Gorse Hill Labour Blog has moved

I've integrated the blog with the main site. It can now be found at

www.gorsehill-labour.co.uk

Sports Led Regeneration of Old Trafford Cricket Ground and Environs - Open letter to Consultation and Trafford Leisure Trust

To LCCC Consultation and Bernie Jones, Chief Executive Trafford Leisure trust

Following attendance at the neighbourhood forum consutation event on the Old Trafford regeneration, I wanted to put into writing my concern about the absence of Trafford Leisure Trust as a key proactive partner in this project.

The project is a key strategic development. A core driver is sports led / themed and the regeneration area is an area that includes the dilapidated Stretford Sports Centre. The following points seem self evident:

• that the current state of Stretford Sports Centre is an embarassment and undermines the ambition of this sports led regeneration.
  
• that this regeneration project is a once in a lifetime opportunity to create in partnership a creative, sustainable and integrated sports provision that sets the bar higher than could be achieved working alone.

It is timely that the leisure trust is scheduled for its annual presentation to the Council Executive next week. I would really welcome a more explicit commitment to move to the core of this project.

Mike Cordingley

Councillor for Gorse Hill

0161 865 9228

cc: Dr Gary Pickering, Chief Exec Trafford Council

and posted publicly on the

www.gorsehill-labour.co.uk website

Digital Switch Over

I went to the digital switchover event on Tuesday night for councillors and officers. I can't add the publicity in terms of what to do to switch over but there was one particularly relevant advice. Apparently when the analogue service is terminated, the digital signal used by freeview TVs and boxes will be boosted tenfold.

A lot of our residents suffer poor reception due to the container base and other tall buildings. Many of them (me included) have given up with trying to get a decent reception through an aerial. The chances are that the boosted reception improves things and could save many of us the monthly subscriptions we're having to pay.

Anyway, it might be worth giving it a try after November

Mike Cordingley

Tesco's Gorse Hill

Tonight's neighbourhood forum was a bit of a shock. It was arranged at short notice to discuss the cricket ground renewal. As such, residents were invited from Great Stone Road and Talbot Road nearest to the cricket ground. Gorse Hill residents from the opposite side of Chester Road will have received no notice of the meeting and clearly weren't aware of it. This was highly inappropriate.

Tesco's were at this meeting (unadvertised); and disclosed for the first time the sheer scale of their ambitions for the store on Chester Road. They want a store there that is even bigger than the one at Altrincham. At 140000 sq ft, it will be huge. They have had previous applications refused here for stores sized 88,000 sq ft, but rather than come back with a reduced plan, they've nearly doubled its size. Clearly they feel that the cricket ground development provides an opportunity for a sympathetic hearing. The cricket club makes no secret that it needs partners financially, but other than an easy passage, it's difficult to see what Tesco's gain from the cricket ground.

It's obvious that Gorse Hill needs to aware of the scale of this proposal and that this is going to be highly controversial.We welcome your comments.

Public Schools - Elitist, Exclusive and Exempt from tax

The Tory loyalists have got themselves into a lather at Conservative Home. The charity commission have had the downright cheek to threaten removing the charitable status of two public schools; St Anselm's in Bakewell and Highfield Priory in Preston. The Preston school does not provide any bursaries; its only claim to charitable status according to the Independent being that "it kept its fees as low as it could". Don't Asda and Tesco make the same claim? Perhaps they should be given charitable status. St Anselm's used 1% of its fees to provide a paltry two bursaries to two pupils, who I'm sure were heavily vetted.

The two schools have been given a year to sort themselves out. But even this generosity has upset the Tories. They consider the exclusivity afforded to public schools is a charitable aim in itself.

