Quite a light week for meetings. Planning committee met on Thursday with a comparatively light agenda, but that was my only obligatory meeting.
We had our monthly advice surgery on the 5th. Since I won’t be standing for re-election next May (2026), potential replacements are proactively getting involved now, ahead of the selection process. I feel awkward. I want to separate myself from choosing a successor. Candidates to replace me had been invited to come along to the advice surgery. I didn’t know in advance. I was very uncomfortable. It’s an odd position to be in.
I hasten to underline that this is just for the Labour candidacy. I never take the voters for granted. The Labour candidate will be selected 31st May. I continue to be a Labour Councillor until 7th May 2026.
In terms of significant casework, I followed up on social media complaints about NHS lists at Revive Dental at Nags Head Circle. NHS patients had been informed they needed to sign up for private provision to remain on a dentist’s roll. We’re seeing this a lot throughout Trafford, but I’ve been asking questions of both Public Health and the Integrated Care Board (NHS).
I was pleased to see clearance of the bike lanes on Barton Dock Road together with some lovely planting of flowers on the verge.
That’s what I call a cycle lane!
They even watered the flowers the following week, so they’ve done a really good job.
Stretford Town Centre
I know the town centre is not Lostock and Barton Ward, but many residents here (including myself) consider themselves proud Stretfordians, and we’re passionately interested in how the regeneration of Stretford meets our needs.
The last vestiges of the Mall close at the end of August. Some businesses, such as Heron and Aldi retain their premises; others will have new premises in the new layout, and others will sadly depart.
I’m particularly sad to see Uplift go. It’s no exaggeration to say that the Uplift café has personified the spirit of Stretford since before Covid. They’ve kept going, they’ve delivered art, craft, music and energy to the community when it’s been most needed.
If you’ve not been following the co-owner Georgie’s video’d walks to work each Saturday on Facebook, you really should dip in and watch a few while they’re online.
Frustratingly, we still don’t have a firm grasp of the grand design for Stretford. We have themes of longer hours and an increase in the night-time economy. There’s an aspiration for independent retail, but at the same time, there’s an expectation of corporate uniformity in terms of operating hours. I know there’s a tension there for some smaller operators who are being asked to commit to the project.
Hopefully, we’ll hear exciting news soon about who’s coming. I think those existing traders need to hear it too.
There’s been good news that Stretford Beach has won an award. It needs café seating and trade, but I like how it might evolve.
In which I look at what makes a town work and why Stretford has waterfront opportunities that it shouldn’t waste.
I don’t want to lie on a beach. I don’t want to swim. Give me a town or small city that I can potter around in, and I’ll happily spend a few days getting to know the place. It’s become my holiday of choice.
The UK has taken a hit since Covid, but there’s still plenty of life in our towns. Tourism plays a part, but being towns means they have to appeal primarily to a local audience. You don’t have to visit many before you see that there are constant markers of what makes a town worth venturing out into.
A town has to have more value than its component parts. Otherwise, it’s effectively a retail park. Tellingly, the most successful towns feel worthwhile visiting whether or not you spend any money at all. They are places to stroll around.
So there has to be a certain scale to a place. If the entire centre can be walked in 10 minutes, the town is not going to have a pull of its own.
The more inherent visual cues a place has, the better. These can be geographic or architectural. We generally agree on whether a town has beauty and interest or whether it’s lacking.
Water often works well.
We are beginning to learn that our brains are hardwired to react positively to water and that being near it can calm and connect us, increase innovation and insight, and even heal what’s broken. Healthy water is crucial to our physiological and psychological well-being, as well as our ecology and economy. We have a “blue mind”.
Céline Cousteau (intro to Blue Mind)
It doesn’t matter whether it’s the sea, a lake, a river, a canal, even a fountain. Water adds to a place.
Trafford is almost defined by its rivers and canals. They provide our boundaries and in the Bridgewater Canal, a spine stretching down from Barton in the north stretching through Stretford, Sale and Altrincham in the south all the way round to Lymm and Warrington in the West.
The canal works well. Sale has made it a vital feature of its town centre. The pubs along the canal are generally surviving against an economic backdrop that is closing so many of our neighbourhood pubs. It might have an industrial heritage but where we’ve opened it out, it works.
However, the planners of Stretford have pulled away from utilising the canalside. They argue that it lacks sufficient frontage, that a retail/leisure development would detract from the revived King Street on the mall site. I think they’re wrong.
The café at the viaduct in Altrincham and from the barge at Brookland do well without the benefit of a town centre to support them. These are small scale operations. The developers have much more space on the canal at Stretford based on just the old sorting office.
I worry that the risk isn’t so much overscaling Stretford as denying it that important critical mass that gives you a stroll around the town centre and gentle walk home.
At some point too, the Essoldo will return to being part of the Stretford offer in one form or another and that might extend the canal frontage on the other side of the bridge.
I don’t want to lose the opportunity to do something exciting with Stretford.
