice with children in care and for some care-experienced young people has improved, but there has been a serious deterioration in service areas, such as front door response. This has left some children at risk of harm.

    This is serious. Yes, there’s some positive comments in sections of the report, but those opening paragraphs are damning.

    But surely Tameside is in the same place as Trafford?

    It’s true that Tameside has received the same combination, but the three year time lapse has made it noticeably less febrile there. Maybe, that’s somewhat unfair, but we can’t make Tameside react differently.

    So, where does that leave us?

    Trafford have issued a public response to the Ofsted report.

    Work is already under way to strengthen children’s services.

    … improving decision-making and management oversight at the Front Door, where contacts and referrals are first received and assessed…

    …focusing on specific areas identified in the inspection, the response to children at risk of significant harm, safety planning, support for 16 and 17 year old homeless children, young carers…

    Democratic oversight will be provided by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee.

    I welcome the involvement of Scrutiny. Shirley Procter as chair of Children’s scrutiny has a wealth of experience of children’s services. There is no one better to run with this.

    However, I can’t help reflecting on the council’s suspension of all scrutiny for a big part of last year. I hope the leadership will reflect on their tendency to close down oversight whenever there’s opportunity. I suspect scrutiny would have brought some of these issues to the fore ahead of Ofsted.

    The speed with which questioning of the Executive was suppressed during the Mayoral election suggests the openness promised in the response may not be observed in practice. This is not a council executive characterised by its inclusive governance.

    The Extraordinary Council Meetings

    The Council Meeting will take place on the 26th August, the meeting of Children’s scrutiny precedes it on the 25th. Of the two, the scrutiny is likely to be by far the more constructive. It really depends how open the Executive is to its shortcomings, and to the extent to which it is receptive to advice.

    The Conservatives have already made it clear that they are pursuing the resignation of the Labour Leader, Tom Ross, at the Council Meeting.

    Is there a case for resignations?

    The objective argument is whether the resignation of the leader allows a more proactive examination of how to deliver these services to the required standard.

    I don’t think one ought to be sentimental about this. I’ve seen leaders hang on when circumstances conspire. It’s the party that loses as a consequence.

    A shift to inclusivity might well entail some changes to personnel. However, I don’t think it will happen. In fact, the Tory approach makes even less likely to happen. The council will divide on party lines and the leadership will receive a vote of confidence.

    That potential vote of confidence is troubling. You can’t draw a simple line under a verdict that ‘there has been a serious deterioration in service areas, such as front door response. This has left some children at risk of harm.’

    I would prefer the Conservatives to avoid a vote on resignations. They are entitled to make capital. It ought to be an opportunity for constructive input.

    Can we be assured that the risk of harm will be mitigated?

    The inspection has provoked a response across social media from carers and young people that have interacted with children’s services. I wouldn’t call it an explosion, but there’s certainly been some.

    We really need the voices of people who’ve been engaged with Children’s Services to be heard. They won’t be served by a political bun fight and obfuscation.

    We really need to be shining a light on how things are put right. The risk is that the opposite will happen and the matter is locked down.

  • Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights

    Putting Trafford Together Again: Election Insights

    The recent local election results have reshaped Trafford’s political landscape. Voter turnout increased significantly from last time, reflecting the strength of the message voters were sending. The Green Party has emerged as the most popular in Trafford, but the electoral map suggests an upcoming period of no overall control. It is unlikely that this situation will reverse in the near future.

    From Wikipedia: Trafford UK ward map 2026 – 2026 Trafford Metropolitan Borough Council election – Wikipedia

    Several incumbents were unseated by new challengers, signalling a clear demand for change. The extent to which this reflects a desire for a change in government, or a shift within Trafford itself remains to be seen. What is certain is that it was never an endorsement to continue as before.

    Sadly, I think Tom Ross, the leader of Trafford’s Labour Group has given himself too little time to reflect on changes that could improve the party’s local fortune. He’s made minimal change to an executive that too often takes a back seat to both the leader and to senior officers. He’s got to be prepared to show the door to those underperforming and not wait for the electorate to do the job for him, particularly since the electorate have just demonstrated that they will often take out the better members of his team.

    The loss of two good cabinet members has forced a minimal change on Tom and I do welcome the promotions of Keleigh Glenton and Barry Winstanley to the executive. I just think Tom should have made deeper changes. We have been hopeless at communicating on the most basic universal services that the public judges us by.

