I’m going to have a thorough read through the whole of the Walkden Tesco planning application in the next day or two, and I’ll post a summary on this blog once I’ve done. I will also reply personally to all the local residents who have left a comment on the previous article or who have e-mailed me to ask questions.
Archive for April, 2008
We’re in the middle of election campaigning now and I haven’t managed to post on this blog anything like as much as I’d like to do. I will try to post regular election updates as well as the more regular fare. We have an excellent set of 20 candidates representing the whole of Salford and I hope that local residents will give Conservative candidates the chance to serve them on 1st May.
Of course, the casework doesn’t stop just because there’s an election on. In particular, I’ve received a number of queries about the Tesco development which I referred to in my previous post. I’ve also received several complaints about a highways issue and I am working with residents to resolve this - more on that soon I hope.
So in every respect it is all systems go - local residents in Walkden South can of course contact me on councillor.lindley@salford.gov.uk if they have any queries or problems.
For the last few years there has been what has seemed like a neverending game of chinese whispers concerning potential redevelopment of the Tesco supermarket and the adjoining Ellesmere Centre.
This week Tesco submitted their planning application to demolish the existing store and rebuild from the ground up. You can view the details here although some of the documents have not yet been uploaded.
I am very interested to hear what local residents across Walkden, Little Hulton and the wider Worsley area think about these new proposals - please leave a comment or e-mail me at councillor.lindley@salford.gov.uk if you’d like to let me know what you think.
A friend asked me last night if I intended to turn up to Hazel’s campaign day in Claremont. I can assure Salford Labour Party that I have far better things to do. I shall leave the childish, pathetic protesting at opposition politicians to Hazel’s own attack puppies - remember how well that went down with local residents.
Iain Dale has a new “coming soon” banner at the top of his blog. For the last few days it has trailed an article entitled “Have you sighted the lesser spotted Chipmunk?” - Iain’s pet name for Hazel Blears MP.
Well, I haven’t seen Hazel recently, but thanks to the wonders of Facebook I can warn local residents in the Claremont area that she will be making a rare appearance - along with their candidate Peter Wheeler and a posse of imported Labour Students from out of the City - on Saturday April 19th from approximately 11am. Watch out Claremont!
As from today, thousands of hard-working taxpayers on lower incomes in Salford and across the country will be paying more income tax, thanks to Gordon Brown’s decision to abolish the 10p tax band. On top of the soaring cost of living under Labour, anyone earning £18000 or under - 5 million families across the country - will be paying more income tax from today.
This is just the latest in a long series of examples of Labour badly letting down those people they claim to represent. Locally and nationally, the Labour Party have taken local residents in Salford for granted. It’s time for a change.
Nominations for the local elections on May 1st closed at noon today. I’ve listed the nominations for each ward in the City below. The three main parties are all running full slates of candidates for only the second time in many years (last year was the first time, and in 2006 the Liberal Democrats failed to field a candidate in Cadishead). There are 4 independents of various shades, 6 BNP candidates (5 last year) and 1 UKIP candidate (3 last year). Surprisingly there are no Greens this year, having run 3 candidates last year.
A few observations before I list the candidates:
- The independent in Winton Ward is Paul Doyle who is a local hairdresser. He got his nomination form in moments before the deadline and is causing Labour some consternation as he is very well known in the local area although he actually lives in Worsley Village.
- As well as being attacked from all angles politically, Roger Jones now has an added problem in Irlam as the Liberal Democrats have nominated a candidate with the same surname. The LibDems aren’t in the running in Irlam but in a close election it could cost him vital votes.
- Cllr Tony Harold is running against the Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Cllr Janice Heywood in Weaste & Seedley, having been deselected by his Labour comrades in Ordsall ward in favour of Hazel Blears’ attack puppy Ray Mashiter.
A day or two ago, David Ottewell made an interesting post about the proposed AGMA constitution.
For those less well-versed in local government jargon, AGMA is the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, an umbrella organisation made up of the 10 Greater Manchester Councils, and most of the power lies within a meeting of the 10 Council leaders. It seems the Council leaders would (collectively) like a little bit more power, as well as the chance to railroad through certain measures (like, perhaps, the toll tax?) on a qualified majority.
As a backbench Councillor of course I’ve not been privy to this discussion at all. I understand we’ll be having a detailed discussion on the document in the early summer and I look forward to a robust debate. The AGMA document potentially takes decisions about Salford away from Salford residents and it would be completely unacceptable if Labour were to rush this through without proper scrutiny.
It seems that the town hall clock has now righted itself. Apparentely it has to stop in order to move it forward to summer time, but if anyone has a more interesting conspiracy theory then I’d be delighted to hear it…
Conservatives Field More Candidates
An encouraging post on ConservativeHome - there will be more Conservative candidates than Labour or Liberal Democrat candidates in the elections on 1st May. This is a real boost and makes a mockery of the line peddled by Labour and the Liberal Democrats about Conservative strength in the north - a huge chunk of the elections this year are in the Metropolitan Boroughs and Wales, and comparatively few in rural district councils.
It is very telling that in most of our areas of electoral weakness, we as Conservatives still give the electorate the opportunity to vote for us. There are one or two areas where we are not quite there, but our candidate base is increasing year on year. By contrast, in their weakest areas, Labour and the Liberal Democrats can’t even be bothered to put candidates up. Only the Conservatives are a truly national party at these local elections and indeed at previous local elections.
Here in Salford we are running a full slate of candidates for the third successive year. You can view a full list of Salford Conservative candidates here. We have an excellent set of candidates representing all strands of Salfordians. They will make excellent Councillors and I hope that local residents will support them on polling day.