Canal27ways

Category: Weekly Updates

  • Weekly update – October 20 2018

    Weekly update – October 20 2018

    Had a week off so shouldn’t be a great deal to report. However it was budget executive which meant I had to break away from decorating for a day to prepare my presentation on Monday night.

    The annual Autumn Budget executive is the first publish of a process that begins much earlier to determine income and expenditure for the coming financial year. It’s not an easy task for any of us. Local Government has taken the brunt of austerity since the global meltdown.

    In 2010 central Government funded 57% of council’s non-school services. In 2019 61% will come from our domestic council tax and 39% from all other sources including fees.

    The actual amount that the council has to spend hasn’t changed hugely since 2010. It was £160m in 2010, and I’m proposing £167m for 2019/20.

    The big change is the demand on services. In 2010, we budgeted £52m for Adult Social Care. For next year I’m allocating £61m. Leaving aside adult social care, Trafford’s spending is significantly down on 2010 before we even look at inflation.

    So despite the increases in council tax, there’s less money going to the things that people generally associate with councils in their daily lives; street cleaning, parks etc. And that’s a problem!

    As a socialist, I want to provide Sure Start and youth services, I want our neighbourhoods to be clean and safe. Theresa May laughingly says austerity is over when we can see with our own eyes that it’s not.

    I think it’s clear that whoever is in government, Trafford is unlikely to receive a windfall. We are comparatively affluent as a borough, and many other councils have far greater numbers of people living in absolute poverty. I hope that we do see changes in council tax though. It is out of kilter with the increase in property values in overheated areas.

    For the time being though the more pressing task is getting the budget to balance.

    Live Issues

    • Bin at Stretford Marina – not being emptied as it’s not a Trafford bin. Liaising with Bridgewater Canal and its property management arm.
    • HGVs cutting across residential areas to try to reach Trafford Park. Pressing for improved signage
    • Speed control on Park Road – pressing for speed camera installation. Speeding out of hand.
    • Reinstatement of bins at bus stops in Gorse Hill, pressing Amey
    • Constituent’s enquiry over recycling of tetrapaks
    • Litter left by footballers on Barton Clough fields – liaise with Urmston Town
    • Chase the missing urinals from United home games (particularly Rugby)
    • Civic Quarter Masterplan – engage with residents concerns and support.
    • Follow up on resident’s call for planning specification on dropped kerbs for buggies and mobility scooters in new development. Stretford Marina cited.
    • Follow up on resident’s (separate to above) call for improvements to pavements in Lostock area for mobility scooters and buggies. Broken flags and lack of dropped kerbs cited.
    • Follow up on exterior lighting at Circle Court
    • Follow up on street lighting issues at Tenax Circle in Trafford Park (may have been attended to)
    • Check condition of ATM at Trafford Park station.

    Photo by Lukas: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-survey-spreadsheet-590022/

  • Trafford Council Budget Meeting

    Trafford Council Budget Meeting

    Budget Meeting 2016


    The most important council meeting of the year. It’s by far the most unpleasant meeting of the year too.

    We in Labour failed to convince voters we should gain control in Trafford last year; and this is the consequence. We have a Tory council with free reign to direct whatever any spending choices towards Altrincham and Hale.

    Power within the Conservative group is concentrated with the leader, deputy-leader, finance and most of the influence coming from the Hale – Bowdon – Altrincham axis. Hale gets its brand new library whilst Davyhulme loses theirs.

    That’s the Conservative way.

    And the Conservative way is replicated all the way to the top. When it came to the Government helping out councils, it chose a method that benefitted councils who’d suffered the least in the years of austerity. Surrey gets the largest single amount, at £24m, followed by Hampshire (£19m), Hertfordshire (£16m), Essex (£14m), West Sussex (£12m), Kent (£11m), Buckinghamshire (£9m) and Oxfordshire (£9m). You couldn’t make it up. A scheme that rewards councils for the most billionaire’s mansions within their domains.

    Trafford gets the relatively pitiful transitional £0.5m for 2016/17, but it’s still more than any other council in Greater Manchester apart from Stockport. It feels like Trafford is being patronised by Tories from the Shires who are blessed with more moats than foodbanks.

    We’re left with a budget gap of £22.6m. They’re imposing the Osborne Tax to raise £1.6m. They’re not increasing base council tax even if the Government expects them to. Much of the savings will be invisible to many but grim and confusing to a few. We’ve seen an illustration of this with the home to school transport for young people with special needs attending Brentwood school. The parents and children were protesting last night. You can’t make these sorts of savings without hurting people or communities. I think people get this now.

