We should fight unfair cuts where we can. And if we lose, it should spur us on to getting even better facilities and services for our neighbourhoods through our own common endeavour. Looks at new takes on old approaches.

Fighting

Gorse Hill residents have successfully made the case for saving the crossing patrol on Chester Road. That’s brilliant news and congratulations to all involved! 

Glimmers of Hope

Work goes on to try to save something out of Lostock’s Library and Youth Club together with Gorse Hill Studios. either through drawing in outside support or income generation from services provided there. And at the same time, a community enterprise is emerging from the council’s disposal of Stretford Public Hall. So, here and there are glimmers of hope that not everything is lost.

Raising the Funds

The search is on for alternative funding models based largely outside local authority funding. 

Grant Providers

Much of the focus is on grant giving organisations such as the Heritage Lottery Fund, Big Lottery, Sports England; or local grant providers such as Trafford Housing Trust. However, it’s a competitive market and it’s unlikely that all projects will be able to get the funds they need from grant providers.

Advantages of Grant Funding

• Some Big Chunks of Money
• Additional Non Financial support from funder
• Small number of lead members required to write bid
• Bid process brings focus on outcomes

Criticisms

• Focus on what’s bad about a neighbourhood rather than what’s good.
• Less focus on widespread support or local accountability
• The Funders’ agenda becomes as important as the Local Agenda 

Cutting out the Council
…..and going for it yourselves!

The new kid on the block for local funding is crowdsourcing. It’s best when you’re appealing for a fixed cost rather than ongoing. It’s come of age with the internet, though it could be argued that its roots go much further back. In fact many of Greater Manchester’s parks were financed in this way and even New York’s Statue of Liberty.

Even closer to home is our own Stretford Public Hall who too are seeking much needed donations to move to the next stage to in reopening the hall as exciting vibrant resource. They need and deserve everyone’s support. Please make a donation here.

Advantages

• Inclusive, gives ownership to the whole community
• Tests whether community really want project
• Helps attract matched funding

Criticisms

• Huge publicity and promotion input
• Favours populist projects as against perhaps a worthy minority need
• Uncertainty prior to target being reached

Conclusion

There will be some who say we shouldn’t be getting involved, it’s for the state to provide these services; we’re doing the Tory dirty work for them. I disagree. In fact I’d say some of this goes back to the roots of socialism and the Friendly Societies, Trades Unions and Guilds from which emerged the Labour Party. There’s real opportunities for today’s Trade Unions as well as businesses to get themselves involved.

The limited services the council provided never served more than a fraction of the people they should have. There are plenty of dangerous crossings that have never seen a school crossing patrol and two youth centres were never going to satisfy the whole of Stretford. As for libraries, they really could be on the street corner if enough people want them to be.

Think about you want in your neighbourhood, and make it happen!

image: planning the barn https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6898d281bf84819180f81158caeadbc7

This post has caused me 40 minutes messing. It’s such a nice photo. It sort of sums up what Gorse Hill is about. I didn’t take the photo. All can I can say is the Gorgeous Gorse Hill movement is taking off and if you’ve not become part of it – it’s never too late.

I was very pleased to attend the launch of the green buses on the 256 route a little while back. This is a welcome change to the service. These green buses switch to electric running in cruise. It’s an important route to Stagecoach carrying a million passenger journeys. It’s an important route to us as well connecting one part of the ward to the other, and onwards to town.

Gorse Hill is on the map with new appointment for Dave

David Acton is the new Chairman of Greater Manchester’s award-winning Fire and Rescue Authority. In leading the Authority, Councillor Acton is joined by Vice Chairman, Councillor Henry Cooper.

The appointment was made at a meeting of the Fire Authority held earlier today. Cllr Acton has been a member of the Fire Authority since 2008. He is a Councillor for Trafford MBC, where he served as leader from 1997-2004 and is currently leader of the Labour Group in Trafford.

Speaking on his appointment as Chairman of the Fire and Rescue Authority, Cllr Acton commented:

I am very honoured and privileged to be elected Chair of this Fire Authority and look forward to working with colleagues, senior officers, staff and trade unions to deliver the best possible service, recognising the very difficult challenges ahead in these austere times. I am grateful for the opportunity to make a difference with all the staff and Fire Authority working together to move the Service forward.

Welcoming the Chairman of the Fire Authority, County Fire Officer Steve McGuirk acknowledged the challenges and opportunities that the Fire Authority will be facing: “We have always worked closely with our elected members and this strong relationship will be critical as together we strive to maintain, and in some areas improve, the service that we deliver to our communities.

