Archive for the 'Manchester' Category

“Neutral” Commentators

Published on December 1, 2007 in Manchester. 1 Comment

Ask Developments are a well-known Manchester-based property developer. In 2004 they made a sizeable donation to the Manchester Central Constituency Labour Party.

Today I popped into the Town Hall, and waiting in my pigeonhole was - amongst other things - a glossy colour photocopy of an article entitled “the true cost of congestion”. I assume it was left there by GMPTA Chairman Cllr Roger Jones, but I am happy to stand corrected if it was someone else.

The article is a standard puff-piece for congestion charging, and reads like it could quite easily have come from the pen of Sir Richard Leese. However, it wasn’t written by a politician - at least not a professional one. The author of the piece is one Ken Knott, Chief Executive of… Ask Developments.

Now, I assume that the reason articles like the one I refer to are merrily bandied around by the Labour Party is because it looks like independent and well-respected local businesses are in favour of the congestion charge. That is not the case here. Ken Knott is a Labour supporter and the company he leads has funnelled a substantial sum of money into the local Labour Party.

Don’t get me wrong, Mr Knott has every right to donate to the Labour Party, and he has every right to state his opinion. However, he is no more of a neutral commentator than any Councillor or MP, and local residents across Manchester should take his words with a sizeable sprinkling of salt.

Town Hall Santa

Published on November 18, 2007 in Manchester. 4 Comments

I passed briefly through Manchester city centre yesterday evening, and caught my first glimpse of the new Town Hall Santa. To be honest, it’s a bit disappointing.

It’s not the new design or the lights. The whole “wow-factor” of the Town Hall Santa was that he was climbing on the town hall roof. The new Santa is sat on a silly plinth. He could be anywhere - St Peter’s Square, Bury Market, Piccadilly Gardens, the centre circle at Old Trafford.

I think that rather defeats the object.

A Positive Future For Manchester

Published on November 12, 2007 in Manchester. 2 Comments

Over at Manchester Confidential, Jonathan Schofield has penned a piece about the CSJ Breakthrough Manchester report. This has caused the ever-excitable Manchester Labour hack Chris Paul to get, well, even more excited - which is not a surprise, given that Schofield’s piece is complete cobblers.

Continue reading ‘A Positive Future For Manchester’

WebCameron in Manchester

Published on November 12, 2007 in Manchester and National Comment. 0 Comments

Further to my previous post, WebCameron have now uploaded a video diary of David Cameron’s recent visit to Manchester. If you look closely you can spot the back of my head on a couple of occasions…

A community school by any other name…

Published on November 8, 2007 in Manchester, National Comment and Salford. 1 Comment

David CameronAt lunchtime I had the pleasure of attending the “Breakthrough Manchester” event hosted by the Centre for Social Justice. The centrepiece of the event was an excellent address by David Cameron on education - and in particular on schools. You can read the full speech here.

Now, whilst Labour bloggers get themselves into a big tiz over the terminology (see LabourHome and Chris Paul amongst others), I prefer to look at the policy meat.

The concept of local communities creating education co-operatives to run schools is both perfectly in line with Conservative principle of devolving power back to professionals and the local community, and a million miles away from the disastrous centralist tendencies that the Labour Party (including the Labour & Co-Op Party members) apply to our education system - both nationally and here in Salford.

One only has to look at the shambolic way in which Salford’s Labour Council has handled the Building Schools for the Future project to see how much better things could be if our education system could be handed back to the communities our schools are supposed to serve.

Is Waste Disposal Exciting?

Published on October 29, 2007 in Manchester. 0 Comments

Along with every other Greater Manchester Councillor, last week I received a letter from Councillor Neil Swannick about the future of waste disposal across Greater Manchester. Swannick is a Labour Councillor in Manchester, but another of his hats (presumably a flourescent hard-hat) is as the Chairman of the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority (GMWDA). The letter begins:

I wrote to you earlier this year to provide a headline summary of the exciting 25-year waste disposal contract being secured for Greater Manchester.

A friend saw the first line of the letter and burst out laughing. Important and vital as the improved waste disposal contract is, I don’t think I’ll be in any hurry to eavesdrop on the Manchester Labour Party conversations in the City Arms if the waste disposal contract is considered an “exciting” topic!

That said, on a more serious note, waste disposal is a key issue for local government - and becoming increasingly so - and I intend to read the information pack about the new contract in detail.

