Planning – don’t you just despair?

There’s something about planning committee that just grates with me. Maybe it’s the faux inclusivity and bonhommie, maybe it’s the fake veneer of non-political objectivity. Every cell of the body of every councillor on every planning committee is by definition ‘political’. It’s why we have councillors on the committee; to provide that local say. At the same time, they’re required to deny the local and maintain the illusion of rigorous quasi judicial impartiality.

Having spent a year on planning myself, I know that the councillors for the vast majority of cases do genuinely apply an objectivity to the decision making. Sometimes though issues arise where it’s impossible to prise out of the political. Voters would not understand the point of a local councillor who spoke against the interests of those voters in favour of the greater good.

Sometimes you wonder whether the faux objectivity is worth the effort. Trafford’s Conservative members of the planning committee got themselves tied up in so many knots over the Tesco/Cricket Club development that it seems they’ve subjected to Trafford to years of legal challenge. In first declaring one by one that they were against the Tesco development due to its size, but 30 mins later voting for it when asked to do so by the legal officer, it left the doors wide open to challenge. In short, Trafford’s Tories dropped their planning committee members right in it and left them with the most impossible of tasks.

Thursday’s planning meeting was another frustrating affair although for an entirely different reason. The planning committee devoted more time to an advertising hoarding in Urmston upon which there was a complete consensus against granting consent than it did to a major 700 bed hotel near to Old Trafford Stadium that officers were recommending should be allowed to operate except on match days! This is a development of huge strategic importance. but officers have been allowed to impose the most bureaucratic strictures on its operation. International fans will have to transfer to a different hotel on the day of the match and come back by tram or taxi for fear of creating congestion in the car parks. I am one of the two most pro-cycling councillors in Trafford (I bow only to Cllr Chilton) but there is no way that this hotel requires parking for 97 bicycles as officers were insisting. It’s absolute madness. Where was the discussion in ensuring local employment? A colleague suggested the discussion was getting too in-depth and that was that (I wish he’d similarly brought discussion on the advertising hoarding to an end on the basis they were all in agreement). I absolutely want the hotel development to proceed and I want it to be a success. We need growth, we need jobs. We should not be letting officers impose ludicrous and unworkable conditions at the behest of no one but guidance. It is not enough to say the developers can come back and get things changed. With such an important project, it should be about working with them to make it happen rather than imposing unneccessary obstacles.

With that I am perhaps more amenable to the pilot scheme to allow Trafford Park businesses to set their own planning guidance announced yesterday than I should be. We shall see. Planning can certainly be improved in Trafford.

Kitchen Slops

From next week we’ll be able to put kitchen slops in the green bin. More details are here.

So what is the position if you live in a flat? I’m afraid this has been announced without prior discussion. We don’t know the position on people in flats, we don’t know whether retaillers have been forewarned to stock up on kitchen caddies or compostible bags. We’re racing to catch up with this announcement

Meanwhile the council is packing its excess and obsolescent belongings into a skip and is clearing out of the town hall to the Quays. Expect massive confusion  With the best will in the world I think it’s safe to assume things will be lost.

Apology for this week’s update being a succession of gripes but I think that just about sums it up.

image: the AI keyboard warrior commissioned via Copilot by the author

Election over – now back to those issues

The Lostock neighbourhood is suffering a resurgence of youth nuisance. Partly it’s as a consequence of the hot weather, partly it’s due to design faults in the new development that we were well aware of before it was built, partly it’s due to an inability to fix gates. Whatever the reason, it’s taking extra police resources and causing stress to residents. The issue is being raised at neighbourhood groups and on the street. Most of the time the kids are doing nothing more than play football but the new build has provided places that are just inappropriate.

Dave Acton and myself are arranging a meeting with the Housing Trust, Police, Council, Residents and Arawak Walton

Saturday

Advice Surgery – Lostock Library

Sunday

Trip up to United to see car parking problems ahead of Chelsea match

Monday

Lostock Residents Association – More on the continuing problems facing the Lostock area. However all is not bad and the Lostock Inter Generational Project, young people have been running from Lostock Youth Club has been nominated for a ‘Kids Count’ award.

Image by Károly Váltó from Pixabay

Lib Dems try to reinvent themselves yet again

Just 12 months ago the Liberal Democrats were coming out of the first TV debate on a high with Nick Clegg proudly proclaiming that he was heralding a new cleaner more honest politics.

The Lib Dems have portrayed themselves firstly on the left and then so far to the right economically that the very idea that John Maynard Keynes was in fact a Liberal seems a cruel joke.

