Category: Uncategorized

Scrutinised: Highway Spend
A notable scrutiny meeting took place on the 12th March looking at some of the issues that most exercise residents:
- How highway interventions such as crossings, yellow lines etc. are prioritised
- Pothole repairs and pavement maintenance
- Leaf and Gully Clearance
- Preventing Accidents
It was the Scrutiny Committee’s attempt at clarity and transparency in the prioritisation of interventions on a limited budget. I think the scrutiny committee made some progress.

The video of the meeting is worth watching.

Link to Youtube Recording

Summary of Meeting

Matrix Prioritisation

There was considerable focus from the committee on why certain projects get to the top of the list and others are held back. The example pursued by the committee was ‘double yellow lines’, something that requires a traffic regulation order (TRO). The presentation included a couple of matrices (shown above), but the officers hadn’t submitted all of them and they promised to follow up by submitting the TRO matrix.

Even without the relevant matrix I think we can get a picture of how proposals are scored. But then it got slightly more complicated.
- Sometimes opportunities arose to attach the job to another funding stream (examples included Active Travel and the Sale West and Altrincham Network Infrastructure project (Swani)). This could work both ways, bringing forward some projects but holding back others where a cross benefit project might be ‘anticipated’.
- Finance – I’m hoping they score cost v benefit in all cases, but the nature of yearly budgeting means it is sometimes only possible to do smaller works
There followed a degree of interogation on whether other interventions could push a project up to the top of the list, a senior councillor’s intervention or a popular petition heard in council.

Overall on Traffic Matrices

Essentially, we’re arguing over crumbs. The allocated budgets are so small that it’s hard to see some worthwhile schemes ever happening. We ought to have transparency regardless of the budget. These decisions are far less complex than officers and lead councillors protest. I don’t have a problem that political imperative might play a part in decisions as long as we can see that it has been applied.

The public are seeing comparatively vast amounts put into active travel. Whilst that is an entirely separate budget, I think the public want to see objectivity and prudence applied to those schemes too.

I would like to see all the various matrices and projects published on the council’s website. We’re going to have seek solutions to this growing backlog of work and the more we can be upfront about it, the better.

Two thirds of our footpaths are functionally impaired

Footways v Highways

“Footways are obviously a big priority for us, but we have to first and foremost , go with the safety issue and where we can have the most impact on safety. So, the fast majority goes on the ABC network and not on the U class network.” – Chris Morris

Generally, this is fair. If it was just four-wheeled motor vehicles, I could argue that damaged urban roads reduce speed and improve safety, but the effect of a pothole on two-wheeled vehicles can have fatal repercussions.

Nevertheless, our footways are in an unacceptable condition. This is a critical element of our activity supporting infrastructure that’s unusable for a lot of people and it’s getting worse.

Pothole repairs

My colleague, Cllr Simon Thomas, raised the quality of pothole repairs. He said he was astounded that we were not sealing the potholes and argued that we should also cutting the hole square for a better fix.

Cllr Thomas on Potholes

I’m not sure I understand the response from officers in terms of the specific question, but I do get that the underlying condition of the road is the primary concern of the road engineers since the pothole is only the visible manifestation of a larger condition deterioration. That said, if pothole repairs are disintegrating within a short space of time, we need to know.

Vision Zero / Road Safety

Greater Manchester has talked a good talk on reducing serious injury on our roads, but I really haven’t seen proactive responses. I thought the most interesting comment was that Trafford officers described the Vision Zero team as being ‘resourced’ (as Trafford sees when they regularly meet). My take is that we need to see output from ‘Vision Zero.

Resources:

Presentations submitted to the Scrutiny Committee

Presentation PDF

Traffic Regulation Order Scrutiny Jan 24

I’ve only skimmed the surface of the information submitted to Scrutiny Committee, but I’ve tried to pick out the key elements that are of concern to residents. It’s well worth watching the whole exchange. By all means add your comments below and I’ll try and respond.
April 2, 2025
This is not the way to do it! (welfare reform)

Reform is needed. The number of people on benefits due to ill health has increased exponentially. Long waiting times within the NHS are contributing to this, but they aren’t the whole story.

The government has clearly determined that financial incentives to be ‘on the sick’ rather than unemployed contribute to this. If this was all they were looking at, I think there would be room for useful reform, but only at the edges.

The government has instead chosen a stark change to Personal Independence Payments. Applicants will need to achieve a single 4-point score in the daily living assessments.

Daily Living Activities

The Resolution Foundation think tank said the tightening of PIP eligibility would mean between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 per year by the end of the decade. That’s a big change. My colleague, Cllr James Wright has pointed out that Pip often enables work rather than compensating the lack of it.

James is a passionate Wolves fan*.

I am worried that Rachel Reeves is relying on the wrong advisers. There are welfare changes that would make sense, bringing prescription charges in line with state pension age, for example. She seems to have bought into the line that we can solve the economy by removing welfare rather than reforming work, which is what is really needed.