Trying to give a flavour of what’s been happening.
I’ve already written one piece on Trafford’s finances, so I want to report on some other things that have been going on, but for a councillor, the February budget-setting meeting is probably the most important on the calendar. It didn’t feel like that last week and the headline references the lack of focus coming from the other parties
I also want to mention some of the more interesting things that have been happening locally. The story that everyone’s had an opinion on is the Stretford sun loungers, but I also want to celebrate Lostock Park’s outdoor gym because I’ve been using it.
The Davyhulme Park scheme was part of the Urmston Active Neighbourhood, a project that aims to develop a safe and attractive walking and cycling network for the Urmston area. The wider project is community-led and is being developed by One Trafford Partnership. The project aims to encourage people to make walking and cycling a natural choice for shorter journeys, which will improve their health and the air quality in the area.
The Davyhulme scheme would have seen heavy planters like those above installed on several roads in the area to prevent through traffic between Lostock Circle and Urmston Town Centre. The problem was that the road closures imposed more problems on the people living in the area than on through traffic. The community fed back on the plans to this effect and the Davyhulme Scheme is now cancelled and won’t be revived.
Lostock Park
Hiptwister
The park already boasts the best skateboard facility in Trafford, but they’re by no means finished.
Lostock Park’s newly installed outdoor gym is breathtaking. Without doubt it is the best outdoor gym in the north of Trafford and probably for many miles around. The winter rain has made it a little squelchy in one patch but hopefully, once the grass re-establishes itself that will sort itself.
It’s been ideal for me. After having my heart attack at the end of September, I’m trying to boost my fitness. I’m doing cardiac rehab at the George Carnall centre on a Thursday which is great, but I need a daily exercise. I have never been to an indoor gym and to be honest, it doesn’t appeal, but I do like these outdoor machines. The instructions are on the machines and I think I’m using them effectively. Today was my third consecutive day there and I believe they call it a burn, but I’m definitely feeling it.
The Friends of Lostock Park have once again excelled at getting investment in without fuss and making a real difference. Given so much they have delivered is health and fitness orientated, they’re really making a difference.
Trafford’s Budget
Budget Council took place last week (21st February). This key date on the council calendar always generates much excitement. Over the years the chamber has seemed to fizz, spark and crackle with fierce rival parties throwing verbal grenades about the opening hours of a library or some other highly contentious policy choice from the ruling group of the day.
This year turned out rather dull despite the extreme gravity of the council’s current financial position. The three opposition parties each proposed amendments to the budget proposals.
The Conservatives proposed using latest JCB equipment on potholes
The Lib Dems proposed free car parking in Timperley.
The Green Party proposed using number plate recognition technology to identify parents taking their children to school in a car.
I can see a degree of merit in all the opposition proposals. We do need more innovation from Amey, car park charges shouldn’t undermine trade in Timperley – (we can keep an eye on it). Finally, we do need to encourage walking to school but I worry about the surveillance culture.
However, the real problem with these budget amendments is that they don’t address the precipitous financial predicament we’re in. We’re using £5.6m of reserves to plug the gap in this coming financial year. The rise in council tax brings in £3.6m plus £2.4m for the social care element. That £5.6m from reserves is going to leave a hole we’ll have to fill next year before we even think of trying to keep up with rising costs. Even increasing council tax next year will just about cover the £5.6m. But at the same time, we have a Designated School Grant (DSG) time-bomb that’s currently cushioned by a ‘statutory override’ – essentially an instruction from the government not to make it active in the accounts until March 2026 when it won’t be this government’s problem.
The budget report section on the statutory override says at 1.5.12
“However, the statutory override is only in place to 31 March 2026. At this point, if there is no further extension, Trafford’s accumulated DSG deficit has potential to be greater than the Council’s total reserves in which case it would be technically insolvent and mean a S114 would be required.”
Paragraph 1.5.12 in Trafford’s budget report
I used a picture of Mr Micawber to illustrate a blog piece on the council finances. I honestly don’t know if something will indeed turn up. Our saving grace is that we’re not alone, but it felt like if we all pretended that everything will turn out right, then it probably would.
The block is closing. It’s a mammoth task to find appropriate new homes for over 100 tenancies. A lot of progress has been made and we’ve worked with L&Q along this path. Hopefully, we’ll have it all done ahead of time. I think they’ve made some real progress. We’ve been very impressed with the work that Kerry and the other officers have put into this and many residents are already fixed up.
Stretford Sun Loungers
The work to transform what used to be Stretford Arndale/Mall continues as does the reshaping of Kingsway.
It’s fair to say the new stylised seating has been a talking point. The Daily Mail has taken a pop at us for installing “Benidorm-style sun loungers. It was a bit of a shock to see them. Despite representing a part of Stretford that is key that is key to its vibrancy, infuriatingly Lostock and Barton councillors don’t get consulted on our town centre. Nevertheless, I like them and I want more.