But, now in election mode again, the Lib Dems in time honoured tradition make the switch. In the most shamelessly cynical political choreography they send out Nick Clegg’s advisor Norman Lamb to wash their hands of NHS reforms that Chris Huhne was saying only a few months ago ticked all their Lib Dem boxes.

A vote for the Lib Dems is a vote for the catastrophic NHS reforms. We’re already seeing waiting times rise, services cut back and in Trafford the status of our healthcare trust is becoming more and more uncertain. Lib Dems will not whisper a sound for fear of offending their new best neocon friends. I can understand why Tory poster boy Daniel Hannan has been quiet on the NHS since Lansley released his plans.

Monday

Attended the inaugural Transport for Greater Manchester Committe – the big item on the agenda was the justification from First Bus that their weekly fares were increasing as a consequence of changes to concessionary fares. The changes should not be affecting standard commercial fares as their was no subsidy involved either before or after the changes so it seemed to bare no relation to reality to connect the two changes. The one thing that could be said was that there was unanimity that the members of TfGMC were unimpressed with the rationale.

Elections permitting I’m to be member of the Metrolink and Rail networks sub committee and substitute member of the Capital Projects and Policy sub committee. There will be three permanent sub committees with the remaining committee being Bus and TfGMC services sub committee. A working group on Mobility Scooters on Metrolink will also continue until it finalises its work with the existing members of GMITA. Clearly this is of vital interest to users of Mobility Scooters as the ability to get into town affects employability and social activity. I’ve already been contacted by Mobility Scooter users keen to be allowed back on the trams and I’m keen to support them.

Disappointed that there isn’t more on encouraging active travel across Greater Manchester within our remits. It is a key objective of Transport for London, but not Manchester which in my opinion is remiss. With the increasing cost of fuel and public transport there’s clear benefits to taking a much more focused strategic role in supporting cycling and walking. There’s a statement of intent contained in the Local Travel Plan 3 but it hasn’t crossed into the work of the TfGMC.

Tuesday

Chaired the special AGM of the Lostock Residents Association. We’re looking to rotate the chair as we seek a permanent appointment. Ideally it shouldn’t be a councillor as really we want to be answerable to the residents. It would be good to make progress with this.

Wednesday

Canvassing and leafletting

Thursday

Accounts and Audit Committee – essentially a review of the year and looking forward to the new workplans. I requested that we receive a report on the Carrington Depot Fraud which was tried in court during the year. I’ve been a member of the Accounts and Audit Committee for four years now and that particular episode has never been mentioned. I’d not raised it myself as I suspected it was sub judice, but now the case has been tried, I believe we should be concerned with ensuring that the council has acted to avoid a repeat

Friday – Sunday

Despite the glorious weather I’m wearing a coat indoors because I can’t stop shivering. Poorly man-cold

“Nick Clegg arrives in Downing Street” by Number 10, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 with Slight Crop of image height

Nomination in – Campaigning begins

As we enter the election period, council meetings will become less frequent. So it’ll be a time to compare the records of the various parties in Trafford and give a verdict on this Conservative Government. I enjoy elections. Too many issues affecting our day to day lives are taken by the non elected bureaucrats. Elections are an opportunity to challenge and empower. They allow residents to make a statement on key issues affecting Trafford:

• Should we be giving away £21m to the cricket club? This is from the sale of land owned in the common good. At the same time we’re allowing a Tesco to be built which by general and judicial agreement, is vastly oversized for the location?
• Should the council have allowed itself to be so under the thumb of the cricket club, that any possibility of improvements  to community facilities were never in the frame?
• Shouldn’t the residents of Gorse Hill be right to expect improvements to the increasingly forlorn Stretford Sports Centre to come out of this “sports-led project” at the very least.Isn’t it an insult to suggest that the community will benefit, when all they’re getting as a direct improvement is school-access to the cricket outfield when convenient to the club.Has the cricket club been allowed too much lead in determining all aspects of the project? Did they have a track record of investing wisely and project control when they were one of most affluent clubs, for the council to play such a subservient role?

Trafford Council has an increasingly poor record in its major projects. Consider Urmston Town Centre (major delays and still not complete 5 years behind schedule), Altrincham Town Centre (one U-turn after another), Partington (shops closed  ready for development but no sign of further progress). If they can’t look after the underpinning structure of our towns, no amount of tickbox service measurements will ensure future generations a place to be proud of.

Monday (and Friday)

Attendance at days 2 and 3 of a five day training course in Manchester on councillors in the community. The course has come at useful time, giving a perfect opportunity to look at things I’ve done well in my first term of office and others that could be done better. It’s a non-political course and there’s members from the two main parties from Trafford and other boroughs in the region. Monday looked at leadership and empowerment, Friday covered negotiation, small scale projects and organisation.

