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Tuesday
Sad funeral of Peter Cowburn. Peter and Margaret walked more miles delivering Labour Party leaflets than anyone I knew. He was a wonderful character and City fan. Selfless in his devotion to Nepal, he was a trustee for over twenty years to the charity Children of Nepal. A keen runner, his was a life well lived. I was quite moved that the photo on the funeral service was of Peter holding the Labour Party merit award I’d nominated him for.
Lostock Community Partnership
In the afternoon a meeting of Lostock Partnership, particularly focused on plans to build a hotel at Lostock circle. We’re still waiting for the submission to planning and whilst there’s been some early consultation, it’s really only when the application’s in that we can really evaluate.
Thursday
Planning Committee
A hotel at Warwick Road was rejected but another hotel extension at Lancs Cricket was allowed. I think I was more inclined in favour of the application than other members of the committee. It is a very tall building though.
The planning application I was most inspired by was an application for housing in Timperley at social rent. This will be the first in Trafford for over a decade. We talk about affordable housing but this at best is just a small discount from the market rent. These in Timperley will be at Social Rent. It’s the closest we’ve come to building council housing in years. The Tories sold them off and now Labour is building new ones. It’s what I went into politics to do and I’m really proud of this small step in the right direction.
Saturday Parkrun / Labour Hustings
Three quarters round the Wythenshawe Park run and my calf muscle pings. It’s happened before and there’s not much you can do about it. It’s like a thin tendon snapping. Having done it before, you can’t get too worked up about it, I’ll be back running in a week or two at worst.
Anyway the snapped tendon allows me to miss canvassing and to watch the leadership hustings on YouTube.
I don’t think we’re anywhere near ready to enter into a leadership election. December’s defeat is far too raw. The Liverpool hustings were awful. It might get better when we’re down to the last two or three. I hope so.
Circle Court caps a busy week but shows in adversity the very best of Lostock.
Saturday 4th Jan
Marshalling the first corner at Wythenshawe Pk Run. First time I’ve marshalled, but I’ve now done 12 runs and that’s not a bad ratio. One morning volunteering for a dozen runs.
In the afternoon I cycled round Gorse Hill identifying the full set of streets that had missed bin collections as the council had arranged additional Sunday shifts of collections.
Sunday 5th Jan
Spent the morning trying to establish whether the promised bin teams had gone out and whether they doing Gorse Hill. Took until lunchtime to get confirmation. Frankly, being told that they’d be reporting the next day just infuriates. Don’t often lose my temper but came close over that. Anyway the word was the teams were out and were doing the streets I’d submitted. Not totally as it turned out, but most.
Receive an update on the Education portfolio. Can’t hide the fact that there’s some local schools giving concern. School finances, it seems to me, are more responsive to school numbers than they ever have been. This is a good thing if your school is attracting good numbers, but if, for whatever reason, you’re not getting the demand, it can quickly spiral. Going to need different approaches, but the bottom line is we can’t just stand by.
Monday 6th Jan
Fury on the emails about the bins. Flixton particularly angry. Make some progress on casework. Christmas has been particularly busy.
I’m also putting together the spending return for the election. These have to be submitted next week and it’s not the sort of thing you want to do during the festivities so I now need to get going with it.
Tuesday 7th Jan
Labour Group meeting. Started late and slowly ground to a halt. I think Christmas has frazzled us. I’d be tempted to avoid the first full week of the year for a Labour group meeting next year. Anyway City won the first leg at United, even if I missed the first half, and apparently we played quite well.
Wednesday 8th Jan
More work on the spending return. In the evening it’s to Stretford Mall for an officer meeting with architects, planners and Bruntwood over the next consultation event.
It’s not long since the last one and whilst that means actual tangible progress might still be a little way off, I think this was a useful meeting. I think the public drop in will also be useful too.
At November’s drop in there was a discreet minority who felt the best option was to knock the mall down. To be honest, that has been my view too. I think it’s fair to say that isn’t a view shared by the planners and architects. I quite like the fact that they saw positive strengths in parts of the Mall and really saw their role as trying to design and enhance those strengths. So whilst I seem to have lost one argument, I’m far more energised by their way of thinking. Don’t be expecting fleshed out designs, but I think their approach both to the mall and to the wider Stretford town centre neighbourhoods is measured and exciting.
Consultation Drop-in at the Mall – Saturday 25th January 8am until 6pm
You really need to attend this. It’s your Stretford. And the planners need to hear from you.
Completed the ‘Doing Buses Differently’ consultation on bus franchising. This is something I’ve actively supported for a long time. The free market simply doesn’t work for bus travel. It’s my contention that the bus companies should really embrace this. It’s the only way they will ensure a long term future for their business. It’s an incredibly positive proposal that will support the bus companies and build the bus transport sector.
