Category: Trafford Council

An update of the past fortnight

Lovely afternoon with Laurence Walsh and his family and then onto the Euro count…!

The Euro results don’t look any better two weeks later. Within weeks of taking control in Trafford and Jeremy Corbyn anointing us as the the campaign backdrop his Leader’s response , we slip to third. More importantly we’ve given easy passage to an overnight Lib Dem recovery.

Meetings attended

• Street Audit (cycling) bit disappointing – more of a cheat sheet than a street audit, but the Chorlton town centre work looks fabulous. I do hope Manchester goes ahead with it.
• Gorse Hill Ward meet with Chief Executive, Sara Todd. The big focus from the three councillors was Manchester United – largely because United haven’t exactly engaged at a local level but they’re beginning to talk at a strategic level.
  Early days, but United’s new chief operating officer is Collette Roche has a strong reputation forged at Manchester Airport. That background suggests someone well used to having to carve good community relations.

  

  I speak as a City fan but I think it’s fair to say that the Manchester United off-pitch operation looks terribly dated. Our complaints as ward councillors are the urination, littering and parking issues (including the illegal organised stuff) that we all know about.
  These issues may be local but they can’t be good for United’s global image. It’s got to be in the club’s business interest to bring the off-pitch match day experience up to global standards.
  Let’s see how that goes.

Other meetings

• Road Safety meeting regarding Winchester Road – St Hugh of Lincoln – options discussed
• Match Day management meeting – raised the issue of rats, litter bins at bus stops, and the illegal removal/defacing of parking restriction signs.
• Labour Group meeting
• Task and Finish Group on Climate Emergency and carbon reduction – This was my first meeting of this group although it’s been going for 6 months.
  Really keen to get up to speed on this. It may be that the subject matter is too big for scrutiny. We will need to do interim reports as we’re not going to solve the conundrum but we can be recommending implementing small things as we go.
• School Pupil Disciplinary Panel
• Walkabout in Trafford Park with the Environmental Team and Amey (who didn’t show)
  These are regular walkabouts so I rewalked areas I’d walked 18 months ago. No improvement, in fact things are much worse. I don’t see any impact whatsoever.
  

  

  Trafford Park Village Shops look actually to be thriving and it’s great to see a lovely looking Burmese Cafe but the grounds maintenance is simply not happening. The Trafford Park Hotel is being criminally neglected in my view and it is such a shame. So a few action points arising.

Casework

• Sevenways is never out of my inbox these days but it has slowed the traffic down there unlike…
• Park Road – Davyhulme Road speeding – continuing to pursue remedy
• Houses of Multiple Occupation – ongoing
• Gorse Hill Medical Practice – the inadequate rating has been confirmed and we’re waiting a comprehensive communication process to assist patients.
• Trafford Park Village – parking issues and clearance
• Pursuing bins on Chester Road at Taylors Road bus stops and replacement bin at Lidl – rats are getting through holes at bottom.
• Cenotaph – Amey have been to strim the weeds back. They’re going to replant flower beds in next couple of weeks. Paving weeds are going to be an increasing problem as glyphosate is withdrawn and we need a dialogue over expectations.

Saturday

Two sessions of campaigning in Davyhulme.

Issues raised included George Carnall, leaf clearing, potholes and road resurfacing. My sense is that voters are willing to give Trafford Labour more time and appreciate that only Labour is willing to listen.

Sunday

Growing ever more frustrated with parliament and the inability of the parties there to deal with Brexit. The nonsense coming out of mouths on the various front-benches is shocking. Those who pronounce proudly and authoritatively that there’s no parliamentary majority for ‘no deal’ miss the point that ‘no deal’ is not a thing to support, it’s the absence of a thing to support.  Brexit will not deliver the Transitional Program beloved of 2nd rate university staff-rooms. If mainstream politics is collapsing in on itself,  we all suffer.

Monday

Council Executive, plus various briefings; a really worthwhile day. Looking forward to the arrival of Sara Todd as Trafford’s new chief executive. Hearing only good things about Sara. I believe she has a background in planning but respected across the board.

Tuesday

Debate over Trafford’s civic quarter masterplan continues. Some are missing the point that masterplans are roughly 80% about what should not be built in a place and about 20% in communicating a vision about how what can be built might link together. There are some who argue that that the civic quarter masterplan should be scrapped; perversely because they don’t want any development.

Wednesday

Full council meeting: big item is the Breaking Point motion. The £1.6bn cut to next year’s local government funding must be reversed. Whilst it’s a Labour campaign, only Trafford’s Tories failed to support the motion. The cuts to local government are an act of safe harm. No area of public spending is more important for the general welfare of the country. More cuts to street cleansing, social care, support for families, bins and we’re seeing crime rise, filthy streets, grids that no longer drain. The vitality of the country is fundamentally weakened by this ill-conceived policy. Time to reverse the harm they’ve imposed on us.

Thursday

Caught up on the outcomes of the previous evening’s public meeting in Old Trafford regarding the private car park on Seymour Grove. Lots of constituents have received tickets for legitimate parking to shop at Iceland and Superdrug and then followed up with very aggressive fines.

The two people I’ve been supporting through this had attended and it was good to hear it had gone well.

Library volunteering in the afternoon.

Friday

No major meetings caught up with a few things.