Tuesday

Nomination papers submitted. And in the evening it was the West area Community Panel of Trafford Housing Trust. Not a great attendance for this meeting at Flixton House but it wasn’t a bad evening. We learned that estate walkabouts are now ‘on demand’ rather than a regular event as they have been up to now. In some ways this is better as we can focus on particular pertinent issues and ensure the right officers are there. We will also need to produce a needs assessment for the various neighbourhoods within West area (which includes most of Lostock, but stretches out to Partington).

Wednesday

The turn of the Stretford Community Panel which includes Gorse Hill and the Stretford parts of the ward. Very similar to previous night’s meeting, although better attended and we received a presentation from Trafford’s Trading Standards.

iCAN (Consumer Alert Network) is a facility to alert members of the community to various scams that are taking place. It’s particularly useful in relation to non genuine doorstep callers. Anyone can sign up to it and it’s entirely free. You can choose how you want to be alerted. Text, email or telephone message.

The service is provided by Trafford.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Campaigning in earnest. Knocking on doors and talking to residents. And I went to see City v Sunderland. We’re waiting for delivery of semi final tickets but it’s looking increasingly likely we’re two of the unlucky ones to have them pinched from the post van. Ah well

. ..and for the record I don’t think Rooney should be suspended for swearing into the camera.

Computers!

I can’t believe how much problems I’m having with computers at the moment. I’m hit with a perfect storm of old PC packing up, new PC failing after a week and being returned to manufacturer, Virgin Media revamping their webmail and hiding all my emails; and now the PC is returned from its maker having all the appearance of having been sat on by an elephant. What was a square is now more like a kite. A keen salesman might try to describe it as having a go-faster shape, except it is completely dead – like the parrot.

You don’t realise how much the modern councillor relies on computers until you try living without one or making do with a tiny laptop. Still life goes on, even if I’m struggling to pass on emails and updates to the wider membership (one of my roles). And I’m unable to print anything. Still that’s enough complaining.

Monday

Meeting of Gorse Hill Action Group – They are preparing for the Gorse Hill funday on 1st May. This is a double bank holiday weekend with the Royal Wedding on the Friday. They’ve collared me to be a marshall at the fun day. Glad to help

Apologies to colleagues on the shadow executive as unable to attend the council’s executive that night due to prior-commitment to Gorse Hill. The main item was the funding formula. Government cuts are going to reduce the amount going to schools. It’s an absolutely barmy decision from the government – unless we can encourage growth and creativity we’ll be entering a downward spiral of slowing economy and the debt taking up an ever bigger proportion of a reducing GDP. Schools, universities and colleges should be the last to be cut. The more this Government gets it wrong, the more stubborn Cameron, Osborne and Clegg become.

The damage that these ‘ex-special advisors’ are doing has to raise the question as to whether the public will tolerate this route to Government any longer.

Wednesday

Budget Day – see earlier post

Barton Bio Mass Presentation -Very interesting talk over the existing air quality around the motorway. This to me is the most powerful argument against the proposed incinerator. We’re already subjected to excessive pollution and we should be reducing that before we allow further emissions.

Friday

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority Meeting

The item taking up most time was the Trans Pennine Trail between Stretford and Stockport. The Didsbury section is having to be diverted over an embankment via steps. As this is a cycling /walking route, this solution is not appropriate. The ‘Love your Bike’ group have proposed an alternative route via the banks of the Mersey and this may be feasible. The Labour councillors rightly called upon the costs of the local path on the original route to be reviewed as the report suggested £800,000 for ramps. None of us were convinced that this was the lowest cost of giving local people an accessible route through Parrs Wood. It’s too easy for costs to inflate unless there’s a will to drive them down.

Of nuclear power, global intervention and the Mayor’s Civic Reception

Monday

It happens to the best of us. A diary malfunction led to me missing Friends of Lostock Park AGM. I originally wasn’t going to be able to make it due to a group meeting, but failed to put it back in the diary when the group meeting was cancelled. Humble apologies are required. The Friends of Lostock Park have been hugely successful in sprucing up the park and bringing in much needed enhanced facilities. I’m led to believe that winter has been cruel to the hugely successful skateboard bowl and it’s in need of some tender care, I will progress with Groundforce Officers.

Like most people, I’ve been so shocked and saddened by the events in Japan and Libya. It’s impossible not to be in awe of the nuclear workers fighting the potential meltdown of reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The amount of radiation they’re knowingly subjecting themselves to is a heroic sacrifice.

The disaster has led many to re-evaluate the benefits of nuclear power. This is not an easy time to support. Nevertheless, despite all that’s happened, I do still support the use of nuclear energy generation.