    The Labour Party has lost the art of talking to and listening to people. How often do our lead members go out in front of residents to explain the state of their roads or why bins are not emptied etc? Their answer to everything is to tell us report, but there’s no engagement on the question as to how it’s allowed to happen in the first place. Too often it feels like we’re dealing with a pencil monitor. You need the right chit or you won’t make progress. If we do the right thing, jump through the right hoops to report and it’s still not done, then you can go to your ward councillor, but they never get an answer as to why it’s allowed to happen in the first place.

    There’s genuine opportunities to improve the relationship with voters, but it won’t be done via short form videos on TikTok and Instagram. It requires lead members who genuinely look like they take responsibility for their service areas, are willing to go out and engage with the public, take some flak, show some empathy and follow up.

    Labour’s on course to lose control of Trafford Council next year. It has a choice to just carry on as it is doing and blame it all on Labour’s national leadership or it can start properly communicating and explaining how it’s meeting various challenges.

    Featured image created by Gemini AI: https://gemini.google.com/share/84281c664184

  • One week to go

    One week to go

    There’s an election going on. Who’d know it?

    It’s a daily conversation on the media. We’re told it’s going to be a defining moment. Yet in Trafford, speaking for myself, in Lostock and Barton ward, it doesn’t feel to have caught alight.

    I know the Labour team here have been working hard, I’ve even delivered a couple of leaflet rounds myself, but where’s the buzz? And ok, I’d like to think we’ve worked hard as Labour for the ward, but we know that Brand-Labour is not at peak popularity, so why is it so quiet?

    I’ve seen a few Green Party posters and garden stakes, so there’s some activity out there and they’re on record as saying they’re targeting Longford ward. I received a national leaflet from their party, but nothing local.

    I know Reform voters will be an element in this election. Reform have been the big winners in council by-elections this past 12 months. However, those by-election wins were not achieved under the radar. They employed the exact same methods that the established parties apply. We all saw them pile into Gorton and Denton. Yes, I know they have their own TV station and are skilled in social media, so they’re not without election resources that are being applied in Lostock and Barton, but there’s still no substitute for knocking on doors. I think Reform will be delighted to get to 250 votes here.

    The Conservative Party in Trafford is an enigma. They remain the natural challenge to Labour in Lostock and Barton, but they’re flailing. The centre ground abandoned, I see no evidence of a strategy to capture the agenda beyond riding the occasional wave of discontent.

    Making up the five parties, we have the Forward with Timperley Party standing as Lib Dems here. I’m being rude, but they really do need take an interest in life outside Timperley. If anybody here has received engagement from the Lib Dems, I’ll take that back.

    I think the energy of an election can be a good thing that enables the repair of a party to begin, but where is that energy? The demographics of Trafford still have favourable segments for Labour, the so called Urban progressives and those with young families, for example. So, it will retain a good portion of its vote. At the same time, those segments moving away from Labour are spreading themselves thinly across too many alternatives. There’s a sense that Labour are braced for a trap-door to open, but watching their opponents fight over the lever. I don’t know how it will pan out but my feeling is that the lever will be barely pulled.

    Most of the postal votes are already in I think, so for many the election is over. But where was the debate, where was the challenge?

    Elections are a time to scrutinise.

    I want to celebrate Labour’s family hubs, the sure start centres of today, but I want the party to be challenged on whether they’re reaching every family that needs them.

    We’ve seen a lot of road patching in the last couple of months, are we extracting value for money? Are the patches going to last? Are they sufficient quality? Other parties should give their alternative approaches.

    Labour at least has a manifesto. I have not been able to find a manifesto from any of the other parties standing here in Lostock and Barton. Isn’t that appalling!

    I want to know how other parties propose how to address Trafford’s continuing budget deficit. Trafford’s Conservatives have put together a video at least touching upon the issue, even if their identified waste had no connection to the budget.

    Despite the absence of contesting programs, the one thing I will guarantee is that all parties that don’t lose all their seats, will see the election as ringing endorsement of every approach each party adopts for the next 12 months.

    Lastly, despite my criticism of each and every party, the greatest culpability probably lies with ourselves. We don’t have to allow this state of affairs. We’ve never had greater ability to hold hustings and publicise them. We have allowed ourselves to be passive observers of an election when it’s our only chance to hold our borough’s leadership to account. It doesn’t have to be like this.

    Prediction Votes

    Most Votes across Trafford Labour Party
    2ndGreen Party
    3rdConservative Party
    4thReform Party
    5thLiberal Democratic Party

    I’m not going to predict seats. There’s some close ones, so it’ll be interesting nonetheless.

    Photo by Tom Fisk from Pexels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/vehicles-racing-on-a-racetrack-12646461/