Salford’s new elected Mayor Ian Stewart announced his cabinet yesterday and while the people who fill his cabinet positions are perhaps not that surprising, their “titles” are a tad strange. Take for example the Assistant Mayor for International Relations. Why does a city need such a thing? Is our new elected mayor planning on seceding from the United Kingdom?
In addition to the Assistant Mayor for International Relations, the new mayor has formed a cabinet larger than the Scottish administration currently running an entire country. Perhaps Salford has more complex problems than the whole of Scotland? If so, it’s a worrying time for all Salfordians.
Without doubt I am sure Ian Stewart will answer my questions over time, but perhaps the most perplexing question currently circulating opposition members on Salford City Council (and those recently kicked off it) is with regards to the cabinet position of the city’s newly elected Councillor for Langworthy ward. In addition to his role as Strategic Assistant Mayor (whatever that is), he has also been bestowed with the title of ‘Assistant Mayor for Humanegement and Workplace Reform.
No, that’s not a typo. You read that right – humanegement. At first everyone just assumed it was an error and we all believed our spellcheckers when that wriggly red underline warned us that isn’t a real world. So we changed it. The Salford Star and the Manchester Evening News separately amended the ‘mistake’ to Human Engagement. Salford Online went for Management and Workplace Reform. All three were wrong.
Stephen Kingston of the The Salford Star even went one step further after comments on his website suggested he’d got it wrong – he called the council. At first they weren’t exactly sure what the correct title was supposed to be but eventually clarified that it was, as originally published, Humanegement and Workplace Reform.
But what exactly is humanegement? And how do you pronounce it?
The former has finally been answered by Salford’s new mayor. Ian Stewart says “Humanegement is a word I have created to describe humane engagement with staff. It is an alternative to the term human resources, which I feel makes employees sound like commodities. I therefore prefer to use this term as effective working with staff is about engagement, working with them to get the best possible outcomes.”
That answers the first question, but what about the second? I’ve been having fun with that all weekend – perhaps the council could publish some guidance on its website. A downloadable MP3 perhaps?
A few days ago I gave an interview at Salford University where I was asked my views about community policing in Salford. A four and a half minute extract of the interview edited by Kat Middleton is below where I talk about how well our local neighbourhood policing team are doing and how they can improve. The interview briefly touched on the council’s partnership with Greater Manchester Police and I explained how the council could be doing more to promote anti-crime initiatives.
I live very close to Buile Hill Park in Salford and use the park every day (to walk Dexter, my dog). It’s a beautiful park and I consider myself extremely lucky to live near such a great open space (in fact, luck had little to do with it, I specifically moved here because of the proximity to the park).
Over the last few weeks, without any consultation or notice to Buile Hill Park’s regular users, work began to tear up a large section of the grass seen in the picture below to install a cricket pitch. A 20m long section of natural grass was cut out and replaced with artificial grass.
Many of the park users were surprised when the work started, firstly because we knew nothing about it until the work had started. Secondly, many of us thought it was an odd location for the cricket pitch. The crease was mere centimetres from one of the goalposts that make up a set heavily used by local youths. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen local kids playing cricket in Buile Hill Park (once), whereas there are lads playing football almost every day it is dry. It seemed impossible for a game of cricket and a football match to be played at the same time, given the proximity of the crease to the goalpost.
On Thursday afternoon I noticed the goalposts have disappeared. Who has stolen our goalposts? They belong to the park and were installed for the benefit of the users of Buile Hill Park. Nobody has any right to take them away without asking us first.
I have brought this up with Langworthy’s Lib Dem Councillor Drake who has started to probe the council for answers. I fear we won’t know who is responsible until after the election.
I have nothing against cricket (regular visitors to my blog will know I am a big football fan) and if both cricket and football pitches can be accomodated in Buile Hill Park I would be happy to have them co-exist, but damaging the park and making wholesale alterations without notifying it’s users is just not on.
