A little bit of common sense has prevailed with the decision to put the Leigh Guided Busway work on hold. My view on the busway has been clear from the start – this £76m scheme has the potential to cause traffic chaos on the A580 and yet will not make any significant improvement to our public transport infrastructure.
It is completely daft – especially in the current financial climate – to waste such a huge amount of money on a white elephant. The money would be much better spent on improving our local rail infrastructure and local bus connectivity than on an unwanted, unloved and unused guided busway.
I’m delighted that the coalition government has halted the daft “lane gain” proposals for the M60 motorway, and I hope that the forthcoming review removes these plans for consideration completely.
Local residents in Worsley and Eccles already face dreadful air quality due to the motorway, and the extra lane would only have made things worse, as well as making the already-dangerous entry at Junction 13 even more difficult.
I’m really pleased that the Government has mothballed this Labour decision and I do hope that it never sees the light of day again!
Like most local residents, I’m appalled by the latest schemes put forward by Peel Holdings – they would lead to a wholesale destruction of the local environment in Worsley, Eccles, Irlam and Cadishead, to the severe detriment of our local communities. I hope that the Council treat the plans with the disdain that they deserve at the next stage of the Core Strategy process.
However, let’s not forget that Peel are merely doing the bidding of the Labour Government on this issue. The Government’s regional planning guidance, imposed on the people of Salford, demands that we make space for over 30000 new homes as well as heavy industry on our green land. The Council’s own plans, although less dramatic, would still wipe out huge swathes of Green Belt land on Barton Moss and green field land at Burgess Farm.
A Conservative Government would scrap the dangerous regional planning guidance and return powers to local people – allowing our precious green land to be protected.
I was delighted to have the opportunity to attend a number of community events in Worsley, Boothstown and Ellenbrook over the weekend, all of which I greatly enjoyed.
On Saturday lunchtime I headed down to the Christmas Fair held in St Mark’s Church in Worsley, which was thoroughly enjoyable. Unfortunately my educated guess for how far the parish toy spiders had travelled on their holidays (stall pictured) wasn’t quite enough to bag the prize!
On Saturday evening, I went along to the switch-on of the Christmas lights in Ellenbrook, ably organised by the Ellenbrook Village Association. Despite the inclement weather, there was a good crowd for the switch-on and for the carols led kindly by Revd. Kathryn Carmyllie from St Mary, and the mulled wine and mince pie in the Red Lion afterwards was much appreciated!
I also want to extend my thanks to the Boothstown Residents Association and the Boothstown churches for their hard work in organising their carol service on Sunday night, and the gathering afterwards in the Community Centre.
I’ve had an extremely enjoyable evening at the switch-on of the Worsley Village Christmas lights. Congratulations to the Worsley Village Community Association who have worked extremely hard to ensure that the event was a success.
It was great to see so many children there to enjoy themselves and to visit Father Christmas who as usual arrived in the village on a narrow boat. Well done also to Sale Cruising Club who decorate their boats brilliantly.
Father Christmas did consent to the above photograph but asked me to make it clear that he is does not endorse any Party and distributes presents to all good children, regardless of political affiliation.
Last night I went along to the AGM of the Moorside South Residents Association, held at the United Reformed Church on Worsley Road. It was great to see so many local residents turn out and a Residents Association committee who work hard for their local community.
Some interesting questions were raised, amongst them a long discussion about Britain in Bloom and some perceptive comments about bus services and the new proposed cross-city bus package.
First Bus have announced some big changes to their services across the local area, to be implemented after the bank holiday weekend. Click here to read their service changes bulletin in full.
- The 68 bus will no longer go to Manchester – it is being diverted to the Trafford Centre. It will still serve Salford Royal Hospital though (this was a big concern that the Hospital bus would vanish) and will turn back at Stott Lane into Eccles. It is also reducing from a 20-minute frequency to a half-hourly frequency.
- The 10 bus to Brookhouse is run by both First Bus and Arriva Bus. The First buses will now no longer run to Brookhouse and will go to the Trafford Centre via Trafford Road instead, and are being renumbered as service 110.
- The 100 Manchester-Eccles-Trafford Centre bus will now run every ten minutes, and will not serve Trafford Road. Trafford Road will be served by the 110 service (see above).
It’s a bit of a mixed bag. I’m pleased that Walkden and Little Hulton will now have a direct route to the Trafford Centre again, but I’m concerned that the frequency of the new 68 has been cut, and I’m concerned that residents of Brookhouse have had their buses cut considerably.
These buses all run as commercial services so the decisions are made by First Bus. If you are unhappy with the changes, please call them on 08457 881 155.
This afternoon I took advantage of the more pleasant weather and headed down to the Worsley Village Festival boat weekend.
I spent some time at the Worsley Civic Trust stall and browsed the art displays along the Canal before heading into the Methodist Church to look at the stalls there (I came away with some homemade jam).
This is my second trip to this year’s festival having participated in the Summer Quiz last week – well done to WVCA and all the organisers who put on such fantastic events every year.
United Utilities are holding an exhibition with information about the West-East Link Pipeline – many local residents will already have noticed the excavations nearly the East Lancs Road!
The exhibition is being held at Worsley Courthouse on Tuesday 30th June and will be open from 2pm until 7pm.
Sajjad Karim MEP on the Blue Blog
North-West Conservative MEP and Conservative Euro Election candidate Sajjad Karim has posted an interesting article on the Blue Blog about campaigning in the North-West over the last few weeks – click here to read it.
I spent an enjoyable morning today in Worsley ward talking to local residents on the doorstep. We had a very positive response, and picked up a number of local concerns which myself and the three Worsley ward Councillors will act upon.