We live in a country that provides universal free education. I have therefore long held the view that private schooling in our country cannot be considered a charitable act and that therefore it should never be given the same status as legitimate charities such as Oxfam and Cancer Relief. My party has been far too timid in its approach. It pains me that these two schools will be able to negotiate the minimum changes to their provision to allow them to continue to receive a subsidy from all of us. The charitable status should have been removed from our elitist public schools long ago. But it's clear that the Tories want to remove any expectation of bursaries or similar and consider the charitable status is their birthright.

Trafford Park Station

I spotted this report on the Manchester Evening News political blog of David Ottewell , their chief politcal correspondent.

Since the report suggests that the minister, Chris Mole, would like to experience the overcrowding for himself, I thought I'd get in there and make the point that it's not just the packed trains that put people off; the timetable means that for many, there won't be a convenient train back.

I've therefore written the following letter:

Dear Chris,

I am writing in respect of a Manchester Evening News story from Friday 10^th July reporting on the constructive dialogue between Gtr Manchester Integrated Transport Authority delegates and yourself. The report is copied below:

Leading members of Greater Manchester Integrated Authority (GMITA) headed down to London for their 'showdown' talks with transport minister Chris Mole.

They were angry that the Department for Transport plans to cut back on the 182 extra train carriages for Northern Rail services, including those covering Greater Manchester.

Apparently the talks were 'constructive and encouraging', with Mr Mole 'listening very carefully'.

He's even promised to come up to Manchester to experience train overcrowding for himself.

I hope that you don’t mind me attempting to highlight another aspect of the rail service in Manchester at the same time, but I’d hate to miss the opportunity.

I have two stations serving my ward, Humphrey Park and Trafford Park. The 8:14am from Humphrey Park achieved national notoriety a year or so ago as the third most overcrowded in the country.

Trafford Park is the last ‘picking up’ stop on the same commuting journey as Humphrey Park and by definition is even more overcrowded. It’s therefore clear that most authentic overcrowding experience in Gtr Manchester can be found at Trafford Park station.

However, it is not overcrowding that I wish to highlight. In fact, many of the commuters at these two stations consider an overcrowded train still to be a luxury. Their biggest complaint is that the timetable does not provide an adequate off peak service with no trains at all on a Sunday. I particularly highlight Trafford Park as the busier of the two stations.

Trafford Park Station

The station sits in a high density residential area of Stretford (much of which is deprived economically) and offers a convenient regular 7 minute journey to the city centre in rush hour period only. It is also the most convenient station for supporters coming from the west e.g. Warrington / Widnes etc for Old Trafford football ground which is about 10mins walk from the station.

I must distinguish between the express Trans Pennine services and local services originating at Warrington or Irlam. These local (non express) trains are running regularly during the off peak period and on Sundays, but on the whole they don’t stop at Trafford Park. This is particularly galling considering that:

· Manchester United play so many of their matches on a Sunday, so the option of using the train rather than the car never becomes a habit.

· Part time workers can’t use the train to commute as they are unlikely to find the timetable provides a convenient two way option.

There are two ironies to this; the local trains that trundle through without stopping are not crowded, and at peak times when the overcrowding occurs, the timetable is actually quite good; trains stop half hourly rather than the 120-150 minute frequency during the off-peak.

From my point of view as a ward councillor, I see the Trafford Park station as a squandered resource. It sits in a vicinity requiring a catalyst for regeneration. It is not served by bus services. We have this wonderful facility that other areas only dream about, but we can’t take advantage of it because the operators won’t add an extra 90 seconds to the journey time, allowing the train to be used by the people of Stretford.

I hope that you will take the opportunity to experience the peak-time overcrowding at Trafford Park, but I hope that you will also look beyond the peak-time commute; to see what really needs to happen to allow this wonderful resource to be used by the people of Stretford.

Your very best wishes

Councillor Mike Cordingley

Labour Member for Gorse Hill Ward

Lostock Allocations Policy

This morning's meeting was really well attended. It really demonstrated a commitment to making the new development a success. Trafford's waiting list is incredibly high and it's getting bigger so balancing those pressures to ensure a cohesive future for Lostock is the challenge.