Category: Weekly Updates

Budget Matters Dominate

Every February, Trafford Council sets the annual budget for the coming year. The Budget council meeting itself is one of the key events on the calendar in terms of set piece speeches. The Government’s cuts agenda has put an even bigger focus on Local Government.

Clearly, it suited the Conservatives in Government to make the cuts in such a fashion that leaves the wealthy rural areas unscathed, but particularly hits the poorest areas such as Manchester and Salford. The political imperative for Trafford’s Tories has been to portray itself as coping manfully and uncomplainingly with reductions in spending.

Whilst Trafford hasn’t had to deal with the catastrophic cuts facing Manchester, we are facing significant loss of funding.

The national political context for the weeks budget debates has meant that in Trafford, we have Labour Councillors trying to identify the impact of the reductions, Tory Councillors trying to obscure until after the local election; and Liberal Democrats trying to change the subject to bee-keeping. Bless!

At the same time, the Conservatives are pursuing a rebuilding and enlarging of the office accommodation at the Town Hall. How do you argue for a massive enlargement of the Town Hall at the same time as slashing the ‘back-office’?

The answer is with Great Difficulty. And we heard Councillor Alan Mitchell resort to Keynsian Economic Theory to make the case that this was exactly the right time to invest £30m of borrowed capital in new accommodation whether we needed it or not. He was of course forgetting that the Tory Government had pulled the much more sensible investment in Building Schools for the Future.

The cuts across Greater Manchester are going to see lots of public buildings become surplus. We’re going to see the Greater Manchester Combined Authority bringing together increasingly shared services. Its inevitable that councils are going to change rapidly over the next four years.

Common sense says that the Town Hall project is no longer a sensible commitment, but for the Tories to pull out now would mean a loss of face. So we will plough on regardless, just as Labour did over the Millenium Dome. I felt Labour was wrong to pursue that project, and the Tories are wrong to be building a new town hall. Hopefully we’ll find a use for all of it eventually, just as they have in Greenwich for the dome.

Monday

Attended first of week’s Executive Committees – This one at Altrincham Town Hall.
Attended Labour Group Meeting

Tuesday

Barton Clough Governors. I had to give apologies to ‘Big Society’ workshop at Urmston Library due to the clash with Governors.

Wednesday

The Budget Council debate. We argued the case that too much of the budget reduction was essentially an act of faith that contracts could be negotiated down further whilst maintaining the service. The reality is that they’ll hit the most vulnerable in the hope that the majority will not witness the brutality.

Friday

Interviews for Trafford’s new Director of Customer Service. Yes they can still recruit directors.

Inaugural meeting of ‘Transport for Greater Manchester Committee’ (Shadow). The new committee to replace GMITA – at this stage it’s really about getting constitution sorted and terms of reference

Saturday

Door Knocking in Urmston. A very good response in one of the more affluent areas of Urmston ward – people are seeing through this Conservative Government’s attacks on public services. The brand is being retoxified.

Monday

As part of the selection process for a Director of Customer Service at Trafford Council, I attended the short-listing. Interviews to take place this coming week. A good standard of applicant.

Tuesday

Emails and correspondence

Wednesday

I went to Lostock Court for their coffee morning. I gave the residents an update on what was going on locally. They were particularly disturbed to hear that ‘Bowlers’ had got its license for dance events. Their were many who remembered how noisy the raves were there 10 years or so ago before it was taken over by Northern Computer Markets. We will have to see how this goes.

In the evening it was Trafford Housing Trust Board. The most relevant aspect was the promising outlook for the 2nd stage of the Lostock redevelopment.

I had to give apologies for the Overview and Scrutiny Core Meeting as it clashed with the Board.

Thursday

Breakfast meeting at Stretford Police Station to discuss the enforcement of the ‘no alcohol drinking in the street’ on match days. This is affecting the off-license businesses  at ‘Top Point’ (near to Bishops Blaize). Chief Inspector Roberts explained the philosophy behind the enforcement and whilst it was understandable that takings would be affected, the initiative was making such a positive impact on the behaviour of fans and the general ambience, they were not going to ease off. Feedback from supporters (both home and away) had been positive. I am fully behind the police in this and I’ve seen for myself the improvements that had been engendered.

