I was delighted to learn today that GMPTA and Northern Rail have agreed to jointly fund a new PA system for Walkden station. The ticket offices at Walkden and nearby stations (including Swinton and Moorside) will also be upgraded to improve communication for those with hearing difficulties. These are small steps forward but they are nonetheless extremely welcome and will provide real improvements for passengers.
I’m glad that GMPTA and Northern Rail are beginning to recognise the work that is needed on the station. A big pat on the back should also go to the Friends of Walkden Station and the hard work they do in lobbying for station improvements on behalf of all station users – they have pushed station issues right up the agenda and they are starting to get results.
I walked past the Members’ Room in the Civic Centre earlier to find the television blaring away to itself – a fairly regular occurance. I switched it off and pondered who the culprit was…
Update: In the end I had to switch the television off twice in one evening because it had been left on in an empty room. It’s not a huge amount of energy but it all builds up and it’s a terrible example for Councillors to set.
When I went to London a few weeks ago, the lines into both Euston and St Pancras were closed for engineering work and I had to take what I thought was a pretty convoluted route - I had to get a Cross Country train heading for the south-west and change at Leamington Spa for the Chiltern Railways train into London Marylebone. Everything went exactly to plan and it still took four hours. Yesterday I took a direct Virgin train from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly and after following a slow-moving engineering train for most of the route, and then suffering a lengthy stoppage at Crewe due to an “incident on the line”, we finally pulled into Manchester after four hours and fifty minutes on the train. Ouch.
Anyway, by the time I stepped off the train, the last bus to Walkden had been and gone (no trains on a Sunday of course – that’s another blog post in itself) but to give Virgin Trains some credit (especially as neither delay was their fault) they were laying on taxis for stranded passengers, which brings me to the real reason for this post.
By the time my taxi (a “black cab” hackney carriage) arrived in Walkden, the meter stood at £26, and that included a fairly lengthy diversion through the streets of North Manchester to drop another stranded passenger off. The meter was already at nearly a tenner by the time we reached the far end of Cheetham Hill, so I doubt it would have come to much over £20 for a direct route to Walkden.
So my question is this – when did it ever cost £20 to get a black cab from the City Centre to the Worsley area?
I don’t hail black cabs in Manchester City Centre to get back to Walkden. The simple reason is that if you ask “how much?” you’ll be told “£25″ if you’re lucky and anything up to £35 if you aren’t. The City Centre private hire firms are no better with their “out of area” fares – I was quoted £35 last time I went to Rainbow Cars (I got back out of the car). Yet in the early hours of this morning I’ve seen with my own eyes on the meter that it doesn’t cost £30 or even £25 in a hackney carriage to get back to Walkden – so why do punters get quoted such extortionate figures, and what are the licensing authorities doing to check the fares out?
For what it’s worth, on the few occasions I do need to get a taxi back from Manchester, I ring the same local Walkden firm. They are much cheaper, I know they are reliable, and as my mobile number comes up on their system they know that I’m reliable and they’ll send a car promptly.
I’m up early in the morning and I’ll be away for the weekend, so apologies for the likely lack of updates over the next day or two. In the meantime, I’d encourage readers to read this article from this week’s Salford Advertiser (also covered in the Salford Star) about the Council’s decision to advertise the land at St George’s High School as suitable for housing development.
This is appalling for two reasons:
Firstly, and most importantly, the school has not closed, and the current proposals have yet to go out for consultation. The fact that this land has now been advertised as suitable for housing shows the callous lack of regard that our Labour Council shows for the consultation process, and Labour’s complete failure to listen to local residents in Walkden and Little Hulton. A real kick in the teeth.
Secondly, when the Building Schools for the Future proposals were first aired, I asked the Council to write to all local residents in the vicinity of St George’s as part of the consultation process, because if the appalling proposals were to go ahead as planned, residents on Parsonage Road and surrounding streets would suddenly find themselves with a housing development opposite rather than a secondary school. The Council said this wasn’t necessary – and now this. Another kick in the teeth for local residents.