As a country we have to meet our energy needs and I’m not convinced we can do this without nuclear power stations contributing to that power generation. We should continue to explore Green Energy generation where we can and I’ve never bought into the idea that windfarms despoil our landscape.

No doubt, the Dutch intelligentsia protested about windmills ruining the views over Holland in the 17th Century. The landscape changes with time and I for one think windfarms enhance the skyline. And I am much more concerned by the emissions from incinerators and coal fired power stations than I am by nuclear power. Clearly, building on a seismic fault line is problematic but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that our reliance on coal, gas and oil also puts many workers at risk and probably more so.

I’m far less sanguine over Libya and I’m extremely reluctant to put British servicemen into another conflict. If we do have to play a part, it should only to avert immediate slaughter. I am far from optimistic that our intervention will be of long term benefit. It’s far too easy to believe that we can fix every nation’s problems. Too often, we make things worse.

Tuesday

Overview and Scrutiny Core Committee

Just two substantial items on the agenda.

• Update on the Temporary Closure of the Walk-in Centre at Trafford General Hospital
• Trafford Healthcare Trust’s Acquistion Project

The Walk-in centre is a ‘no appointment necessary’ GP practice based at Trafford General Hospital. In December it proved necessary to close the centre due to the accommodation being insufficient to cope with the huge demand. The Chief Executive of Trafford’s Primary Care Trust Graham Wallis, and Medical Director Dr George Kissen, subjected themselves to the committee’s enquiry into how this happened. Clearly, this is not the most glorious episode in the trust’s history and to be fair the third party in this story is why the Heathcare Trust as the effective landlord of the Walk-in Centre was not called upon to explain the situation.

It was clear that lessons had been learned. I sensed that the lessons I took from the review were different from my colleagues on the committee. It’s clear to me that there is demand for immediate access to a GP and people are prepared sometimes to travel across Trafford to get that access. But nevertheless the nearer people were to the Walk-in Centre, the more likely one they were going to use it. There’s two ways of looking at this, either people further away were being denied the service and were reluctantly choosing to put up with pain or worry and wait for an appointment with their own GP rather than travel to Trafford General, or those close to the service were casually choosing to use it. I tend primarily to the first explanation; and that there’s a real need for better access locally. We still haven’t reached a position where access to a GP is easy, convenient and where necessary, immediate. I believe the fact that those close to Trafford General Hospital were using the Walk-in Centre in such numbers, suggests that as well as ensuring the accommodation is appropriate, we should be committed to getting better access throughout Trafford

The Acquisition Project continues to be a source of concern. We know that the three trusts being looked at to effectively take over Trafford are Central Manchester University Hospitals (which runs MRI), University Hospital of South Manchester (which runs Wythenshawe) and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust (Hope Hospital). We did receive assurance that there’s no question of splitting Trafford Healthcare Trust up so Trafford General goes one way and Altrincham General goes another. Trafford describes it as an ‘As is’ package. It’s not ideal and whilst the Trust has gone to great lengths to keep providers and patient groups involved, we’re definitely into uncertain times. I’m reluctant to enter into any ‘Save our Trust’ campaign at this stage as there would be definite advantages in being part of a bigger entity; better quality recruitment plus economies of scale. But we’re into the unknown and we need to keep a close scrutiny of the progress.

Wednesday

Spent all day at a training course designed at helping councillors in their work with the community. I’ve still got four more units to go through so we’ll see how it goes.

Thursday

Agh!! My computer has died… This is really slowing me down

Friday

Computer problems continue… But attended policy Committee of Greater Manchester Transport Authority. The authority members have been inundated with complaints over Metrolink’s decision to provide a crossing with steps for users of the Trans Pennine Trail. The Trail continues from Merseyside to Hull to provide a long distance recreational cycling route and we place a bridge with steps. We’re expecting a report from Metrolink next week but the issue will prove a test of how accountable or not Metrolink is to the authority and users within Greater Manchester. Interestingly, the development is not subject to planning permission as it is of strategic merit. I’m sure it was never the intention of Government that this meant the needs of residents could be completely ignored for the financial good of ‘the project’. It is one thing to say we need to get these large projects delivered without years of delay, it is another to say that means developers can ignore all other considerations.

In the evening I attended the a civic reception hosted by Ken Weston, Mayor of Trafford. Ken has grown into the role. He’s clearly enjoyed the experience and all credit to him. It looks exhausting. I can also think of a thousand other reasons why you’ll never catch me wanting to be mayor. Each to their own. We’re all different; there’s some that love every minute of being mayor but I’d rather avoid it completely.

IAEA Imagebank, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons