Canal27ways

Category: Weekly Updates

  • Committees may not be a good way to design a car, but they’re the way to make sure the city ticks

    There have still been a few meetings happening as we enter the summer break. Whilst I haven’t attended all in person, the importance of the subject matter has made it imperative to read the reports and catch the video streams. Committees are hard work and you still get the occasional member who can never reach a full stop, but there’s been so much else to take on board.

    Executive
    Greater Manchester Scrutiny
    Trafford’s Health Scrutiny
    Datalab update
    National Policy Forum

    Executive

    Although I’m not a member of the Council’s Executive, primarily it’s their decisions upon which I’ll be judged when it comes to being re-elected. I like to follow what they’re up to.

    Items on the agenda included:

    A new Culture Strategy for Trafford.

    The culture strategy document is available here. I like that the emphasis is as much on bringing on new talent as putting on shows. My own feeling is that Greater Manchester has improved its arts output hugely since Salford fought off the City of Manchester in winning the BBC to Media City, but Manchester still dwarfs everyone else combined. The fact that Oldham Colosseum closed shows how tough it is. I think I’d like to see a Greater Manchester approach and Trafford feeding into that with its strategy but not competing.

    Tennis Investment Project

    This involves a charging policy and the procurement of a specialist operator for the tennis courts the council owns such as at Davyhulme Park and Victoria Park. Initially, it will be trialled and I don’t think they’ve announced yet where the trials will be.

    Active Travel Reprioritisation

    The battle of the A56 cones has almost become a defining cultural phenomenon. However, it looks as though Trafford has received the go-ahead to move forward with a designed scheme that would make permanent arrangements. From the funding point of view, this means including it within the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s Challenge Fund Budget. (The Dept of Transport originally funded the cones as an emergency measure during Covid)

    Sadly, we do not get junction improvements to the Barton Road gyratory and active cyclists heading towards Altrincham will still be deposited into the fast lane of the A56. The approach to design has been to leave the junction in place, but weave a cycle and walking route on and through the central island. It’s a problem because it involves so many crossings which will delay the active traveller.

    Trafford is bidding for £1.6m for the whole scheme to provide permanent segregation from Talbot Road to the M60 including the gyratory weave and crossings. A lot of active travellers have already pointed out that the M60 is not where they usually choose to end their journey and that is a problem, at a minimum their heading to Dane Road.

    My conclusion on the A56: So the A56 scheme is not perfect; far from it. Despite this, I am still supportive of the bid. The cones have been so divisive and have brought out the worst in people. We need to move on.

    Additional Schemes

    The two Talbot Road junctions with Chester Road and with Greatstone Road have already received full business case approval and they’re particularly anticipated with a degree of eagerness. I’ve been pursuing Greatstone Road junction improvements for pedestrians for a number of years so there’s a degree of fulfilment attached to that.

    Pipeline Scheme – Davyhulme Active neighbourhood (technically route D). I really need to publicise this more. I am yet to be convinced it’s a worthwhile scheme. They’re hoping to have the business case submitted by January 2024. Essentially, it’s five low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTN)s. We know Rishi Sunak does not like LTNs, but they can be worthwhile – most of Stretford around Victoria Park is essentially a low-traffic neighbourhood, they’ve cut off exits onto Chester Road or Kingsway. My initial reaction to the Davyhulme scheme is that it condenses the traffic onto residential streets rather than main roads and that’s a problem.

    Greater Manchester Scrutiny Committee

    Again, I’m not a member, but in this case, I am a substitute member. Items discussed included.

    Topics included:

    • National Waste Strategy – essentially balancing the need to recycle more with the practicalities of fine-sorting the waste. The government are shifting their position
      Trafford’s Leader, Cllr Tom Ross gave a really top-notch presentation that’s worth watching on the GMCA site
    • Bus Fare Initiatives including capped fares. Funding is in place for 24/25. The introduction has led to an increase of 12% in patronage so GMCA is keen on continuation. To review it again next summer. Franchising will have a positive behavioural effect. In fact, franchising is so exciting in that it opens up so many possibilities. The tragedy would be if funding was pulled from 2025.

    Trafford Health Scrutiny

    Another packed meeting. Items included:

    Adaptations Team and Occupational Therapy Update – This is a major contributor to quality of life and hospital discharges. The team has a serious backlog that can be traced back to Covid. Scrutiny was looking at the action plan to alleviate the delays.

    Hospital Discharge – A broader look at resilient discharge – making sure that patients leaving hospital have the support needed to sustain themselves.

    Integrated Care System Update – This is yet another reorganisation; in this case to replace the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Although it sounds dry, this is a vital element of health provision. The Greater Manchester model is proving itself in terms of life expectancy. The journey to transform health care though is only just beginning and building a system that integrates both care and health provision requires organisational change. There’s a huge amount of work going on behind the scenes. It’s vital that scrutiny monitors this change but it’s quite a significant task.

    Trafford Datalab Presentation

    This was presented last week as part of my induction on returning to the council, but I don’t need any persuasion. I love the work they do and their output is generally open data. I just want to highlight one particular page – the census data. It’s a cornucopia of intelligence but vital in targeting and championing resources.

    Labour’s National Policy Forum

    Gender recognition law has been a divisive subject in the Labour Party and elsewhere, but particularly in the Labour Party.

    I wanted to briefly state that I believe the position taken at the National Policy Forum at the weekend seems to me to be just about right. I know that others will disagree but I back Anneliese Dodds:

    We need to recognise that sex and gender are different – as the Equality Act does. We will make sure that nothing in our modernised gender recognition process would override the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act. Put simply, this means that there will always be places where it is reasonable for biological women only to have access. Labour will defend those spaces, providing legal clarity for the providers of single-sex services.

    Anneliese Dodds – Labour Shadow Secretary of State, Women and Equalities – Guardian 24 July 2023
  • I don’t like Full Council and I’ve never been that fond of cricket either

    I don’t like Full Council and I’ve never been that fond of cricket either

    I’ve not been looking forward to full-council. There’s something very League of Gentlemen about the exaggerated amateur dramatics that you can get sucked into. It was quite funny that it clashed with Old Trafford emptying at the same time. It was fancy dress outside and (maybe) inside.

    We have two hours and thirty minutes for a council meeting. This was my first council since coming back and if anything, it’s got worse. I’m not going to go into all the issues but I think we can do better.

    These would be my proposals for improvement

    • We should remove prayers from the main body of the meeting.
    • Questions to the Executive are not working.
      We’ve made questions totally incomprehensible to the general public because it’s only a supplementary question that gets verbally spoken.
      Questions are important, but this is farcical if all the public hears is something like “So when are you going to do it?”.
      My view is that questions are so important we need to take them out of the Council Meeting and give them their own regular space. The next council meeting is in October – questions will arise before then and we need a facility to ask them that’s subject to public oversight.
    • Reports to the council are usually important. They don’t always get the time they deserve. Scrutiny might have a formal role.
    • Political motions are the main course of the meeting. They’re what gets us there. In reality most of the time, they’re of the moment and you’d struggle to find many that had a lasting impact. Nevertheless, it’s crucial that we have them. We need a facility for democratically coming together as an area to pronounce on what is deemed important. They’re a vital cog, even if a lot of the time it’s just political jousting.
      It’s just the Parties are losing the ability to draft a motion to maximum effect.

    The anatomy of a motion

    There’s actually not that much variation in motions. The Greens use a ‘preamble’ but essentially they should follow the pattern….

    This Council notes that…

    This Council believes that…

    This Council resolves to…

    There’s a reason for the pattern. The first part should just be facts. This council notes that the house was flooded. This council also notes that drainage has been reduced.

    The beliefs section can be more contentious but better to keep as much straightforward as possible eg. This council believes that flooding is avoidable and that regular maintenance is essential…

    It’s the ‘resolves to’ section where you’re trying to make your point and highlight differences.

    Keep the motion succinct. You also want to decide what is a ‘win’ – winning the vote or forcing the majority party to vote it down. I sat there amazed on Wednesday – most of the time I couldn’t work out what the opposition parties wanted to get out of their own motions.
    The Tories came with one motion against changes in firefighting provision that they ended up voting against. Maybe they just wanted to make a petty point on Andy Burnham, but they ended up voting against a motion that requested further investigation into the proposals to downgrade Sale fire-station. They completely wasted their advantage.
    The Greens had a motion on recreating a Greater Manchester Assembly. A lot of Labour people actually regret like I do, the original Greater Manchester Council being closed down by Thatcher. But the Greens got carried away and entered a whole shopping list within the motion of other things they wanted scrapping or introducing. I spoke in favour of a Greater Manchester Assembly, but was quite comfortable voting down the motion. They should have kept it simple.

    Back to those questions to the Executive

    A lot of people are raising this same question with me:

    When we can expect weed spraying to begin?

    Below is the written answer from the Executive Member

    The programme of weed spraying commenced on the 10th July 2023. The spraying is expected to take 4 – 6 weeks based on the current forecasts for July and August. An email detailing this information was sent to all members on Friday 30 June. The teams progress through the borough on a ward-by-ward basis. With some wards being larger than others it is difficult to say when the teams will be in a particular ward in advance with any accuracy at this time however, weekly communications to ward members will be issued to keep members up to date on progress.

    By Elections

    I don’t mind admitting I stayed up late for the 3 by-elections. Uxbridge was a disappointment, my suspicion is that had we given time to explain how few vehicles would be impacted by ULEZ, we’d have sailed through. You don’t change your policy in the middle of an election. So I went to bed very cross.

    Co-op Party AGM Gtr Manchester

    I really like the Co-op Party and I’m proud to be a member. We seem to get so much more business decided.

    We passed a motion supporting the mutalisation of United Utilities on Saturday. It reflected our values – the motion will progress to regional conference. We didn’t need to spend hours debating the point and sometimes unanaminity is more powerful than having the last word.

    Last few meetings at my Old Trafford school

    Had to ride to Old Trafford four times over the week, despite the last governor’s meeting being held the previous week. The school has broken up for summer now but we needed to mark the occasion.
    Good luck and Best wishes to all the children moving on to their secondary school. You will all make your mark on the world. I’m expecting great things from your your young lives!
    I’ve been chair of governors twice now – a short time at Barton Clough when it was in crisis and we brought in Tony Rae and lately at Old Trafford Community Academy with co-heads Judith Stott and Nicola Davenport. It was great to meet up with those Headteachers again at Old Trafford last week.

    Anthony Rae, Judith Stott and Nicola Davenport
    Anthony Rae, Judith Stott, Mike Cordingley and Nicola Davenport – Ms Stott’s Last Day as head

  • What a week!

    The induction’s over. It’s been quite a heavy week as the routine starts to kick in.

    Labour Away Day – Saturday

    Political parties are strange things. People have different motivations. Whether to rule or to represent, how to shape our local places, climbing up the ladder to get a better job.

    So, we’re a disparate group when we come together and even if an ‘Away Day’ feels a bit incongruous, it’s not without its merit.

    We have 41 Labour Councillors out of 63. Ten of these councillors are on ‘the Executive’. That means a lot of Councillors aren’t. This is not a problem if the Executive value and use their fellow councillors. Hopefully, there’s churn in responsibilities too. We can remain cohesive. It just mustn’t be taken for granted.

    It’s an interesting time to be Labour. It was remarked upon that we were all to the ‘left’ of Keir Starmer. He’s picked his team and they’re sticking to a script. I rather like that he’s holding back on commitments, but wish he’d learn some economics, beyond Milton Friedman, Thatcher’s mentor.

    Prepping for Planning – Monday

    I quite enjoy my monthly tour of Trafford in preparation for planning on Thursday. This time I took in Davyhulme, Timperley, Sale, Old Trafford and Hale. Then it’s putting some notes together and sending off some queries to planning officers.

    All Day School Governor Commitment – Tuesday

    I’m school governor at two schools but withdrawing from both. With Planning Committee and a new role with Manchester Foundation Trust, I’m just finding it impossible to juggle the time. It’s primarily evenings but today included a meeting with the Academy Trust. I love both my schools but you’ve got to manage your time. The evening was in a sense a normal governors’ meeting but it was the last governors’ meeting to be attended by Judith Stott. Judith has been Headteacher there for 28 years. That’s a big wrench. I’ve valued working with her. She always puts the children first.

    Judith Stott

    Hospital Trust Meeting – Wednesday

    I was warned this was a demanding role but took it anyway. I’ve joined the governing body attached to Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT)as the council’s nominee. Just to put this in context – MFT is the largest employer in Greater Manchester with 28,000 staff.

    The Chief Executive updated us on strike action and presented the annual account which will be made public once it’s been formally listed in Parliament.

    Much of it was similar to a council committee meeting. We had a presentation from the auditors who happened to be the same as Trafford Council’s auditors, and there were quite a few familiar faces in the room.

    Greater Manchester’s health organisation is undergoing quite an upheaval with the new integrated care partnership (ICP). Priorities are tackling inequalities. We’ve got to make it real. I wasn’t happy with inequalities of provision within Trafford during Covid. Actually, I was incredibly angry about it at the time and that will be a test for me.

    Evening Meeting of Scrutiny – I only watched this online but it was important viewing. Scrutiny was looking at the seven-year review of the Amey contract. I am of the view that there’s still enormous room for improvement, essentially in bringing Trafford back to a borough that looks and feels loved. We’ll know more when the review is actually tabled for approval rather than just a PowerPoint.

    Planning Committee – Thursday

    Quite a heavy meeting but we got through it. I’m happy we made the correct decisions. They won’t necessarily be the popular decisions but we have to apply the guidance unless there’s a compelling reason not to.

    Focus on the Allotment – Friday/Sat/Sunday

    Screenshot of Facebook Post announcing Moss Park Allotments open 16th July to display a stunning, award winning allotment site in Stretford with a large variety of well-tended plots bursting with ideas.

    That’s quite a build-up for our allotment site and with all the council induction and then having covid – our plot wasn’t at its best. So quite a bit of graft was required to make it presentable. I love our plot anyway. Some nice feedback on Sunday morning too from visitors.

  • AI puts the mystery back into doing the Councillor thing

    AI puts the mystery back into doing the Councillor thing

    As I strolled through the streets of this typical neighbourhood, an inexplicable feeling tugged at the back of my mind. It was as if there were a hushed emptiness lingering in the air, whispering secrets that went unnoticed by most. I couldn’t shake off the sense that there were more vacant houses than usual, their windows peering into an abyss of abandonment. Curiosity drove me to investigate further, and with an insatiable urge, I delved into the realm of statistics. What I discovered both startled and confirmed my suspicions. The data reflected a stark reality, substantiating my intuitive perception: the number of empty houses had indeed risen significantly. The numbers, like silent witnesses, silently echoed the story that my senses had perceived, unravelling a tale of shifting tides and changing landscapes in our community.

    I couldn’t find the words so I asked ChatGPT to ‘write me a paragraph on sensing that there were more empty houses than usual and finding that the statistics were backing me up’. I know it’s not the best-crafted instruction that’s ever been written, but I love what AI came up with. It’s a lot better than noticing on a leaflet-round that it’s the third seemingly long-term empty house that you’ve come across, and then picking up on similar instances on your next round.

    It was the Friends of Carrington Moss people who serendipitously supplied some statistics that pointed to it being much more than a coincidence.

    I don’t want to be drawn into the debate about whether Carrington Moss should be built on, or at least not in this instance. However, I do want to focus on the figures. They’re telling us that the extra homes we’re building are not providing the extra number of households we would expect. This is not due to demolition as we’re using a net additional dwellings figure. It might include some that are in the process of being emptied as is currently happening at Circle Court. I can’t think of anything major in 2021 that would account for Trafford’s figures, but they’re the worst. There’ll be some that have become Airbnb and similar. My instinct says the amount becoming Airbnb is nowhere near these figures but the number of empty homes could be a major factor.

    The council will have figures on empty properties. I am hoping they are equally high. We’ll see, but it seems definitely worth pursuing.

  • I’m back as councillor and it feels so good

    I’m back as councillor and it feels so good

    Let the light in

    I’ve always been committed to keeping people informed. Hopefully, you’ll get a sense of what I’ve been doing and be able to tell me what I’m doing wrong or doing right.

    I’m hoping to get my email address and phone number working this week and I’ll publish them as soon as they’re live.

    Not having email/phone hasn’t stopped me taking on casework/campaigns and people can still get in touch with me via the comments here, or via facebook/twitter.

    And here’s a taster of what I’ve been doing

    • Parkway road surface – Facebook has been flooded with comments on the road surface there. I’ve liaised with officers and there’s hope of the worst areas being addressed in the next few months. It’s an expensive job and they’re budgeting on it being something like a fifth of the total road spending. Fingers crossed.
    • Trees – There’s some very big highway trees that need managing (see photo). I’ve been championing the prioritisation of trees that residents have raised with me.
    • Overhanging Vegetation blocking footpaths – Reported one instance to the council after it was raised with me. A second instance on Barton Dock Road has been referenced but I’m awaiting the exact location.
    • Floating the issue of empty houses – This is more of a whim. There just seemed a lot of empty houses that I was coming across during the campaign. I raised it on social media and it seems to be worth pursuing as others were seeing the same; and I’ve seen some census figures that seem bear out the impression. I want to take it a little further.
    • Planning Concerns over plans for a new house on a garden plot in Davyhulme.
    • Amey Trying to update myself on how service level requirements might have evolved at review.

    Settling in

    Jill Axford is trying to get advice surgery locations sorted. We should have these in place in the next couple of weeks.

    With regard to which committees I’m sitting on, we’re having our group AGM this week.
    Tom Ross as leader has announced his cabinet/executive and it’s very much in continuity. Jo Harding gets the finance portfolio and she’ll be very good at it.

    It’ll be interesting to see how we evolve under Tom Ross’s leadership.

  • It looks like a busy meeting of Trafford’s Executive next Monday

    It seems to be a packed agenda for Monday’s meeting. It’s here that we get the best insight as to how the council is working. There’s a few initiatives reaching report stage and a few projects that are beginning to get going.

    Agenda

    • Greening Trafford Park and Low Carbon Trafford Park Studies
    • Leisure Investment – Levelling up Partington Sports Village
    • Trafford Moving Refresh
    • Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy
    • Better Care Fund
    • Section 75 Agreement with MFT
    • 10 Year Estates Strategy
    • Altrincham Town Hall
    • Supported Housing Strategy
    • BAME Terminolology
    • Budget Monitoring

    Highlights

    Trafford Supported Housing Strategy

    This is probably the most important item on the agenda. For the first time, supported housing gets its own strategy rather lost within the wider housing provision.

    Trafford’s need in this area is stark.

    • Trafford has a greater mortality rate for those aged under 75 years with mental health needs compared to its nine nearest statistical neighbours.
    • Hospital admissions connected to self-harm in the most deprived ward of Trafford is
      43% higher than the national average
      .
    • The recorded prevalence of depression has increased by 6.4% since 2013/14

    Trafford’s mortality rate for those with mental health needs is shocking. Trafford hospitals have the highest ‘length of stay’ rate compared with the rest of Greater Manchester. Lack of suitable accommodation is one driving factor for this.

    The vision:

    Work collaboratively to provide a range of quality supported housing, and housing related support, to enable those with support needs to live independently in Trafford.

    The Strategy contains a breakdown of supported housing need, current provision, future provision, and strategic objectives relating to each of the following need groups:

    • Domestic Abuse
    • Ex-offenders
    • Learning disabilities and Autism
    • Mental Health
    • Physical and Sensory Disabilities
    • Substance Misuse
    • Young People
    • Complex Needs

    It’s easy to see that under-provision in this area triggers excess demand in so many of our services, particularly health and policing.

    Greening Trafford Park and Low Carbon Trafford Park Studies

    These two studies have been heavily promoted throughout the investigations into the potential for a cleaner – greener Trafford Park. There’s some big ticket items that will require regional and national interventions. However there is smaller stuff that could be progressed quickly, but is really dependent:

    • on the Council and agencies grasping the report findings and building it into maintenance and uplift strategies for Trafford Park. Pavements are too narrow, bus stops low quality for example – when the council is working on an area, it should not be looking at how it can be left in a better state
    • on a Business Improvement District for Trafford Park – this is a key thrust – Hopefully it will fare better than the Trafford Park Business Neighbourhood which never really took off.

    We’ll have to see whether the Executive ‘owns’ this report and commits to key target setting or just welcomes the content. The reports are worthwhile on common energy generation and other matters. I think though that it requires a lot more commitment than provided for in the Executive submission.

    Trafford Moving

    The vision of Trafford Moving is to enable residents in Trafford to move more every day, by enabling more opportunities for residents to be active and to help people sustain this activity as part of their everyday lives, which will lead to a reduction in health inequalities in Trafford.

    That’s a tough nut to crack and the people that need most encouragement are both hard to reach and possibly don’t realise they should increase physical activity. However, there is hope with the report below.

    Trafford Walking, Wheeling and Cycling Strategy

    The overall goal is that over the next 10 years

    • 90% of journeys under 1 mile will be taken by foot or wheels
      equipment
    • 80% of journeys under 5 miles will be taken by foot or wheels
      equipment.

    That’s an ambitious target that would really go a long way to meeting the Trafford Moving policy at the same time. We’ve seen such a massive improvement since Aidan Williams became the Executive Lead. He’s not yet been in post 12 months but he’s made such a difference.

    Watching the Executive

    You can watch meetings of the council either live or a recording the next day. I tend to watch later so I can fast forward to get to the bits I’m interested in. The council has a YouTube channel

    https://www.youtube.com/@traffordcouncilmeetings8327