Salford Council needs to learn that consultation with it’s residents over important changes is vital and necessary. My fear is that if Labour wipe out opposition members off the council at the local elections in less than 2 weeks time, this kind of totalitarionistic approach will be all to common across our great city.
Nominations closed at 12 noon today and the Liberal Democrats are standing in all 20 seats across Salford. Additionally, Claremont Councillor Norman Owen is standing for Mayor as the official Liberal Democrat candidate.
Councillor Owen said today: “We have excellent, hard working candidates in 20 seats across Salford and in many of those wards, especially the inner-city wards, it’s a straight fight between the Lib Dems and Labour. Labour have admitted that under their leadership of this city mistakes have been made, why else would they have selected an ex-Eccles MP to run Salford instead of their current leader?”.
“Labour’s Mayoral candidate has no local government experience and was booted out by Labour in 2010 when his seat was abolished. They selected Hazel Blears instead.” he added. “If Ian Stewart is not good enough to represent Salford & Eccles, how is he good enough to lead the entire Salford City Council?”
Steve Middleton is the Lib Dem candidate in Irwell Riverside ward for the local election on 3 May.
Filed Under (Referendum, Salford) by Steve Middleton on January-17-2012
On 14th December last year Salford, Worsley & Eccles Liberal Democrats called a public debate over the issue of an elected mayor for our city. Leader of Salford Liberal Democrats, Councillor Owen, invited Councillor Merry (leader of the council and member of the “NO” campaign) and referendum organisors Geoffrey Berg & Stephen Morris (English Democrats) of the “YES” campaign to debate the pros and cons.
On the issue of an elected mayor for Salford, locally the Liberal Democrats are firmly in the “NO” camp and have aligned ourselves with Salford Labour and support their campaign for a “NO” vote. However, Liberal Democrats were keen to see how Berg & Morris could fulfill their flagship promise of “lowering the city’s council tax by half, or more than half” – especially since we felt, if it could have been done, we would already have proposed such a cut.
Former Worsley Lib Dem Councillor Bob Boyd asked the first question and I was fortunate to ask the second question – sadly, neither were answered satisfactorily.
The debate was recorded by the English Democrats North West Secretary Val Morris, and it’s her comments you can hear at various points throughout the recording.
It was a rather long debate (indeed it was almost 40 minutes before I got to speak), but anyone who was not able to attend on the night and is still undecided about whether to vote “YES” or “NO” should most certainly watch it!
Filed Under (Referendum, Salford) by Steve Middleton on December-15-2011
If you’re politically naive, then it’s generally not a good idea to accept a public debate challenge from two veterans of local politics – but that’s exactly what Geoffrey Berg (Salford’s elected mayor petition organiser) did last night.
I’ve written extensively on my blog about the elected mayor referendum that was forced by Mr Berg and his English Democrat sidekicks but as Salford approached the actual referendum date (and following some active letter writing for both the “YES” and “NO” campaign in the local paper), Councillor Norman Owen, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Salford City Council challenged the “YES” camp to a public debate.
Councillor Owen was joined by leader of Salford City Council (and leader of the Salford Labour group), Councillor John Merry on the “NO” side whilst Geoffrey Berg and Stephen Morris of the English Democrats spoke for the “YES” camp, who were bizarrely directed in what to say (and who should say it) by Michael Moulding of the Community Action Party.
Whilst I have not been involved in local politics as long as Councillor’s Owen and Merry, in all my years I have never witnessed such a spectacle. Fortunate, to ask the second question, I quizzed Mr Berg on his bold claim that an elected mayor would “halve or more than halve Salford’s Council tax”. I was intruiged as to how he could promise such a saving, given that Salford has already been through several rounds of efficiency savings and staff redundancies.
What followed was embarrassing. Actually, it would have been very funny if this topic was not so serious (and costing the city hundreds of thousands of pounds it can ill afford).
Mr Berg failed, spectacularly, to answer my question – in fact, he waffled so incoherently I tried to press him to actually give me some indication of how he could halve Salford’s council tax. He couldn’t. This infuriated many members of the audience who had obviously come with an open mind about the idea of an elected mayor for Salford, and so the probing questions continued long after I had sat back down.
Many bizarre and insulting statements followed from Mr Berg and his English Democrat colleague. From direct personal attacks of Councillor Merry to a dismissal of the hard work local Councillors do in their local communities, the “YES” camp systematically offended virtually everyone in the room. Their “policies” were laughable, at one point claiming that Salford’s higher council tax hurt the poorest the hardest, yet failing to realise that the poorest tend to receive council tax benefit, meaning they don’t even pay it.
That was not the worst of it.
Asked by one audience member if they had even costed what they proposed, Mr Berg floundered, waffled and comprehensively failed to explain how he could possibly pay for any of what he was proposing. Fortunately, Councillor Owen and Councillor Merry were on hand to give Mr Berg a 101 in local council economics and with that the “YES” camp were finished.
One of the last questions asked what made Mr Berg qualified to speak about the pros and cons of an elected mayor for Salford and apparently the answer was that he had once (briefly) been a Conservative councillor in Bury. My recollection is that was the one question he actually answered.
Local Conservative party councillors, members and activists were conspicuous by their absence at the elected mayor debate last night – no doubt they wanted to distance themselves from Geoffrey Berg (who could blame them).
At 11am today, Liberal Democrat Councillor Owen will debate with Geoffrey Berg on Salford City Radio (94.4FM). If you live within the reception area, I urge you to listen in. You can also listen on-line at http://www.salfordcityradio.org/listen.php
A new planning application has been received by Salford City Council to erect a 4-bedroom house on the vacant land at the junction of Liverpool Street and Derby Road in Langworthy. The plot is adjacent to the Moorlands Sports and Social Club.
Application number: 11/60734/FUL
You can read the full application and view maps and illustrations of the proposed building at Salford City Council’s Planning Portal by clicking here and using the search facility for the above application number.
Navigate to the ‘documents’ link and all the details are accessible in PDF format.
Langworthy residents may wish to note that the applicant wishes to close off part of the public footpath (on Liverpool Street).
I would be interested to hear the comments of both Langworthy and Weaste residents with regards to this proposed development – comments can also be submitted to the planners via Salford City Council’s planning portal (link above).
I would expect the council’s planning panel to consider the application in the new year.
Earlier this autumn the Boundary Commission published its proposals for reducing the number of MPs in England from 650 to 600 while equalising the size of most constituencies.
While some of the new boundaries the Commission is proposing are sensible, many more needlessly tear the heart out of the communities they serve and will make effective representation in Parliament much more difficult.
We are now in a period of consultation and as a local party – supported by our colleagues in the Liberal Democrat North West regional office and National Headquarters – we have put in a series of counter-proposals.
These back the Commission where we feel it has got it right; and put forward better solutions where we feel it is necessary, using the expertise of our members from across the region.
We know our plans are better because they have been produced by people who live and breathe in the communities affected.
However, to stand a chance of persuading the Commission to adopt our counter-proposal, we need your help.
You can see here what the Boundary Commission have proposed for the North West (which affectively wipes Salford off the map and puts Langworthy into Manchester).
Below you can see our counter-proposal for the existing Salford area constituencies:
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Boothstown and Ellenbrook
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Little Hulton
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Walkden North
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Walkden South
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Winton
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Worsley
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Barton
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Eccles
Worsley and Eccles Constituency Swinton North
If you could take a minute to add your voice to the consultation via the commission’s website (here), we stand a far better chance of persuading them. There’s just two weeks before the deadline on December 5th. Please add your voice to ours in explaining why you feel they better serve your community.
The consultation is open to everyone and you can be sure the Conservatives and Labour are encouraging their members to take part too. As may be expected, those parties’ counter-proposals are not designed to make our lives any easier!
In October, Urban Vision announced that street lighting across Salford City was being updated with new LED lamps, rather than the traditional filament-type as a way of saving money and becoming more energy efficient. They even listed a few streets in Langworthy’s neighbouring ward of Claremont where the LED lamps would be installed. Great!
But what about Langworthy?
About a week ago, I asked our Langworthy Neighbourhood Manager which streets (if any) would be getting LED street lights. He did not know, so forwarded my request to Urban Vision. The response? None.
I’ve since reminded Urban Vision about my query – but their silence simply raises another question. Why does Claremont get to do it’s bit and save money for the Council whilst being more energy conscious and Langworthy does not?
Langworthy has a proud community and we want to do our bit to help the city and reduce our energy consumption, which in turn protects our planet.
UPDATE 23/11/11:
Urban Vision have finally come back to me and the following streets are scheduled to receive the LED streetlamp upgrade in November/December:
Almond Close
Amersham Street
Brentwood
Citrus Way
Clementine Close
Coconut Grove
Coomassie Street
Culverwell Drive
Mango Place
Melksham Close
Melon Place
Sandy Grove
Tenbury Close
This list is different to the streets initially listed on Labour’s Langworthy ward Councillor John Warmisham’s blog here, however he has since updated his blog to the list above (presumably because he received a copy of the email I got from Urban Vision).
I note with some annoyance that Cllr Warmisham only wrote about the LED street lighting in Langworthy after I blogged about it. Langworthy ward Coouncillors were told about LED street lighting in October, perhaps Cllr Warmisham didn’t think energy efficiency was important until I mentioned it?
Filed Under (Referendum, Salford) by Steve Middleton on October-2-2011
There has been some debate recently regarding an elected Mayor proposal for Salford. I blogged about this here back in July.
Recent correspondence in the Salford Advertiser from the petition organisers Geoffrey Berg (a resident in Prestwich, which comes under Bury Council) and Paul Whitelegg (English Democrat party) suggests that an elected Mayor could “reduce Salford’s spending” and lower the city’s council tax. However, Paul Whitelegg agrees in his letter that the cost of the Referendum alone would be add around £1.50 to Salford’s annual council tax bill, so he is proposing I pay an extra £1.50 to fund his Referendum in my city. This flies in the face of his suggestion that an elected Mayor would be able to lower council tax bills, since the first action of any elected Mayor would have to be to raise Salford’s council tax to pay the Referendum bill!
But ignoring the cost, can the English Democrats explain why Salford would want an elected Mayor when their own Doncaster Mayor has failed miserably since he was elected in 2009?
In fact, following the government’s decision to intervene in his running of Doncaster in April of this year because of a damning Audit Commission report that city is likely to have another expensive Referendum to see if they would like to go back to more widespread representation.
In the few short years Doncaster has had an English Democrat elected Mayor, he has ignored a vote of no confidence in his leadership carried by locally elected councillors, has overseen the closure of 14 local libraries and withdrawn council funding for maintaining sports grounds which serve over a dozen former mining communities. After just two and a half years in power, his policies appear to have done nothing to improve the lives of the people of Doncaster. They will do nothing to improve the lives of Salfordians.
Filed Under (Langworthy, Roads) by Steve Middleton on September-18-2011
Regular readers of my blog and Langworthy Focus readers will remember the traffic calming campaign I spearheaded earlier this year for Seedley Park Road and Seedley Terrace. The original articles are here and here. With the help of local residents on Seedley Park Road I collected and submitted a petition to Salford Council which called for action on speeding cars using our streets as rat runs.
I’m delighted to report that our community committee has agreed to fund the traffic calming measures I campaigned for on both Seedley Park Road and Seedley Terrace, the latter gaining some new full width speed humps.
Seedley Park Road will also see some full road width speed humps as well as a driver feedback sign, which I particularly pushed for as I felt that motorists using the road either seemed unaware or simply “forgot” that we have a 20mph speed limit here.
I am incredibly grateful to Langworthy Lib Dem Councillor Lynn Drake who presented the petition during a full session of Salford Council and for supporting the campaign at our community committee.
You can see the measures that are to be introduced on both Seedley Park Road and Seedley Terrace in more detail below.
Today the Boundary Commission for England has released it’s proposals for changing the electoral boundaries that will be used in the next General Election (currently scheduled for sometime May 2015).
Amongst the North West shake-up, they propose to abolish the Salford & Eccles and Worsley & Eccles South Constituencies, instead creating a new ‘Swinton’ constituency and then splitting the rest of Salford across Leigh and Manchester. Kersal and Broughton will remain, as currently, in the Blackley and Broughton constituency.
The proposals are as follows:
Manchester Central Constituency: (For a map, click here)
Ancoats & Clayton
Bradford
City Centre
Hulme
Irwell Riverside
Langworthy
Ordsall
Weaste & Seedley
Swinton Constituency: (For a map, click here)
Barton
Boothstown and Ellenbrook
Claremont
Eccles
Pendlebury
Swinton North
Swinton South
Winton
Worsley
Leigh Constituency: (For a map, click here)
Cadishead
Irlam
Little Hulton
Walkden North
Walkden South
Astley Mosely Common
Leigh East
Leigh South
Tyldesley
Blackley and Broughton Constituency: (For a map, click here)
Cheetham
Crumpsall
Harpurhey
Higher Blackley
Miles Platting and Newton Heath
Moston
Broughton
Kersal
While I will be providing my own (alternative) suggestions to the Boundary Commission along with a combined Liberal Democrat response, I’m eager to hear what Salfordians living in Langworthy, Ordsall, Irwell Riverside and Weaste & Seedley think in particuar. Please post your comments below.
Filed Under (Crime, Salford, World) by Steve Middleton on July-26-2011
Salford City Council has opened an electronic book of condolence, to send messages to the people of Norway and the families and friends of the victims of the horrific attacks on 22 July, in Oslo and at the island of Utøya.
Councillor John Merry, Leader of Salford City Council, has added his own message as follows “I would like to express my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of those affected by the tragedy in Norway. I have been moved by the way in which the nation has come together to support each other in these difficult times.”
All the messages received from the people of the City of Salford will be presented to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London.
I am grateful to the Salford Star for once again being “ahead of the curve” and exclusively revealing that the University of Salford, located on the border of Langworthy and Irwell Riverside wards in Salford, is planning to remove the famous lion logo (opposite) and replace it with the word “Manchester”.
The current lion logo proudly states “The University of Salford” although some of their letterheads do also state “A Greater Manchester University” – which I do not have a problem with.
If the proposed logo does, as the Salford Star mockup below suggests, simply say University of Salford Manchester, then this is a backward step and they should quickly re-think the idea.
The University of Salford has proudly stated it’s home in it’s logo since it became a fully-fledged University in 1967 (in fact, Salford University can trace it’s origins back to 1896, when it was the Royal Technical Institute, Salford).
So why does The University of Salford think now is a good time to suggest they are in Manchester when their new MediaCity:UK building at Salford Quays is on the brink of opening? Perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that a recent survey of students in a poll for accomodationforstudents.com showed Salford University to be the worst university in the country in which to study. Manchester University was voted the joint second best place to study.
The University of Salford management board should think again, reverse this terrible decision before it is too late, and stick with the traditional logo.
Lastly, I call on Salford Council and all 60 of the city’s ward councillors (including all 6 from both Langworthy and Irwell Riverside wards) to denounce the decision to change the logo to “University of Salford Mancheter” and call on them to support me in arguing for return to the traditional logo we know and love.
Filed Under (Salford) by Steve Middleton on June-29-2011
Salford City Council has been praised by the Deputy Prime Minister for taking an innovative and forward thinking approach to supporting complex families.