Stagecoach Manchester at Piccadilly Gardens bus station, Manchester with the 14:46 to Flixton 15 service. Friday 25th July 2008
Thursday 9th Jan
Library Volunteering and in the evening yet more planning previews
I’m a member of the planning committee so I have to be circumspect over live planning applications, but we were previewing the new stand and hotel extension planned for Lancs Cricket Ground, as well as a tall hotel at the corner of Chester Road and Warwick Road.
Friday 10th Jan
Casework and a Labour Party Meeting reflecting on the Election Defeat (oh, and I went for a five mile run!)
The Labour Party meeting was interesting, particularly the thoughts of ordinary members rather than MPs or Councillors.
I think the scale of the defeat is taking some adjusting to. There’s a rawness to the wounds that have been rendered. I don’t think anyone has the complete answer. I’m not going to spend a lot of time dissecting our manifesto or the likeability of Jeremy Corbyn. He is already in the past. There were a lot of textbook failings in our campaign that will have to be put right whether Labour chooses to tack to the left or right: the lack of a story that related to people’s lives, the diminution of shared values. We failed to connect
We were for the many, not the few, but came across as a party too often set apart from and contemptuous of the very people we wanted to vote for us. That is a charge that can be made against both wings of the party; and one particularly apposite with regard to Brexit.
Stretford and Urmston Labour Party
Saturday/Sunday – Serious Incident at Circle Court
Start the day away with the Labour Group but quickly learn of the Circle Court fire and flooding. Tell Dave Acton and we get over there. It was an everchanging set of circumstance throughout the weekend. The fire and initial water leakage were dealt with quickly but from then on there was loss of power, further floods and the affected area would enlarge, shrink and enlarge again. It would vary from almost no tenants needing rehousing to substantial decanting. The residents were superb and so were Trafford Housing Trust staff. When you go through something like this with people, you realise how stoical people are, how they deal with setbacks. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud to represent this place.
I know things are not yet back to normal for quite a few residents and we’re continuing to monitor. I was really pleased to invite Kate Green over on the Sunday to see the recovery operation and to meet with staff and residents. I know she was impressed.
Unsuitable housing accommodation. Not an easy issue, we don’t have an adequate supply of social housing. It’s what we should have been doing following the crash instead of bailing out bankers.
Social Care issues – heartbreaking stuff
Manchester United – bad behaviour by some of the peripheral activities (match day parking in particular and in all its forms)
Bins – contaminated left to fester
Policing – we want to improve liaison. There’s been knife incidents, thankfully not necessarily ones of serious wounding, but the victims don’t always co-operate with the police.
Speeding – particularly going into Trafford Park. We want a camera on Park Road.
Bus Services – Hardly a month goes by without some reduction in services. Trouble is that some services are hardly used. We need integrated tickets. The loss of the 276 is being keenly felt in Lostock at the moment. Going to look into making the 85 a hail and ride service on Winchester Road.
Homes of multiple occupation – trying to improve our regulating operation
Planning’s been relatively quiet here this month. The only application of note is an application to build two semi-detached properties on Skelton Avenue in a garden. Having said that, there’s a really big application on its way for a massive health spa at the Trafford Centre.
Planning Permission was granted for the addition of a nursery within the planned Orchards school on Barton Clough fields.
Nandos at White City commenced business today. Likely to be very popular.
Really impressed with the Stretford Precinct Market. The first time it opened, it gave the mall its best footfall figures in a long time.
Thomas Street Bridge – needs proper maintenance of the brambles. I think Councillor Walsh took his shears to them. I know he was planning to; and I’ve seen evidence that there’s been a trim of the worst of it. Well done, whoever it was, but it needs to be on a proper maintenance schedule.
There’s been a few issues that have been around for so long I’m almost embarrassed to include them here. I think I’ll have to do a feature on them. As a taster, I really do not understand why it’s so difficult to get a litter bin at the bus stop at Taylors Road. No wonder we can’t negotiate a withdrawal deal if we can’t deliver a litter bin.
Timely that we just met on the same day (Monday) that Andy Burnham was announcing radical improvements to Manchester’s public transport.
It’s obvious we all have a stake in the our environment and no one wants to see our green and pleasant land turned to dust. It’s so good that we have cross-party involvement. I think it’s going to be a worthwhile committee.
Clearly there are global aspects to reducing greenhouse gas emissions but putting our own house in order is never a bad place to start and it has to begin at the local.
We agreed last night that we’re going to want to benchmark our energy consumption as a council. I’m quite keen we go a lot further. The Royal Family seems able to measure its carbon footprint, as can Tesco. I think Trafford can too! We’ll see how that conversation resolves itself.