Creativity amongst the Carbuncles

Last week I took the chance whilst waiting for a meeting to look out over Media City from one of the best viewpoints – Quay West, our own temporary town hall. The officer I was meeting caught me staring out across the span of water and skyscrapers and remarked

“It’s an impressive view, isn’t it Councillor!”.

My reply surprised her;

“The Quays lack something, they’re soulless, they’ve been so controlled, they’ve designed out bustle, there’s nothing going on except what the developers and the two councils provide. They need to let go.”

This week we learn that ‘The Carbuncle Cup’ , named after Prince Charles’s infamous comments, and awarded by the architectural magazine ‘Building Design’ to the worst realised projects of the year, has been won by our very own ‘Media City’. The judges’ comments are scathing;

They said the waterside site location – alongside the Lowry arts centre and the Imperial War Museum North

– appeared to have everything going for it, but failed to realise the urban aspiration indicated by its name.

The overwhelming sense is one of extreme anxiety on the part of the architects about the development’s isolation from the centre of Manchester.

The incessant visual excitement reads as a desperate attempt to compensate for an underlying lack of urban vitality.

And damningly,

“How uncreative can a ‘Creative Quarter’ be? And which truly creative person would ever want to work in such a place?

I’m pleased with these comments. They are a very loud wake up call.

Cutting through the scathing hyperbole of the judges’ criticisms over the clash of claddings used on buildings, the core of both their comments this week and mine last week are the same. The place lacks a buzz. It needs the sparks of creativity that will only happen if we enable small scale businesses, cafés, even burger and kebab stalls to set up. We have got to stop believing that a sculpture trail is going to entice people to walk around the Quays. Instead I’d rather we removed all requirements to license street peddlers in the area, in fact I’d like to allow stalls to be set up wherever one can be squeezed in.

I hope the reaction to this indictment isn’t just a defensive sneer at southern judges, but is taken as a positive stimulus to look below the skyscrapers and look instead at the empty promenades and squares on both banks of the Quays.If you want creativity, you’re going to need the bustle of the bazaar rather than the zombification of Lowry outlets and a sculpture trail.

Next week it’s Stretford at the Council

At next week’s Council Meeting we are scheduled to debate Stretford Town Centre following the loss of TJ Hughes from the centre. We are calling for support to be given to the town centre:

As land owners of Stretford Mall this Council recognises the need to support the future of the Mall for the benefit of the local economy, jobs and local community. We are concerned at the recent announcement of the closure of TJ Hughes and the empty shop units on Chester Road. We therefore call on the Council to support, utilising a proportion of the rental income it receives from the Mall, initiatives which will help to stimulate the Mall. This could include such joint initiatives as the development of a lay-by on Chester Road next to the Mall and improvements to the Mall itself etc.

Stretford town centre frustrates the life out of me. I’m glad we’ve drafted this motion in this manner because usually as soon as you mention Stretford to the Conservatives, you get the response ‘We’d love to support Stretford but it’s cursed by having a blooming great dual carriageway going through it and a privately owned Mall, so we can’t do anything.’ This motion of the Labour Group points to some of the small things that can and should be done now.

I’m convinced we should go further and look outside the box to try to support Stretford in other ways too. One thing never to accept is that such barriers as the A56 or the concrete cladding of a 60s arndale mean that Stretford has to lump it.

The first challenge is to raise our own expectations as to what is possible within the restrictions imposed by the A56 and mall. And where better to get expectations challenged than our universities in their architectural departments? We should commission some design work. Ideally I’d like a business such as Tesco to be the sponsor of work from students. It would be good for the image of Tesco which has taken a bashing locally and good for Stretford to get some blue-sky thinking on what the place could look like with a bit of imagination. I have absolutely no building or architectural background but even I can see that Kingsway could be enhanced if the backs of the old shops were to be renovated to provide a new frontage. What could we do with the Essoldo corner? Let’s ask young people with the skills and imagination boring councillors wouldn’t dream of and prepare to get blown away.

Overall, it’s too easy to label our developments both old and new as carbuncles and then walk away. I believe in creativity that comes not from a grand corporate design but the ingenuity and imagination of people looking at things from the perspective of those who live and use the place, rather than a slick presentation.

Mike Cordingley

Media City, Salford by Ian Taylor, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I am disappointed in the deterioration of this passageway.

I’ve reported it to the council and I’m demanding immediate action to rectify

image: my own

Mike Cordingley