Attended Trafford Cycling Forum in the evening. We’re already facing the loss of Trafford’s cycling officer and that’s going to be a big blow in the coming year. It is my view that we are punching significantly below our weight on cycling. Too many of our roads are not safe for cycling and yet cycling is a hugely popular means of transport.

Friday

Attended Clyne Court’s community breakfast. I picked up a request to have a room provided for relations to stay which I have passed to Trafford Housing Trust

Met with Trafford’s Director of Finance in the afternoon to discuss Trafford’s budget.

Saturday

Door knocking in Urmston

Mike Cordingley

Image by Károly Váltó from Pixabay

Monday

Lostock Residents and Tenants Association Meeting.

I was sad to learn that Roy Jolly is standing down from his role as chair of the Tenants Association. It’s going to be a loss to Lostock; he’s made the residents and tenants meeting into a vital forum for anything that’s going on in and around Lostock.

The main topic this meeting was the cuts in Lostock library’s opening times. This is a big cut and it’s hard not to see the library as being in difficulty as a consequence. The users who are losing most are school kids as the library is no longer open after 3pm on any day. It’s a real kick in the teeth for Lostock.

Labour Group Meeting

Presentation by trade unions. Both the Labour Group and the trade unions are suffering from a lack of consultation from this Tory Council. We’re not being consulted and we’re not being alerted to staff reductions or indeed recruitments of consultants. Morale has never been so low amongst staff; they’re seeing the threat of redundancy, yet we still see people taken on with huge daily consultancy fees performing mainstream roles. It’s pretty clear that even most of the Conservative Councillors are kept in the dark. Too often we first learn of these things via rumours that upon investigation turn out to be true. The numbers of directors within the council is ever increasing, and to get round pay restraints, we see redesigns of roles with ‘added responsibilities’. It’s odd that the more responsibilities we give to individual directors of service, the more directors we somehow need. Yet when we look at the frontline, the park supervisors for instance, they have their pay cut.

Presentation by Citizens Advice

Citizen’s Advice are alarmed at the loss of legal aid in respect of debt cases. Added to this was the effect of the scrapping of the ‘Financial Inclusion Fund’ (we learned later in the week that Vince Cable had U-turned and given a partial reprieve to fund debt advice)

Trafford Labour’s Representative on Transport for Greater Manchester Committee

I was pleased to win the nomination to sit on this committee which replaces Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA). Chuffed to bits actually.

Gorse Hill Action Group – I had to give apologies to the Group as it clashed with the Labour Group meeting

Tuesday

Laurence Walsh and I met for an on-site meeting with Terry Burke of the Gorse Hill Juniors, Helen McFarlane – director of Community Safety, Culture and Sport and Matthew Colledge, Leader of Trafford Council.  The key point of discussion was to ensure that the needs of Gorse Hill Juniors were taken into account when developing proposals for shared community use (with Stretford High School) on Gorse Hill Park football pitches. There’s been talk of all-weather pitches but these are inappropriate to the needs of young footballers playing in local leagues supervised by the Football Association. We achieved the main objective in making sure that the Gorse Hill Juniors are recognised as a stakeholder. Plans have not yet been published for what intended for the pitches but there’ll be uproar if it’s perceived by residents as a land-grab by the school.

Lostock College Governors

My first meeting with Lostock College Governors. There’s loads of ideas on how to take the school forward. Some difficult choices too. I wasn’t the only new Governor there, I was pleased that Susan Williams had also joined. She’ll be an asset to the school; it’s never a bad thing to have governors with loads of connections and experience too, regardless of party politics.

Wednesday

Caught up on emails again and post. We’re really suffering someÂhorrendous road surface decay and I’ve had to report a few:

• Raglan Road – It’s getting Potholes in the Potholes and is a complete patchwork. Still no joy from the Council
• Chatsworth Road – Poor surface on a well used road – having said that whilst leafleting, I spotted a bus doing at least 40mph. I can’t imagine what it was like for any passengers.
• Selby Road (outside Lostock College) – The potholes here are ridiculous – very deep

I received a reply on Raglan Road/Chatsworth Road;

I have inspected both roads today. We have rectified all the actionable defects on Raglan Road last week. I have raised repair jobs for the potholes on Chatsworth Road today and they should be completed within the next seven days.

Both these roads are subject to complaints quite regularly but are not on this years program for resurfacing. Structurally, the roads are sound but do suffer from potholes from time to time on the wearing course of the carriageway. Minor maintenance patching and pothole repair should solve the issues for now. I do not expect highways strategy to be undertaking a full resurfacing scheme on these roads in the near future but this is something you could discuss with Peter Townsend, who is the engineering manager in charge of such schemes.

Please feel free to contact me any time on the number below about any issues concerning minor maintenance.

Selby is showing as work completed on 10th February

I also reported:

• Litter/Leaf residue on Matlock Avenue. The work on this is still outstanding.
• Fly tipping on the Parkway embankment nr to sliproad from Barton Dock Road

The major outstanding work I have yet to complete is connected to the subway at Humphrey Park Station. I will be looking to Area Services to co-ordinate the parties involved i.e. Network Rail/Northern Rail, Trafford Housing Trust and Trafford Council. This is one of those long running sources of complaint (it was raised again at Monday’s Lostock Tenants and Residents meeting). The subway is in a terrible state but it falls between all these organisations.

We have a similar issue on Trafford Quays with the lighting. Trafford Council and Peel have been in dispute as to who’s responsibility it is to maintain the promenade. I’m told that legal officers are near to conclusion on this subject.

Thursday

I attended planning meeting as an observer. I wanted to see the ITV studios application as the papers were reporting that Premier Foods (Hovis) had made late objection to the application. In the event, Premier Foods had reached agreement with ITV and their objection was withdrawn.

However I also got to see the application for a supermarket at the old Cascade motors site (Urmston Retail Park) near to the sewage works. It was unanimous that this be turned down after hearing representations from councillors and public. Dave gave a good representation against the application. I was less impressed by the behaviour of Conservative Councillor Kelson who once again withdrew himself from the committee so that he could attach his name with the objectors. Eddie has made it public that he’s doing the same with Barton Bio Mass. I’m certainly not going to applaud him for doing this. Planning is an important committee and we don’t want individual councillors seeing the chance to attach their name to a popular cause as more attractive than participating in the decision making.

Still I got the impression that the Conservative Chair of Planning, Viv Ward was of a similar mind to me. Mrs Ward certainly made the point that ‘she’ had found it hard not being able to engage in this particular matter; but that that restraint was part of being a planning committee member.

In the end the remaining councillors took the right decision in my view. But it was galling to hear all these Conservative Councillors saying how much we needed to protect our town centres. I thought my colleague, Laurence Walsh was quite right to point out that didn’t make the same points when it was Tesco threatening Stretford.

Friday

Return to Clyne Court for their bacon butty and coffee morning. I should have realised that they’re early risers and early eaters. 9:45am and they’d already finished. Apologies to the residents. I’ll be there earlier next time.

Leafleting.

Image: Lostock Tenants and Residents

Monday

Attended Stretford Neighbourhood Forum. Long presentation justifying the budget choices as representative of the citizens’ choices in the consultation. It still is a rather contrived argument given the choices that were presented to the public. The public do not not like the council giving away £21m to the cricket ground and see through the protestation that the money is not the council’s. Given it’s a local authority owned field and it is being handed to Tesco, the money equivalent to the field’s value is most definitely the council’s. We may argue whether without the cricket club, Tesco could build such a large store, but the Conservative led planning committee ruled exactly that; that the Tesco was acceptable on its own merit. The Tories need to decide on one argument and stick to it as currently they’re all over the place on Tesco.

