Cllr Iain Lindley – Conservative Councillor for Walkden South Ward
The Walkden and Little Hulton Community Committee meeting is tonight (Monday 23rd January). The meeting is being held this time at St Paul’s Peel Church Hall in Little Hulton, and proceedings kick off at 6pm.
All local residents in Walkden and Little Hulton are welcome to attend. Residents might like to ask the Labour Councillors present why they have voted to send in the bulldozers to Burgess Farm.
Despite opposition from your local Conservative Councillors, Salford’s Labour Council approved the final version of the Core Strategy on Wednesday 18th January, including the provision of 500 homes on the Burgess Farm site.
The document will now undergo a period of “further representations” before it is submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination. The period for representations is likely to commence on Monday 13th February and end on Monday 2nd April. Any comments submitted by local residents will be sent to the independent examiner for consideration.
This week’s vote will not affect the progress of the public inquiry, which is due to report back in April. However, if the inspector at the public inquiry rules in favour of residents, Burgess Farm’s inclusion in a finalised Core Strategy would make it easier for a future application to succeed.
I am particularly disappointed with the actions of local Labour figures. With the exception of the Mayor, who traditionally only votes to break a tie, every Labour Councillor voted in favour of the document, including the Councillors representing Walkden North and Little Hulton wards. All Conservative Councillors voted to protect Burgess Farm.
Councillor Bernard Pennington, who represents Walkden North ward, has regularly told residents at public meetings and Community Committee that he is opposed to development on Burgess Farm. It was a real surprise, then, to see that not only did he vote for the development but actually seconded the motion! Councillor Pennington will have to explain to local people why he said one thing and then did the complete opposite. It just goes to show that you cannot trust Labour to stand up for Walkden.
It is extremely disappointing that local Labour figures have chosen to ignore the concerns of the community and vote for this highly damaging document. Labour have shown that they simply do not listen to local people in Walkden South. Your local Conservative team will continue to fight on behalf of residents opposed to development on Burgess Farm.
The Prime Minister is once again in Salford today, this time visiting Salford Royal Hospital to discuss nursing. I’m pleased to hear the kind words he had for the hard-working staff at the hospital.
I’m delighted that in David Cameron we have a Prime Minister who makes such an effort to visit our City on a regular basis. Certainly, he is a much more frequent visitor than any of his predecessors in my memory and I am sure that this will continue.
For those of you who haven’t read it, check out Ailsa Cranna’s pun-tastic interview with David Cameron from his 2008 visit.
My commute to work yesterday has made it into the Manchester Evening News after the train driver drove off with the conductor left stranded on the station at Walkden. Do have a read!
The Council are sponsoring the opening game of Salford City Reds’ season. This means a cushy taxpayer-funded jolly for Councillors:
The City Council has been allocated 20 places for hospitality, two of which will be taken by the Mayor and Mayoress leaving 18 places available. An itinerary will be available nearer the time, but it is anticipated that you would need to be at the stadium approximately 2 and a half hours before the kick off for welcome, introductions, meal and pre-match build up.
Nice work if you can get it! I said no.
It was extremely disappointing to learn prior to Christmas that now that Labour are back in control of Transport for Greater Manchester, after several years of fare restraint, Metrolink fares for Salford residents were set to skyrocket. Despite a last-ditch attempt by Conservative Councillors to freeze fares, Labour ploughed on with the big rises, which have now been introduced.
However, local residents had a right to expect that the fare rises would at least be handed out equitably. Sadly, once again Salford Labour have failed to stand up to their counterparts in Manchester, and commuters in Salford have been disproportionately hit by the fare rises.
A single ticket from MediaCity:UK or Eccles into Manchester will rise by a shocking 9.37%, compared to rises of just over 7% on the Altrincham and Bury lines, and 5.71% on the St Werburgh’s Road branch. The same is true of monthly tickets, with Eccles fares rising by 8.51% compared to under 5% on Altrincham and Bury routes and only 1.88% from St Werburgh’s Road.
It is nothing short of disgraceful that hard-working families in Langworthy, Weaste and Eccles are paying through the nose while leafy Chorlton gets away with a much smaller increase. If it was the other way around, doubtless there would be much gnashing of teeth. Why has Salford got the raw deal from Labour again?
After a bit of a lull, I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress (3.3). There should not be any visible differences to the site, but as always if you notice something is not working following the upgrade, please do let me know so that I can sort it out. Thanks again for visiting my website!
Happy new year to all local residents in Walkden, across Salford and to the kind souls from further afield who nonetheless choose to visit this website. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and I wish you all the best for the year ahead.
I also want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped and supported me over the past year, especially my family, friends and colleagues, and the good people of Walkden South who gave me the tremendous honour of continuing to represent them as one of their local Councillors. I am particularly grateful to the many local residents and community volunteers who have worked hard on behalf of their friends and neighbours over the past year, and the local police, fire service and council officers who have helped them to do that. I aim to continue to do all that I can to support those people over the coming year.
2012 is set to be a challenging year in many respects but I hope that it is also a good one.
This week is “SNAP” week in Walkden South. I’m very pleased that the lobbying that myself and my Conservative ward colleagues did on this matter has paid off and ensured that residents in my ward have the benefits of a SNAP week.
Residents can find out more about what his happening this week on the Council website: http://www.salford.gov.uk/walkdensouthsnap.htm.
I’m particularly keen for local residents to take advantage of the bulky waste collection, the youth activities and to visit the mobile police station which is being set up on Walkden Road.
Conservative Party News
Low Earners Benefit From Capping Benefit
I’m surprised at the criticism from opposition figures – and a few outdated dissenters in the Liberal Democrat ranks – about the proposed cap of benefits included in the Welfare Reform Bill. This will mean a single household could not claim more than the median working income of £500 a week in benefits: this is equivalent to about £26,000 a year.
A large proportion of local people in Walkden that I represent work long hours for far less than £26000 per annum. Across Salford as a whole, tens of thousands of residents work hard for the minimum wage and tens of thousands more earn less than £26000 each year. It is absolutely right and fair to those hard-working men and women – many with families of their own – that their neighbours are not paid more in benefits than they themselves earn going out to work.
It is absolutely right that those who fall on hard times and those who are vulnerable provided with help from the state: however, it is unfair when the state pays out more when someone is not working than the amount that their neighbours bring in through work, and it is most unfair on those who are on low incomes.
Those on low incomes, of course, will also benefit most from the Government’s plan to raise the income tax threshold; this cuts the income tax bills of millions of low earners and takes many low-paid part-time workers out of income tax altogether.