Rachel would benefit from listening to Sean Farrington of the BBC. His radio programme ‘Payslip Britain’ highlights the extent to which work and lack of control within it is damaging our wellbeing. Nine million people not in work and not looking for work is a mindblowing figure. I remember the UK reaching a million unemployed in the seventies. It was considered a seismic change. If work is negatively affecting our well-being, I’m not sure that being cruel to disabled people is going to motivate people back into work.

Sean Farrington is a passionate Wolves Fan*

Listen to Payslip Britain

For the avoidance of doubt, were I to be given a vote, I would vote against the changes to PIP.

*I only mention the Wolves allegiances, so that both could be reassured that they weren’t alone in this world or Manchester. 😊But this radio programme is a must listen!

April 1, 2025
Council’s Annual Budget Meeting

Trafford’s annual budget meeting is traditionally the biggest set-piece event of the council year. It typically stages a buoyant ruling party, setting out delivery of its priorities, against the harping of a grieving opposition party. This year, however, felt decidedly different in mood.

This was a difficult budget. Trafford has had to be granted a borrowing facility in order for its finance officer to sign the budget off as ‘robust’. We’ve also been allowed to increase council tax a little more than our neighbouring councils. Whilst that’s a tricky position, it does feel to me as though Trafford is being allowed to begin navigating a course back to sustainability after having been cut adrift by the previous government, whereby an already frugal council was denied the ability to steer clear of rocks.

So, I think I’m probably somewhat more optimistic than the majority of councillors speaking in the budget debate on Monday evening.

A good thing that has emerged from Trafford’s current financial plight is that there is more openness about how Trafford spends council tax payers’ money. We are still short of total clarity, but there’s been a definite positive shift. That transparency will be a prerequisite for pulling out of this. We have to take the public with us.

I’d really like us to complain less about how Trafford is somehow singled out by central government for unfair settlements. If we say it’s unfair then we’ve got to design a formula that gives Trafford more compared to a more deprived borough like Knowsley, a borough regularly cited in council documents. The simple fact is that Governments of both the left and right expect comparatively affluent boroughs to use local residents for income. Whilst the design of council tax has internal flaws, even with reform, Trafford will still be left needing to levy its citizens. So, whatever the form of that local taxation, keeping it low will carry the same risks the next time a government sets limits on how much it can be increased. I don’t believe Local Government Finance reform is going to be our salvation. This issue will return again next year.

Given the preponderance of adult social service demands in depleting the council’s finances, it was surprising only Liberal Democrat councillor Simon Lepori raised the delay in its reform as an issue. He made a good point. It was a shame his party chose, as it usually does, to pick a completely irrelevant diversionary proposal as its budget amendment. The opposition parties struggled. There was no alternative budget proposal and that Lib Dem amendment was effectively about independence for Timperley.

Although the budget passed, the work to keep costs down will have to be a daily obsession for the council. Tom Ross gave the speech of the night and it’s clear he gets this. We need to maintain the transparency and that includes the stress that we’re still next to bottom of the council tax charts.

March 4, 2025
Council Tax and Cones

The fact of Trafford Council being one of only six councils in the country being allowed to increase the council tax we pay by more than the standard 4.99% ceiling set by government has been a shock to people. It’s understandable that residents have asked how Trafford has come to be a special case. I’ve had lots of emails and social media posts. Many of these messages point to cycleway cones on the A56 being the cause of the shortfall in the finances.

I wanted to share below, the reply I am providing to these messages which I hope gives some explanation.

Cycle Lanes

I’ll deal briefly with the cycle lanes first.

We have a problem. Manchester’s roads can’t cope with the increase in cars we’ve seen. We’re nowhere near seeing the peak of car ownership here. It’s increasing every year.

We know where we’re heading if we do nothing but rely on cars for urban transportation.

Houston Peak

Several European nations have tried a different model notably Holland, but also includes mayor led cities such as Paris, London and particularly Seville. Citizens are encouraged where they can to use the car less. They’ve managed to halt the spiral of road widening and new highways within the city. At the same time, it’s had a positive impact on the prosperity. They’re healthier and wealthier.

So, I am quite happy to justify the ‘why’ this is being done. Why we’re encouraging walking, cycling and public transport.

But the A56 cones?

I’m not going to lie and say the cones on the A56 are so easily justified (at least south of Stretford)edit. They were introduced as a Covid emergency measure. If it hadn’t been for Covid, we’d have gone for a proper appraisal and a proper business case. The last Government made us stick with our Covid measures.

I’d have preferred to come back to the A56 when we’d done a lot more town centre work and worked on crossings to get a quicker return in terms of walking and health. So, I struggle to justify the timing, but we’d inevitably have to implement cycling infrastructure on our main route into Manchester at some point.

Ultimately, I don’t think anybody disagrees with the premise that there would be an increase in cycling if all roads were safe to ride.

In terms of the budget, the lanes have been government funded, so they haven’t impacted on our current financial plight. They do ultimately come from the taxes that you and I pay so I don’t dismiss the criticism.

2025 Council Tax

I’m now going to move on to Trafford’s general budget. Trafford has always had a low council tax.