One of the interesting conundrums we’ll face is whether to measure only that which comes under Trafford’s control. I believe that climate change is a matter for all of us, not just a data collector hidden away somewhere. We should even be capturing data on emissions from commuting. It’s been done elsewhere and it helps everyone appreciate the full extent of the impact we make in our working lives. It’d be quite fascinating to see the carbon footprint of councillors – I think we can make significant percentage reductions in greenhouse gas emissions here.
We also need to consider the extent to which we can guide via the planning process reducing the carbon footprint on new development. I don’t think we’ve progressed as much as we predicted in the 1980s. There was a television series on Granada back then called House for the Future and we genuinely expected homes to be self-sufficient in energy use and far more sustainable that has transpired.
Whilst the House for the Future template might have derailed, there has been progress in design standards abroad and Councillor Jerome has been quite keen to promote Passivhaus design to the committee. The carbon footprint of these is so much lower than a standard build. We need to be recommending quite a shift in our planning expectations. The extent to which this can be implemented locally will be something we want to test.
We’ve also had time to look at some smaller scale projects:
Both of these groups are relatively small but are collectively generating green energy locally using communal assets.
We also talked about District Heating schemes and some suggestion that Trafford Park could offer heat sources. Not so sure myself. Tend to find that the big heat producers recycle that heat to the nth degree themselves. There was a proposal for the incinerator at Barton to be supplying heat for the housing development being built alongside it. Councillor Carey is going to talk to the power station at Carrington, so we’ll give it a chance.
Lovely afternoon with Laurence Walsh and his family and then onto the Euro count…!
The Euro results don’t look any better two weeks later. Within weeks of taking control in Trafford and Jeremy Corbyn anointing us as the the campaign backdrop his Leader’s response , we slip to third. More importantly we’ve given easy passage to an overnight Lib Dem recovery.
Meetings attended
Street Audit (cycling) bit disappointing – more of a cheat sheet than a street audit, but the Chorlton town centre work looks fabulous. I do hope Manchester goes ahead with it.
Gorse Hill Ward meet with Chief Executive, Sara Todd. The big focus from the three councillors was Manchester United – largely because United haven’t exactly engaged at a local level but they’re beginning to talk at a strategic level.
Early days, but United’s new chief operating officer is Collette Roche has a strong reputation forged at Manchester Airport. That background suggests someone well used to having to carve good community relations.
Collette Roche – United’s new chief
I speak as a City fan but I think it’s fair to say that the Manchester United off-pitch operation looks terribly dated. Our complaints as ward councillors are the urination, littering and parking issues (including the illegal organised stuff) that we all know about.
These issues may be local but they can’t be good for United’s global image. It’s got to be in the club’s business interest to bring the off-pitch match day experience up to global standards.
Let’s see how that goes.
Other meetings
Road Safety meeting regarding Winchester Road – St Hugh of Lincoln – options discussed
Match Day management meeting – raised the issue of rats, litter bins at bus stops, and the illegal removal/defacing of parking restriction signs.
Labour Group meeting
Task and Finish Group on Climate Emergency and carbon reduction – This was my first meeting of this group although it’s been going for 6 months.
Really keen to get up to speed on this. It may be that the subject matter is too big for scrutiny. We will need to do interim reports as we’re not going to solve the conundrum but we can be recommending implementing small things as we go.
School Pupil Disciplinary Panel
Walkabout in Trafford Park with the Environmental Team and Amey (who didn’t show)
These are regular walkabouts so I rewalked areas I’d walked 18 months ago. No improvement, in fact things are much worse. I don’t see any impact whatsoever.
Trafford Park Village Shops look actually to be thriving and it’s great to see a lovely looking Burmese Cafe but the grounds maintenance is simply not happening. The Trafford Park Hotel is being criminally neglected in my view and it is such a shame. So a few action points arising.
Casework
Sevenways is never out of my inbox these days but it has slowed the traffic down there unlike…
Park Road – Davyhulme Road speeding – continuing to pursue remedy
Houses of Multiple Occupation – ongoing
Gorse Hill Medical Practice – the inadequate rating has been confirmed and we’re waiting a comprehensive communication process to assist patients.
Trafford Park Village – parking issues and clearance
Pursuing bins on Chester Road at Taylors Road bus stops and replacement bin at Lidl – rats are getting through holes at bottom.
Cenotaph – Amey have been to strim the weeds back. They’re going to replant flower beds in next couple of weeks. Paving weeds are going to be an increasing problem as glyphosate is withdrawn and we need a dialogue over expectations.
Vandalism at Nansen Park. Quickly repaired and restored by One Trafford. Email complementing work sent to the team.