Residents were not happy with the money being spent on the new Town Hall extension – £29m. Again the Tories are all over the place; they’ve commissioned accommodation to meet the needs of 2009 and at the same time, embarking on changes that are radically altering the provision of public services. Ridiculous and in danger of becoming a ‘white elephant’.

My impression talking to residents after the consultation was that they were just bemused. They want the end of the ‘Your Trafford’ but are forced to choose between clean streets and care for the vulnerable.

Tuesday

Attended curiculum meeting at Barton Clough. It feels as though the transition to a new head has happened seamlessly.

I also visited the area around the Bishop’s Blaize as the crowd built up ahead of Man U v Villa. The clamping down on drinking in the street by the police seems to have created a much improved ambience in the area. I know this is difficult for the off-licences but I witnessed Villa fans mingling with Man U fans in a way that was unthinkable before the clamp down. I do make a point of visiting the area ahead of quite a few home games and this was the best I’d seen for behaviour. All the police I spoke to fully supported the clamp down. It may have created a bit of tension at first but now it’s established, things are much better.

Wednesday

Spent pretty much the whole day getting on top of emails. As a councillor I get about 300 emails a week, and although I’d responded to all those needing a response there were loads from the past fortnight still sitting in the in-trays. Now sorted!

Thursday

Trafford Housing Trust have been running a review in conjunction with the council a review of sheltered housing in the borough. There have been a number of drivers for this review. Firstly, there’s a reduction in Supporting People funds from Government and the removal of any ringfence. Trafford Housing Trust have therefore consulted on the level of service that people require from their Sheltered Scheme and how they can maximise occupation of homes within a scheme. I attended the original consultation in the autumn at Clyne Court (nr Man U on Chester Rd). The residents there had been emphatic that they wanted the retention of the onsite scheme manager; they valued the scheme manager as a support and a vital cog in socialising. So there was a degree of worry that the review would recommend removing scheme managers to be replaced with a greater reliance on telecare. I therefore attended Clyne Court on Thursday to hear the initial conclusions of the review.

I’m pleased to say Trafford Housing Trust have taken account of the residents and they’re committed to keeping scheme managers. They acknowledge that funding is going to have to be addressed and this may ultimately mean higher charges within the schemes, and the review will consider this area. The residents were really pleased about the retention of the scheme manager and there was a clear sense of relief.

I have a particular attachment to Clyne Court. I did my A level politics at Clyne House on the same site when at North Trafford College. The lecturer was Paul Findlow , who for many years was Conservative leader of Cheshire Council. I’m proud to have resisted any attempt to make me a Conservative; actually that’s unfair, I think he was overwhelmingly outnumbered by left wing students. Clyne House was also used for the location for the 1951 film ‘Mandy‘. I digress, but an opportunity to show the poster…

As well as Clyne Court’s sheltered housing review, I attended the tail-end of Lostock Court’s similar meeting

In the evening it was ‘Budget Scrutiny’ in respect of Transformation and Resources, Economic Growth, and Environment. I’m not convinced by the scrutiny process. My overwhelming impression that a lot of the savings are really a matter of faith; renegotiation of contracts, less management. Trafford has been name checked a few times lately by the Conservative minister Grant Shapps. I hope he is not being premature because this is a budget based more on hope than expectation. And we are going to see huge reductions at community level.

Friday

Dave Acton, Barry Brotherton and myself met with Ian Duncan, Director of Finance at Trafford Town Hall.

Labour Constituency Meeting in Partington – really good meeting – we’re going to have to find some bigger rooms. We had a report from Partington Councillor John Smith on their horse problem. It’s increasingly a source of distress that horses are being left on playing fields and in one particular shocking case of neglect, simply left where they stand. Apparently, that horse was in a terrible state of health and it was simply left where it was rather than incur vet fees. It is one of those issues that at first seems eccentric but when you learn more, it clearly is a serious issue.

