Just a quick reminder for local residents that the next meeting of the Walkden & Little Hulton Community Committee will be held next Monday (31st March) at Walkden Congregational Church on Harriet Street. The meeting starts at 6pm and all local residents are more than welcome to attend. Hope to see you there!
Archive for the 'Walkden' Category
I’ve just completed a walkabout around the entirety of the Birch Road estate with Councillor Turner, our local PCSO and an officer from Environmental Services along with representatives from New Prospect Housing. The wind is gusting and it’s pouring down with rain, so it wasn’t the most enjoyable thing I’ve ever done as a ward Councillor!
On the plus side, we picked up a number of concerns from local residents, in particular concerns about litter and dog-fouling which we will be acting upon.
The Bolton News has reported that St George’s High School has again had to turn away dozens of prospective pupils as it is heavily oversubscribed.
It speaks volumes about the strength of the school and the excellent service it provides to the community that despite the ongoing threat of closure and upheaval hundreds of local parents continue to apply to St George’s. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The school is clearly not broken (far from it!), so why are Salford’s Labour administration trying to fix it?
Earlier this evening I attended the Friends of Walkden Station (FOWS) Annual General Meeting. FOWS are doing some fantastic work and I was very pleased to see another good turnout for the meeting. From a standing start a year ago, a huge amount of progress has been made and I am really encouraged that Peter (Chair), Neil (Secretary) and Angela (Treasurer) have been reappointed and are keen and willing to continue the good work along with their colleagues.
Three officers from British Transport Police were also in attendance and gave an interesting run-down of local railway policing as well as answering questions from the floor.
I’ve received an e-mail from New Prospect informing me that the next estate walkabout in Walkden South will be held on 20th March on the Birch Road estate. I don’t have any more details as yet but the walkabouts usually commence around 10am - I will pass on any further information as soon as I receive it.
The Friends of Walkden Station (FOWS) are holding their Annual General Meeting next Tuesday - 4th March - at the Walkden Royal British Legion on Wilfred Road. The meeting starts at 7pm and all local residents and rail users are welcome.
FOWS are doing a fantastic job putting the issues affecting commuters from Walkden into the spotlight and it would be great to see a good turnout for the meeting. I hope to see you there!
I’ve commented before about the danger posed by the huge gap between the train and platform edge at Walkden railway station. At best, it’s a huge inconvenience for anyone with even the slightest of mobility problems. At worst, it is a serious accident waiting to happen.
Northern Rail have now recognised this and taken decisive action by… erm, putting up a poster on the stairs up to the station.
This doesn’t actually solve the problem at all, and I hope it does not take a serious injury to spur Network Rail and Northern Rail into action on this issue. I suspect the real issue here is that no-one wants to spend the money - and posters are much cheaper than engineering works!
When the media is full of stories about apathy and lack of involvement, it is a real pleasure to see that the local community cares enough about an issue to stand up and do something about it. Everyone in Walkden and Little Hulton and indeed across Salford should stand up and applaud the four girls behind the Justice4George’s march which took place earlier today - what a terrific example they have set to their fellow pupils and local residents across the local area.
The march was a great success with around 2000 pupils, parents and residents showing their support. St George’s is an excellent school at the heart of the community and I am delighted that so many people from the local area sent a clear message to the Council that the school should remain open.
Last night Councillor Turner and I held our monthly surgery at the Guild Hall Community Centre. It was just as well that there were two of us as we had local residents queueing out of the door!
I think that is the busiest I have ever seen a Council advice bureau. I find advice bureaux very useful, but it is unusual to see a surgery quite so busy as increasingly local residents get in touch with their Councillors via phone or e-mail messages.
Obviously I can’t go into any detail about individual pieces of casework, but there does seem to be a recurring problem about refuse collection and in particular the collection of the pink-lidded green waste bins. Both myself and Les are receiving complaints from across Walkden about bins and we are in regular contact with officers from Environmental Services about this issue.
If you also have a bin-related problem, please let me know by e-mailing councillor.lindley@salford.gov.uk.
One group of people who definitely won’t be listening to the views of local residents over the new Catholic school proposals are the Labour Councillors for Walkden North and Little Hulton - they’ve already jumped ship to support the closure of St George’s High School in favour of the new school in Wardley.
This is not a surprise as the Labour Party locally in Walkden & Little Hulton has spent the past 18 months saying as little as physically possible about St George’s in the hope of not offending their leadership. They have been silent when they should have been shouting from the rooftops.
I’ve received dozens of comments already from local residents, parents and pupils (past and present) about this week’s proposals. I want to hear as many views as possible, so please e-mail me at councillor.lindley@salford.gov.uk or leave a comment on this blog post!
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