BT Telephone Box at Lostock Circle reported as vandalised. Cleaned and repaired now. Good work by BT
Publicised closure of Lostock Circle post office. Will chase if not resolved quickly
Continued to try to pull together a co-ordinated response on lack of adequate CAMHS (childrens mental health) service for schools. The Old Trafford primary school at which I’m a governor is really worried that vulnerable children might be missing access to the mental health support they need. Schools buy in CAMHS support independently from the community health provider Pennine Care but it seems that there are currently resource failings.
Wrote to the South Manchester Coroner to request that I be included in the distribution of the report she’s writing on lessons learned regarding the death of Sophie Louise Smith at the Trafford Park car cruise ‘event’. Speeding and racing within Trafford Park and its bordering residential areas continues to be a problem.
Emailed GMP Traffic Police to explore replicating Manchester’s Community Speed Monitoring initiative that Cllr Angeliki Stogia has led. Obviously permanent speed cameras are more effective but there are places where speeding is widespread but the numbers don’t support a permanent solution.
Complained that an alleyway had been left in a mess following bin collection. Resolved.
Reported gulleys for drain-cleaning on Kendal Road.
Wrote to constituent advising of the path to pursue when suffering from vibrations arising from road. Complemented the Access Trafford operative who advised me.
Wrote to planning to try to ensure that existing national cycling routes are respected in dealing with Manchester United’s planning application for enhanced security on Sir Matt Busby Way.
Liaised with Lostock Partnership over the planning application for a 12 place SEN nursery to be included within the new Orchards School.
Big congratulations to Maureen Reilly attending the Royal Garden Party
Chased information on Manchester United/Trafford Council emerging masterplan. We’re seeing Chief Exec on Thursday but would be good to learn more before we meet.
Pursued tidy up and TLC for Stretford Cenotaph
Meetings
Cycle Forum Meeting on Mersey Valley – Looked at current and aspirational changes. I love the newly improved Ashton upon Mersey link. It’s advertised as Urmston to Ashton but given it uses the existing Trans Pennine Way bridge over the Mersey it’s good for anyone walking or cycling from Stretford over to Ashton Village centre. It used to be a quagmire – now highly recommended. The actual meeting was only 4 or 5 cyclists plus officers but still got bogged down on the proposed Jackson’s Boat bridge. I’m staying out of that one – it’s Manchester’s and it’s not my priority given they’re forced to keep the current bridge as well. I’d prefer bridges in new places rather than duplicating existing.
Annual Council – A lovely meeting with more tears than a Theresa May resignation. Great to see my colleague Laurence Walsh and Rachel installed as Deputy Mayor and Mayoress.
Rachel and Laurence Walsh
Euro Elections
Never felt less engaged with a Labour campaign. What is Labour’s policy? I can tell you what it is but I know that as soon as you examine it closely, it crumbles in the hand to dust.
Labour’s policy respects the result of the referendum but we will not support a Tory deal. Labour wants a General Election and presumably Labour, if it won that General Election, it follows that we would negotiate our exit from the EU. We don’t know whether this exit would be subject to a confirmatory vote but it’s hard to see how it would be resisted. You’d have to assume it would want to win any confirmatory vote.
I would vote remain in any second referendum. And the majority of Labour members AND LABOUR VOTERS in every poll or survey that’s been conducted consistently support remain. Would remain be an option in a confirmatory vote that a Labour Government offered? I think that would depend on the make-up of the parliamentary party. Those close to the leader don’t seem to want a second referendum (ie. Remain not being an option in any plebiscite). That view might be sustainable given a Labour government with a mandate.
So, as far as this week’s Euro Elections were concerned, Labour was a Brexit Party. I couldn’t argue a Brexit line on the doorstep, and I certainly couldn’t suspend my integrity to essentially lie that we were Remain. Effectively as far as campaigning was concerned, I sat these Euros out. It’s the first election in nearly 40 years I haven’t felt part of and to say the least, I’m somewhat cheesed off about it.
And that flippin’ Roundabout…
Sevenways roundabout! This is not what was expected and it’s not gone down well. The original spec that we took to residents included a raised (25mm) and hatched central island to increase deflection but allow for necessary over-run by HGVs and other large vehicles. Somehow the raised central island has become a painted circle with a continuous line.
Original design
I think we have to continue to lobby for something closer to the original plan with better cycling and walking provision too. Paint is obviously a cheap option and in many cases the right option, but here we’ve got some drivers treating the roundabout as a normal two lane roundabout and others sticking rigidly to the outside lane even on a right turn. With the roundabout being so close to the motorway there’s always going to be a high throughput of drivers who are unfamiliar with the area, so I don’t think we can rely on people getting used to it and it settling down.
I think this is an economy too far and this part of Stretford deserves better.
And Lastly…..
Pleased to have at last managed to complete a park run without walking. Not managed to move since but I did it at Wythenshawe Park on Saturday. I am quite pleased with that.
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