Seating is a vital part of bringing our streets back to life. Places to sit and talk are a vital part of a liveable town. It doesn’t rain all the time. A few years back TfGM were removing seats from bus shelters. Seats were seen as a problem. Seats are never the problem, it’s the lack of facilities for young people that is the problem. Seats that allow conversations are always a good thing.
I don’t know whether the transformation of the mall will work. Even if the Mall regeneration eventually fails I’d still be supportive of the provision of seating. I know my friends at my physio class were laughing at those sun beds. The interesting thing about that conversation was they were all sat down laughing at it. Conversations are better sat down and I’ve seen more smiles on Kingsway this week than I have done in a long time.
General Casework Roundup
I’ve had a variety of casework recently.
Dog Poo in path between Ely Ave and Barton Road. This is a particular blight on a daily schedule. It’s clearly a big dog and no attempt to clear the mess is taking place. (ongoing)
Rehousing issue (currently dormant whilst other solutions explored)
Hedging Issue (ongoing)
A number of drainage issues in roads (ongoing)
They will be missed
We have lost two veteran champions for the area. Ann Day and Tony Lloyd will be hugely missed.
Ann, John in the background and myself at Lostock Library
Ann was chair of Lostock High School, chair of Trafford health watch and championed local communities throughout her life. She was generous and always working. A huge loss to this area and her lovely family.
I will miss Ann terribly.
Tony Lloyd was our MP when I first joined the Labour Party. He was a Labour man in the true sense of the word. The tributes from all corners of political life say everything that needs to be said about him.
I suppose I ought to make a full disclosure: l am on the record as preferring the demolition of the Mall and pretty much most of King Street apart from the former Post Office.
I felt the old town centre was turned in on itself and didn’t even attempt to capture passing walking trade coming from the Metrolink or bus connections. I overwhelmingly lost that argument. The majority wanted to retain and improve salvageable assets in the then-existing layout. I get that and I’m happy to support the regeneration of the town centre via the retention of parts of the Mall that have had the roof removed.
Generally, I think there’s a consensus that the centre should be smaller and that the night-time economy; restaurants, entertainment and bars should play an increasing role. There’s a general acceptance the space created in reducing the Mall can be used for housing. Nevertheless, it’s vital that the town centre continues its day job of performing as a place for routine shopping and services. I sense that the scale of retail is still not settled.
We know that King Street is the retail heart of the centre and that links via King St Square to Quality Save and Little King Street next to the multi-storey car park.
Known retail arteries of redeveloped town centre
What I don’t know is what is going on around that new ‘central park’ just below the multi-storey. If those blocks are purely residential I think we have a problem. On the other hand, if the ground floors are taken up by prime retail like Marks and Spencer, or similar then that changes everything.
This image below hints at shop fronts surrounding the central park. I wish they were more explicit as it makes all the difference to my thoughts on the Central Park in the consultation below.
Consultation
The latest consultation covers three aspects. It covers:
the maximum heights of apartment blocks,
the realignment of the central park strip of green space.
a revision in car-parking to retain surface parking for Aldi,
Maximum Heights
The architecture is important. The consultation is on a desire to increase the height of blocks close to the centre to 12 storeys. This is still 3 storeys shy of Circle Court at Lostock Circle, so it’s hardly massive. And while Circle Court became hard to update, it was never the scale that was the problem. It was a very popular block with tenants.
Judging by public submissions, however, not to mention social media, these medium-sized towers do seem incredibly unpopular with Stretford residents. My problem is that they’re hidden away. I really want Stretford to have active frontages facing on Kingsway and Chester Road. The interior elements of the centre should be peeping out and enticing me to shop. The apartments should work with the retail elements to put people and movement in at ground level.
It doesn’t look at this stage that the residential is integrated with the retail elements very much at all. As a whole, the development looks to be zoned. I don’t mind the heights so much as the fact residential elements are not working with the retail elements as much as I had anticipated.
I’m hoping the computer-generated images are just illustrative. There are many examples of really good integration between retail and residential. It’s nothing new, Paris managed this more than 100 years ago.
Reorientation of Central Park
We were discussing this on Facebook. I think we came to the conclusion that it would work better as a paved square area. I wonder if the aspiration for green space is working against good design. It does deserve to be the prime area in the whole development with the best retail units.
Aldi retail surface car park
I hate this proposal. It cuts Aldi off leaving no interplay with the town centre. The ‘left-turn in, left-turn out’ proposal is awful, putting more traffic onto the roads, looking for somewhere to do a U-turn. Lastly, the car park itself works as barrier for those walking from the Sevenways direction.
Summing Up
On the whole, this is still exciting. I’m not sure the consultation has helped. It’s not easy to consult on heights of buildings without understanding how the buildings interact with the centre. All the focus has been on King Street and Little King Street. The town centre is so much more than this. I can’t pretend to like the arrangement with Aldi but there are hints there are contractual obligations that have to be met. I’d love to see Central Park become a town square with good quality retail on four sides. I’m still hopeful.
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.
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