    We in the Labour Party have a responsibility to take the battle to the Tories. We need to be winning seats.

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

  • Weekly Update Sunday 17th – Saturday 23rd January 2016

    Weekly Update Sunday 17th – Saturday 23rd January 2016

    Tuesday

    Morning meeting in Leyland Lancs for Strategic Scrutiny Network setting agenda for next full meeting. Just up the road from Croston badly hit by floods – puts perspective on some of our issues.

    Locality Partnership in the evening. I got a lot of out of meeting and feeling energised.

    Wednesday

    Meeting at Cricket Club re Youth activities with Laurence Walsh at lunchtime. Full Council meeting in the evening. My least favourite meeting of the month and this one was particularly bad.

    Thursday

    Scrutiny Task Group in the morning, Library Volunteering in the afternoon and Gorgeous Gorse Hill AGM in the evening. The Gorgeous Gorse Hill meeting was my highlight of the week. The inspiration for new things just keeps coming and their pinterest page is well worth looking at.

    Friday

    Economic Growth meeting – Trafford is blessed with some really good officers in Economic Growth and it’s always a pleasure to sit with them. I’d really like them to take more account of public transport, but I’m afraid that the Conservatives see this as something not for them. I’ve posted the following quote before, but it’s worth repeating:

    An advanced city is not one where even the poor use cars, but rather one where even the rich use public transport.

    Enrique Peñalosa, Former Mayor of Bogata

    Saturday

    Two sessions of canvassing in Urmston. Reports of Labour’s demise are somewhat premature.

  • Weekly Update 13th December 2015

    Weekly Update 13th December 2015

    Sunday 13th December

    Last Opening of Gorse Hill Hotel. Attend meeting of residents concerned at the loss of a pub that’s been a fixture through two world wars and 100 years of Gorse Hill. Very linked to Manchester United, it’s seen bad times before, but it’s owners Greene King have had enough and the pub has new owners/leaseholders.

    There are different rumours as to the plans for the pub. My number one priority is to ensure the building is protected. Until residents tell me otherwise I’m convinced that the building is an essential part of the Gorse Hill scene. Although we’ve got problems with some of the shops, particularly ‘Fancy a Nibble’, the Gorse Hill frontage remains a beautiful set of buildings and the pub is a vital piece in this jigsaw.

    Clearly those attending the meeting were very keen that a pub continues and we’re going to explore options in that direction. Communication with the new owners is urgent. I have a lot of sympathy with the view that new owners and management could turn the pub into something much more welcoming and successful than has been the case in recent years.

    We don’t have a huge number of pubs in our part of Stretford. The Melville has seen a lot of investment and it’s vastly improved. The Sip Club on Barton Road is a welcome addition and very popular. Other than that, it’s the Bishop’s Blaize, Robin Hood, Quadrant or Gorse Hill; all quite large traditional pubs. If we’re to lose the Gorse Hill it will leave a gap to be filled and I hope someone steps in.

    Monday 14th December

    Scrutiny meeting looking at educational inequalities. Trafford is rightly proud of its educational performance. It achieves a lot and with less money per pupil than other authorities.

    One area of concern is the gap in attainment between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. This is particularly acute at age 16 and GCSE performance. For instance in 2014, in Trafford 79% of non-disadvantaged pupils achieved 5 good A-C passes, whilst among disadvantaged pupils (those receiving pupil premium) it was 44%, so the gap is greater than the national average. That said, the actual performance of disadvantaged pupils in Trafford is considerably better than average, 44%(Trafford) v 36%(national).

    So the aim of scrutiny is to look at lifting the performance of disadvantaged pupils even further whilst maintaining the high performance in Trafford. We’ve got some great head-teachers from the Stretford and Old Trafford area helping us. At the same time we learned that there are other schools who won’t engage with Trafford at all – academies don’t actually have to, but it’s still disappointing when some of them take that stance.

    We did learn that the task for schools in identifying families potentially entitled to free school meals was difficult for them and that some local authorities made the task easier, Manchester was cited.

    Interestingly, the very next day, Frank Field was introducing a private members bill to automatically register children for free school meals. Giving children a decent lunch is vital. It has the additional benefit of accessing pupil premium funding in that under-registration is distorting the current figures.

    Frank Field wrote this Guardian piece in connection with his bill 

    Tuesday 15th December

    First day in weeks where I had no meetings to attend. Did some casework but no meetings; yippee!

    Wednesday 16th December

    Litter pick in Gorse Hill – This was only a short litter pick but it’s amazing how much stuff is picked up and how well received people view it. I know not everyone feels residents should be doing this, but I’m convinced we should. We really want people to stop dropping so much litter.