This week’s Advertiser has rightly highlighted the appalling state of Council finances. The Council is now borrowing tens of millions of pounds each month – over £33m in August compared to the (already horrendous) £16.7m in July – just to make ends meet. Both Council leader John Merry and Cabinet Finance lead member Bill Hinds should be thoroughly ashamed of these figures.
The Conservative opposition has been calling for years for an end to excessive spending and waste and these warnings have not been heeded by our profligate Labour Council, who have continued to waste taxpayers’ money year after year. Most Councils have been able to call on adequate reserves in the worsening economic conditions, but here in Salford our Labour leadership have run the precious reserves down to the bare minimum. Our finance spokesman Councillor Ian MacDonald made it clear at the time that this was unacceptable:
Finally comes the question of the Council’s reserve funds. The 4.3 Million Pounds the Labour Councillors are taking from reserves would leave the Council at an extremely hazardous level, and all Council members should have considered very carefully whether they could support such a risk. The Labour majority chose to ignore common sense. We all face a very uncertain future with the British economy precariously positioned. The Council faces staff salary demands next year of increases of 6%. The Government funding for 2009/10 looks even worse than the one we have just been given. Is this a sensible time to reduce our precious reserves by 45% by taking £4.3 Million and leaving just £5.3 Million and a most uncertain future? If the Labour administration can really find no further efficiencies, and we are quite sure that they could, then they should have had the courage to increase the Council Tax to the maximum 5% and not take anything like so much from the reserves. The Labour majority on the Council have decided to make a grossly irresponsible raid on the precious reserves of this City that cannot prudently be supported. It is a risk that we shall all have to share if their policies do not work out. The Conservatives believe a major mistake has been made with your money.
Councillor MacDonald has been proved absolutely right, but of course Cllrs Merry and Hinds did not heed the warning and have continued to spend and waste taxpayers’ money irresponsibly. It is a complete and utter disgrace.
Following the apparent demise of Tracksy a while ago (the site is still there but it doesn’t seem to work) I have finally got around to signing up for Google Analytics which seems to be the statistical weapon of choice for most bloggers now. I have to say I’m very impressed with the depth of the information available which is far better than the Tracksy data and more useful than the AwStats package that I can access via my hosting.
I’ve not done a monthly round-up of top referrers for a good few months now, so I’ll be resuming that come the end of September. I have already noticed from the visitor data one or two of the usual Salford suspects making regular visits to read this site though!
Like everyone else locally I was absolutely horrified to learn of the appalling murder of Courtney Eaton in Winton on Friday night. If you have any information about it, please contact the police.
The TIF and Congestion Charge Consultation Roadshow stops off down the road in Eccles tomorrow (Tuesday 9th September). You can find it outside Morrisons from 11am until 7pm. It’s a good chance to go along and have your say.
There are also two further roadshows in Salford – one here in Walkden (25th September) and a final one at the University of Salford on 1st October.
Local residents may be aware of the United Utilities proposal to build a giant new water pipeline between Bury and Merseyside. The proposed route for the pipeline passes through (well, underneath) Walkden and I have a meeting next Tuesday (16th September) with representatives from UU to discuss any potential impact that it may have on local residents in the construction phase.
If anyone has any comments, questions or issues they’d like me to raise as a local Councillor about the proposals, please leave a comment on this post or get in touch.
No Money, More Problems
It’s been interesting to watch the increasingly explicit attacks on the Labour Government from various trade Union leaders at the TUC Conference. Bellgrove Belle makes an interesting point about trade union donations to the Labour Party. She’s absolutely right. If the TUC thinks that the Labour Government is that ignorant, why have Union leaders bunged the best part of three million pounds in the Labour Party’s direction this year alone?
Perhaps one saving that grassroots trade unions can make in the face of rising living costs would be to opt-out of the political levy. What are they getting out of continuing to subsidise a Labour Party that has long since stopped listening to them?