In his speech to the Local Government Association, Nick Clegg gave the example of a particularly complex family of five that Salford City Council has worked with to get their lives back on track, saving tens of thousands of pounds in the process.
Speaking about complex families at the conference, Nick Clegg said: “Their complex problems mean they can end up seeing dozens of professionals across public services – but those professionals aren’t always joined up, making it near impossible for anyone to get an overall picture of what that family needs.
“Community budgets are budgeting for real life, breaking down the barriers between different parts of the machine, and treating people with troubles like human beings, not figures on a spreadsheet.”
Before Salford’s Better Life Chances team worked with this family, they were costing the taxpayer more than £200,000 per year on top of the normal costs for public services, with more than 250 interventions form a wide range of agencies, including the council, police, housing and NHS in a one year period.
Their chaotic lifestyle meant they used more than 109 hours of police officers time across 58 call outs resulting in five arrests and the children being placed on supervision orders. There were also five occasions of them ending up in hospital due to overdoses, self harm, stabbing and assault, as well as two housing injunctions taken out against the family.
By taking a more proactive approach to working with the family, Salford City Council and their partners have helped them to get their lives back on track, while also significantly reducing the impact they have on public resources. The outcome for this particular family was a saving of more than two thirds of the £200,000 cost of reacting to the problems in this family’s lives.
The work involves a wide range of agencies sitting around a table to look at a family’s problems in their entirety, rather than each agency dealing with individual family members. By sharing what they know and finding solutions for the family, the Better Life Chances team reduces the strain on the public purse.
In the case of a family in Salford, the team worked with them to deal with their debt problems and look at ways to get them back into work. This reduced the mother’s anxiety, meaning she was less dependent on the health service, as well as lowering alcohol consumption which reduced the chances of the family becoming involved in antisocial behaviour. This ultimately has a positive impact on the younger members of the family as they have more stability at home and are therefore more likely to re-engage with the education system, increasing the likelihood of their success further down the line.
Councillor John Merry, Leader of Salford City Council, said: ““For some time now we have been developing this new approach to dealing with families that seem to have been failed by the state and yet cost the most to support. My main aim is to help everybody in Salford to achieve their full potential. For some families this takes more time and work so we have to find ways of working right across public services that suit the family whilst also reducing the money we are spending on them. Allowing single agencies to lead rather than all trying to do our thing is definitely the way forward here “
Filed Under (Politics, Salford) by Steve Middleton on June-17-2011
I was reading today on Richard Baum’s blog (Bury Lib Dem campaigner) how following the change in political leadership on Bury Council (from Tory to Labour, decided by the draw of a short straw) that the new leader of Bury Council has started a “leader’s blog“.
Bury campaigner Richard Baum makes a good point when he states that while it could do with opening up comments, it’s a step in the right direction and should be applauded.
So, I ask, when will Salford’s Council leader start his blog? He’s already on Twitter, commenting on local politics as @JohnDMerry and is well known for frequenting the comment threads on this blog, Joe O’Neil’s “cut and paste” website, Steve Cooke’s blog and Iain Lindley’s site so he’s clearly not a “technophobe” by any means.
I think a leader’s blog would be a great way to engage Salfordians and would be saying this no matter who the leader of Salford Council was (or whichever party they represented). Come on John, engage your public, what do you say?
Don’t forget tomorrow (Tuesday 24th May) there will be a residents meeting at the Moorlands Sports & Social Club (the former Weaste & District Conservative Club) on Liverpool Street at 4pm.
Representatives from Urban Vision and Palmer Demolition will be in attendance to give a brief overview of their plans for the site and to answer resident’s questions.
Langworthy ward Councillor Lynn Drake will be chairing the meeting and I will be on hand to collect questions, should residents not want to ask them personally.
The other ward Councillors have also been invited.
This is not a political meeting, it is purely for concerned residents to find out what is happening with the former school site during demolition and to learn about future plans for the site once cleared.
I am grateful to the 