    Thursday 17th December

    Library volunteering. The last before Christmas. Lostock College and the volunteers have achieved a huge amount in keeping the library open. We need more volunteers, but keeping the library open after Trafford withdrew funding is something to celebrate. Made me read more too.

    Guardian – Losing Libraries would be a national disaster

    The fate of libraries nationally is in the news this week. I’m convinced that a mix of voluntary and publicly funded libraries has to be the way forward. The alternative is a minimal provision only providing to a lucky few in close proximity to a rare surviving library.

    Friday 18th December

    Meeting of Transport for Greater Manchester – Metrolink and Rail Committee

    We looked at performance over recent months. Badly hampered by flooding. Our line, the Manchester Oxford Road to Liverpoool Lime Street Line that runs through our ward with stations at Humphrey Park and Trafford Park in our ward is again one of the three worst performing routes in terms of punctuality and cancellations. Despite the franchises changing imminently and Arriva taking over, I predict it will remain one of the three worst routes. The big problem is that the line and particularly the stretch through Manchester is running beyond capacity. The Ordsall Chord when it finally is constructed will supposedly help.

    Saturday 19th December

    Son Joe is up from London. Family time.

    Have a Happy Christmas!

    Mike Cordingley

    xxx

     

     

     

     

     

  • Weekly update -7th November 2015 –

    Weekly update -7th November 2015 –

    Saturday 7th November

    Attended target cafe in Gorse Hill to meet with Paul, Marge and Mary of Love Gorse Hill. We’re working hard to make sure council’s new contractor, Amey maintains a high standard match day operation. United were playing West Brom that day. One of the key actions on match day is to ensure the litter bins are emptied before the fans arrive, if the litter bins are full, we can’t expect the fans to use them. We have problems where the fans alight from coaches coming in from the faraway places united fans live, they empty out the refuse from their journey onto our streets. We’re not going to solve the problem without help from the council and its contractor so we have to keep them on their toes.

     The Target Cafe is a great resource and at the same time I got to hear Debbie (Cllr Walsh’s daughter) sing at the cafe. It made for a really nice lunchtime and lovely to spend a Saturday when I’ve not been delivering leaflets or knocking on doors for Labour.

    Sunday 8th November – Remembrance Day

    Rather than go to the civic ceremony at the Stretford Cenotaph, I attended the smaller ceremony at the All Saints Church on the Lostock/Stretford border. It was a chance to hear the new vicar Revd Luke Maguire. I’m a committed non-believer, but it’s important.

    Monday 9th November

    Almost 11 hrs of interviewing for a new Family Support and Safeguarding Lead at Barton Clough.

    Tuesday 10th November

    Strong Communities Board received update from Jamie Whyte on latest deprivation statistics for Trafford. Most areas are doing ‘relatively’ well compared to the national average. This might mean we’re becoming better off, but could equally mean we’re simply not declining as badly as other areas. It’s really a system of ranking – but all neighbourhoods in Gorse Hill have risen in that ranking.

    Also looked at revised partnership strategy. I’ve been hugely critical of the partnership in the past. It doesn’t seem to have delivered very much and hasn’t really been a partnership in any meaningful way. The new structure at least seems to be pointing in the right direction.

    On the way back from the town hall I got chance to pop in to Floors2go. A resident had mentioned they weren’t entirely happy that Floors2Go had put a marketing banner in front of the Gorgeous Gorse Hill planters on Chester Road. Got to say Floors2Go were brilliant about it – took the banner down immediately and asked that they could put it back for weekend promotion. More than happy with the compromise. Well done Floors2go!

    Wednesday 11th November

    Meeting at town hall with Locality Partnership admin. Full Council meeting in the evening. You can watch the council meeting here

    The Conservatives were not answering questions and there’s a concerted effort from them to stifle and obfuscate. I’m not a fan of full council meetings. Families affected by withdrawal of home to school transport for a significant proportion of older (post 16) young disabled people really didn’t get a chance to hear any meaningful defence of those changes.

    Thursday 12th November

    Regular library volunteering in the afternoon.

    Planning meeting in the evening. Great news that the Station Road flats were rejected. Really pleased with that. This was probably my highlight of the week. That patch of ground alongside the railway might not mean much to councillors from Hale but it really is a pocket sized park. It may be brambles and scrub but it’s blackberry picking in the summer and bird song in the spring. One notoriously right-wing Conservative took offence at the description of the patch as park, the idea that something ‘owned’ could be a park was anaethema to him. I disagree profoundly. 
    To be fair though – he still voted against the development.

