As many readers will be aware, there is currently a vacancy in Pendlebury ward following the sad death of Cllr Maureen Lea a couple of weeks ago.
I understand that this morning the BNP have submitted the required two signatures to call the by-election. It is likely to be held on Thursday March 19th although that is yet to be confirmed.
Clearly it is in the best interests of local residents in Clifton and Pendlebury to elect a hard-working Conservative Councillor to represent them on Salford City Council, but I do hope that in addition to that the voters of Pendlebury ward reject the BNP and their particularly odious brand of politics.
Last week Salford City Council’s Labour Cabinet met to discuss the results of the consultation into the closure of St George’s RC High School and related proposals. Despite an overwhelming response from parents, pupils, staff and local residents, Salford Labour have opted to ignore the consultation results and press ahead with the disastrous decision to close the school.
The official closure notice will be published next week followed by six weeks of statutory consultation. I will pass on this information as soon as I receive it. A decision will then be made and is subject to appeal to an independent adjudicator.
This decision in itself is an affront to democracy. The entire consultation process has been a sham and has been ignored. Even worse, when opposition Councillors (including myself) indicated that they wished to “call in” the decision for further scrutiny, we received the following message:
Following consultation with Councillor Pennington Chair of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee, the decision relating to the Re-organisation of Catholic High Schools will not be subject to call in.
The call-in process is there to provide a check and balance on the decisions made by the Executive Members. This is an appalling decision and yet we were unable to call it in for further scrutiny thanks to a cosy deal between the Scrutiny Chair (supposedly a Walkden Councillor) and his Labour Group political masters.
Conservative Councillors will continue to stand up for St George’s. It is an excellent school at the heart of the local community, and Labour’s decision to close it is a disgrace.
Why The Transport Commission Is Important
I would never expect the national news to tell me if the line was closed between Walkden and Atherton or if the 68 bus had been cancelled, so why do I see the equivalent reports for London buses and trains on the national news? Surely BBC London should suffice?
Of course, the news emphasis is just a quibble, but the problem is that the same disparity of importance pervades through Central Government and has done for many years if not decades. The current Labour Government have taken this to a new extreme level by tying any significant infrastructure funding to the introduction of congestion charging, a blackmail which local residents across Greater Manchester rightly saw through.
So the question is, how do we ensure that local transport across Greater Manchester and across the North of England as a whole is viewed on an equal footing? Well, the Conservatives have taken a huge step forward on this issue with the launch of the Commission on Transport in the North, which I blogged about on Friday.
We’ve seen today a striking example of the difference in attitudes towards public transport investment in the capital and here in Greater Manchester. This new Commission is a chance to ensure that the next Conservative Government gives our local transport network the parity of importance that it deserves, and that is has sadly failed to receive from the incumbent Labour Government.