Maternity Madness - Letter

Published on October 25, 2007 in Manchester and Salford. 0 Comments

Today’s edition of the Manchester Evening News has printed the letter I wrote them last week about the closure of maternity services at Hope Hospital:

You can view a scan of the full letter here.

First they came for our policies…

Published on October 15, 2007 in Manchester and Miscellaneous. 2 Comments

I’ve just noticed on Facebook that Manchester Labour Club are hosting a meeting on Wednesday, entitled “What’s the Vision? Brown’s Britain”. That’ll be a short meeting then. Rumours that - in the absence of any vision or foresight from our policy-bankrupt Labour Government - the Labour Club have decided instead to show David Cameron’s Conservative Party Conference speech have yet to be confirmed.

They have chosen a very appropriate venue for the discussion on “Brown’s vision”, however. The Labour Student comrades have arranged for the discussion to take place in… wait for it…

…the Cameron suite. How apt indeed. Love it.

Raw Deal For Greater Manchester

Published on October 5, 2007 in Manchester and National Comment. 2 Comments

David Ottewell has an interesting post on today’s rail announcements. Leaving aside the electoral implications (if that is possible in the current political climate!), he gets it spot on.

The Government has now committed to providing £5.3billion towards to cost of Crossrail in London - that’s not the Government support for transport in London but for one project, albeit a significant one.

Meanwhile here in Greater Manchester - and please take note of my emphasis here - we have had to bid for a share of a £3billion loan to cover almost all future public transport investment. Of course, even then the loan comes with more strings than a feature-length episode of Thunderbirds. As a sweetener we’ve now also got a Piccadilly feasibility study, but of course a feasibility study comes with no further commitments, and a lengthy report doesn’t take anyone into work in the city!

I am not for one minute arguing against Crossrail, which is a much needed scheme, nor do I expect that Manchester should receive the same size slice of the cake as London does, but I do expect a level playing field and an element of proportion to Government funding. At the moment, this does not seem to be the case.

Integrated Transport

Published on September 22, 2007 in Manchester, Salford and Walkden. 1 Comment

Today was In Town Without My Car day in Manchester and Salford. Although I didn’t get chance to go along to the events being held on Victoria Bridge Street, I did pop into town this morning on the train - although admittedly as I don’t have a car for me every trip into Manchester is “in town without my car” day! I’m occasionally trigger-happy with the camera on my phone, so accompanying this post is a picture of the ITWMC banner at Salford Central station.

A few days ago David Ottewell blogged about the Prague public transport network. Here’s the key paragraph:

The connectivity is fantastic, too. Each metro station links with trams and buses that go pretty much anywhere you would want to go. The whole thing is, in short, an almost perfect example of a truly integrated transport system. The only reason to own a car in Prague would be to travel out of the city.

“Connectivity” and “integrated transport”. Two buzz-phrases that have been bandied around since (heaven help us) John Prescott was in charge of public transport at a national level, but will the £3bn TIF proposals deliver an integrated transport system for Greater Manchester?

In Walkden and west Salford, the answer is quite clear - emphatically not.

The centrepiece of the Salford proposals is the white elephant Leigh Guided Busway. The idea that this misguided busway is “integrated” defies belief. Once the busway has passed Salford Crescent, it does not integrate with anything. It does not link up with the rail network or the tram system anywhere, it does not serve our local communities, and the idea that commuters are going to hop onto feeder buses is simply unfeasible.

There are two buses currently using the route the busway will follow - the 32 to Wigan and the X34 to Lowton and Leigh. How many people from Walkden, Worsley, Roe Green, Ellenbrook and Swinton use either of these buses? Very few, because the East Lancashire Road is simply not suitably accessible for local communities in western Salford. When First Bus withdrew the 35 service from the Moorside area, there were (rightly) howls of derision from the local Labour Councillors when First suggested that the 32 and X34 were suitable alternatives - but these same Labour Councillors are expecting local residents to use the busway services which will be from exactly the same place! Indeed, First Bus almost canned the 32 service earlier in the year due to insufficient passenger numbers. The idea that the busway will provide a suitable, accessible service for local residents in Walkden is laughable.

I’ve made my opposition to congestion charging very clear, but what I find most frustrating is the idea that the TIF money is a magic bullet to solve all our transportation problems. It isn’t. Money alone solves nothing - it has to be spent well. In Salford at least, there is a real risk that our Labour politicians will flush our share of any TIF money down the drain without any real benefit to local residents and taxpayers.