    Also on the planning agenda was Pomona. I still don’t believe these two blocks on the Manchester border are the best designs aesthetically but they’re a darn sight better than those on the Manchester side. I did object to the original designs – I do believe we need homes though and I don’t subscribe to the objections coming from those who believe we should not be building homes there.

    Friday 13th November

    Transport in the morning. I need to record that I voted against allowing dogs onto Trams. I know it was controversial to some but I was convinced the trial should not go ahead. The proposed trial was to allow dogs in carriers similar to the one shown at the top of this post. I didn’t buy the argument that this was at all workable – what is the passenger to do with carrier(s) when they alight from the tram? Others wanted muzzled dogs. I just don’t think the tram is an appropriate vehicle to take dogs. Most correspondence I received was against it and I am not going to hide from the fact that I am too.

    Meeting with Stella Creasy in the afternoon. I’m a big fan. I like that she sees activism as something other than hand-wringing.

    Image by Károly Váltó from Pixabay

  • Weekly Diary ( 21st Oct – 27th Oct)

    Weekly Diary ( 21st Oct – 27th Oct)

    Monday

    Trip to Northern Rail Depot at Newton Heath. The depot is one of the oldest in the country and together with their depot in Allerton (Liverpool) is responsible for keeping the fleet on the rails.

    Northern Rail inherited its fleet when it won the franchise in 2004. The trains were recognised as some of the worst on the network. The contract specification suggested that no growth in passenger numbers was anticipated.

    In reality we’ve seen a huge growth in rail use nationally and particularly in the North. Whilst the fleet is still very much made up of hand-me-downs, there’s been an extremely impressive improvement in reliability of the rolling stock. This has largely been down to a huge team effort and modern management at Newton Heath. The figures are striking, because they’re still having to run the same Pacer trains they inherited but the amount of miles they’re getting out of those trains is considerably higher. It was well worth the visit.

    Executive Meeting for Draft Budget

    MEN_Logo

    Todd Fitzgerald from the Manchester Evening News captures this meeting much better than I can

    Suffice to say, the overwhelming mood is horror at the depth of the cuts. We’re now at the point where Councils are withdrawing from providing anything more than minimal services to our towns. We’re about to lose the last of our youth centres. How are we going to keep our parks and the last remaining libraries? Some of these may be kept going for a year, maybe two, but the cuts are relentless. The sheer brutality of these attacks betray a pathological loathing at the heart of this Conservative Government for our provincial cities.

    It’s too easy to personalise the condemnation upon Eric Pickles, but Cameron and Clegg have given him free rein to protect the leafy shire counties whilst taking it out on the very cities we need to turn the economy round. It’s a hateful and perverse policy from an intensely shabby government.

    Tuesday

    Afternoon Meeting with Member Development Group. The schoolboy in me wishes they’d call the group Councillor Development because the name always raises a smirk.

    Or may be we should call it the Marmite Group because some of us love the idea of changed roles for councillors, and others detest the very notion that there is anything new to learn.

    In reality the community of councillors is no different from any other organisation. You’ll find the same resistances to change in any organisational group, be it a large corporate entity or the local bowling club. I guess I’m more receptive to change than most, perhaps too receptive, but it’s my nature.

    Whatever one thinks of austerity, it’s clear that councils are simply not going to get the amounts of money they used to receive from Government any-time soon. The caricature of a councillor putting his thumbs into his braces and negotiating a youth club in return for political acquiescence is a long gone stereotype. What remains is a genuine desire to their best for the community in which they live and represent. The change to which all councillors have to adapt is about how we go about delivering those improvements we all want. This afternoon’s meeting was about finalising training sessions for the next stage in our programme of Asset Based Community Development related training delivery.

    I’m really energised by the notion of Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) and its ideas of empowering communities to do what they can do better than the state. I’ve heard the criticism that it’s just doing the Conservatives’ job for them but I see it very very differently.

    In fact I see elements of ABCD as a return to a very traditional model of socialism. The Labour Party grew out of a vast movement of voluntary collectivism, trade unions, co-operatives, reading circles; people empowered to deliver collectively a better tomorrow. The criticism of New Labour and indeed modern Labour is that we pulled up the drawbridge, became addicted to a fetish for gimmicks constructed in Westminster and pulled out of the hat on budget day, with little notion of what was really needed or relevant beyond the Westminster Village.

    We’re heading for a general election in which an estimated 7million citizens will not even register to vote. We have to make ourselves relevant again. We have to roll up our sleeves and get involved or get left behind.

    What is ABCD?

    Evening

    Briefing on visits to Trafford’s Childrens Homes

    “Austerity isn’t working” by wandererwandering, CC BY 2.0