Other than Wigan, (who for historical reasons have substantial reserves) we have the lowest in Greater Manchester and I’m pretty sure it’s with Wigan as the lowest of all the Metropolitan districts nationally. At the same time we depend on Council Tax more than most councils.

It’s argued that we’re affluent, but that only matters if we use that affluence to increase our income and we’ve deliberately kept it low.

Historically, since Council Tax was introduced in the early 90s, it hasn’t mattered which party was in control of Trafford, we’ve kept it low. I am fairly sure that this is the first time in those 30 years a Labour Council in Trafford has proposed a percentage increase that is higher than the norm for the year.

So, for 30 years we’ve been falling further behind. I’d have preferred us to have put a little more into reserves, but that couldn’t be done while chasing this target of lowest council tax. Put it this way, if we had Stockport’s rate of council tax in terms of our spending, we’d not only be in clover, we’d be giving out rebates back to you!

As it is, you can remain assured that you’re still paying the lowest rate in Greater Manchester (bar Wigan) after this increase.

It’s not a great position this year and I apologise. I genuinely believe we have been so lean in council finances that we were always going to come to a year like this where we need to make a correction.

February 21, 2025
Le Tour de Barton
A trip around the ward to check out what’s happening

Kellogg’s Closure

Although the Kellogg’s factory is just outside the ward boundary, the warehouse and loading bays are ours. There’s a perceptible slowing down of activity on the site. It’s rare to encounter an incoming HGV on Park Road now. Landscape maintenance has lost its edge. It’s sad seeing the slowdown. Manufacture might continue for a few more years, but the focus is shifting to what happens next. The land remains allocated for industry in Trafford’s strategic plan. We’ll have to see if that changes. I’ve not heard any discussions. These are quite large parcels of land and there may be more than one solution.

Barton Dock Road and underpass

I don’t remember a time when there wasn’t a cycleway down Barton Dock Road. It was there when Massey Ferguson was there. It might even go back to the war. Trafford Park has always had a lot of workers travelling by bike. So it’s sad to see parts getting overgrown. I’m going to try to get Amey to attend to it.

For some reason, the underpass is decked with Red Bull cans, dozens of them. We have had some rough sleeping there in the past. It might be happening again although there was no obvious sign of bedding, just the empty cans. I’ve reported.

Surf Centre and Therme

There are no visible signs of life at either of the two proposed water-based projects on Barton Dock Road although, by coincidence, new planning applications have come in both for Therme and the site of the Surf Centre. I suspect the surf centre is only one of many options for that site, but I’d love both Therme and the Surf Centre to happen!

Link to latest Therme planning application

Link to latest Surf Centre site application

Asda Crossing

There’s been some bad press lately for the company. They’re slipping down the Supermarket popularity charts. Having said that, the Trafford Park store tends to be my supermarket of choice largely because it’s so accessible by bike. I just wish they’d improve their bike parking. If you’re blessed with a segregated cycling route all the way to your front door, make the most of it, get rid of the wheel bender brackets and install some proper stands! Please!

That crossing outside Asda that links to the Trafford Centre needs to be more responsive to allow the crowds to cross. It’s an incredibly long wait for the lights to change even when the traffic is barely moving. The Bee Network is improving crossings across GM. I’m asking them to look at the Asda crossing.

Bee Network Publicity 31st August 2024

Church of All Saints, Barton on Irwell, Barton Swing Aqueduct and their joint Conservation Area
Note: All the interior photos are from the Greyfriars website

The church is Trafford’s only Grade 1 listed building north of the River Mersey. We’ve got a small number of Grade 1s in around Dunham Park and Hale, but nothing as highly regarded as this up here.

Nikolaus Pevsner described the church as (Edward) Pugin’s masterpiece. It sits with Barton Swing Aqueduct (listed class 2 + star) in its own conservation area. You would not know it. The area opposite is a dumping ground for old fridges and mattresses and the swing bridge is looking unloved.

According to April’s ‘Tablet’, the Greyfriars who are the current custodians of the church are moving on. I want to engage with Trafford’s heritage officers to prioritise this conservation area.

I also want to visit the church and attend a service there. Definitely on my to-do list.

Trafford Centre Premier Inn

An application has been submitted to demolish the former premier inn next to the motorway (not to be confused with the one on Trafford Boulevard). This one has been empty for a few years.
August 28, 2024
Doorstep Challenge
I was asked on the doorstep tonight ahead of tomorrow’s election about Labour’s policy for the aviation sector. It was such an interesting question. To be honest, I struggled a little with it. I have such a conflicting internal dialogue on this subject and certainty is never going to leap forth from my lips.
- As a Trafford Councillor, Trafford is very dependent in the medium term on the Manchester Airport Dividend.
- As a socialist, I want to see working people have the same access to international travel as the very wealthiest
  
  Yet,
- Planes are inherently linked to climate change
- It feels simply wrong that it’s cheaper to fly to somewhere like Prague than it is to go by train to London.
I can tell you that locally we want Manchester Airport to flourish but my voter wanted reassurance over air fuel taxes. I’m interested in how people feel Labour should balance this?
May 1, 2024