Saturday

Surgery – no one came

Sunday

I spent Sunday lobbying/canvassing support for my candidacy as Trafford Labour’s representative on the Greater Manchester Transport Authority.

image: wikicommons under fair use to identify the film made at that location

Budget Process Begins

Trafford’s Draft Budget – On the Agends for Exec

It’s been well aired that Local Government is taking the biggest hit in the Conservative Govt’s attack on public services. Trafford. However, the Tory Govt has targeted the most deprived areas, so in comparative terms we have not been hit as hard as Manchester and Salford.

Trafford’s ‘spending power’ is reduced by 3.8% compared to Salford’s 8.5%. Whilst we’re not facing the massive redundancies of Manchester and Salford, we are going to lose services. Personally, I found Tory crowing at the expense of Manchester extremely unedifying.

It is disappointing enough that Westminster MPs should indulge in Manc-bashing. It is a tragedy that we should hear the same from local politicians on our patch. Carefully built-up cross-party alliances in Greater Manchester alliances forged for the benefit of the entire city-region are crashing down around our ears.

David Ottewell Manchester Evening News Political Correspondent

Trafford Tories should remember how many local residents have family connections with Manchester and its Council. People are losing their jobs, putting their homes at risk – in Trafford as well as Manchester. Our Tories are behaving according to their DNA “If it ain’t hurting, it ain’t working”. Shameful.

Apart from scrutinising the budget which dominated the week, I also attended

• a Health Inequalities Workshop in Manchester
• Labour Party Quiz
• Urmston Labour Street Stall
• Overview and Scrutiny

Lastly, I went to see the mobile libary as it made its way through the areas not served by local fixed libraries. What a great service it is. The users I saw really appreciated the chance to get outside and choose a book with friends.

Trafford is scrapping the mobile library to save £8000. By the time they’ve paid for reduncdancies and paid up on the lease of the van it’ll probably cost them to remove the service, but they’ll still do it anyway.

Trafford Town Hall by Peter McDermott, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 

Catching up

Barton Power Plant March

Urmston had its first demonstration/march in forty years or so with the Clean-air march against the incinerator. It was great to see so many good-folk taking a stand. I’ve been on many marches, whether it be supporting Lostock College against closure, anti-Iraq war in London or in support of sacked GCHQ workers at Cheltenham. Whilst marches don’t always succeed in getting the powerful to change their minds, they do make a statement that people are not going to quietly accept being ignored. It’s heartening that so many people have been engaged in defending their environment. I was proud to have marched against Tony Blair’s war and I’m proud to have marched with the Breathe Clean Air Group.

I have submitted my objection to Development Control

Link to objection (Google Docs)

Trafford Heath Trust

A scrutiny meeting was held focused on Trafford Health Trust’s decision to seek a takeover from a larger trust.

This has huge implications coming as it does as we prepare for GP consortia. The Trust currently has three hospitals, Trafford General, Altrincham General and Stretford Memorial. The trust has a historic debt of £8.3m and any trust that takes it over will need to take on that debt. The trust has commitments to the redevelopment of Altrincham General but is not yet in a position to go-ahead and this proposed surrender of autonomy does not help to allay fears.

The uncertainty has led to the postponement of the move to an Integrated Care System that would involve hospital staff working much more closely with GPs and community health services to improve care for patients.

The Strategic Health Authority had released £7m of additional capital spending for the current year which will enable the Trust to bring forward projects that could be completed early. The intention is to clear capital commitments in later years to reassign to Altrincham General. I wanted to be reassured that any incoming trust would not be able use this capital surplus to pay-off the debts and in doing so abandon the Altrincham General project. I was given some assurance on this but I’m not totally satisfied.

The Healthcare Trust is holding its next Board Meeting at 2pm on Wednesday 25th January and I’m hoping to get along to that.

Greater Manchester Transport

Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority (GMITA) Budget Seminar

The authority is controlled by Conservatives and Lib Dems. The budget for transport in Greater Manchester is going to be extremely tight although you wouldn’t have known it from the way that the chair was inviting suggestions for further spending. The truth is that there will be cuts to supported services and the concessionary flat rate fare of 80p for elderly Train and Tram users in Greater Manchester is also under threat. AGMA are meeting on the 28th January to consider options which include replacing it with a half-price fare.

image: author’s own