One of my Langworthy neighbours had the misfortune to receive a Labour local election leaflet this week.

I must admit to being apalled by their brazen attempt to take credit for other people’s work, such as their ‘top story’ about improvements to the M602 roundabout, printed right underneath the headline ‘Labour working for Langworthy & Ordsall.’ This work was planned and is being funded by the North West Regional Development Agency, not Labour, not even Salford Council.

Further, the audacity to claim credit for The Bridgewater Residents Association’s and, in particular, Paul Brodie’s efforts in gaining £100K investment from the Safer Home Funds for security hardening in Irwell Riverside was particularly galling.

I know Paul quite well and campaigned alongside him and other residents as we tried to overturn Labour’s decision to re-locate a Young Offenders centre to a residential street – totally against the wishes of residents who already lived in one of the worst areas in Salford for crime.

I’m sure he will be as disgusted as I am that Langworthy & Ordsall Labour councillors are claiming credit for his hard work and efforts in their election leaflet.

Perhaps the most annoying point of all about Labour’s leaflet is that they seem to think Langworthy and Ordsall are the same! Nothing could be further from the truth!

I believe that while we should (and do) work together with our neighbours in Ordsall, decisions about Langworthy should be made in Langworthy – that’s why I would split the Ordsall & Langworthy Community Committee and have one for Ordsall and a completely seperate one for our area.

Lets stop decisions for Langworthy being made in Orsdall and Broughton. Both Langworthy’s Labour ward councillors live in Broughton – it’s my belief that a Langworthy councillor should live in Langworthy.

Langworthy Liberal Democrat Councillor Lynn Drake lives in Middlebourne Street and I live on Seedley Park Road, both in the heart of our area.

On May 6th you have two votes, one for the general and one for the local election.

For the local election, I’m appealing to you to VOTE LOCAL.

Vote Liberal Democrat.
Vote Steve Middleton.

Let’s return local politics to local people.

Writing my last blog post reminded me of the bar chart we have carried on our last 3 or 4 Focus leaflets that have been delivered across the Langworthy ward during the last few months. Here’s whats printed on the top right hand corner of each one:

As you can see, Langworthy Lib Dem councillor Lynn Drake won an impressive victory at our last local elections, proving that if you live locally you’re more likely to care about our area. Both Lynn and I live in the heart of the ward, unlike Labour’s man who couldn’t care less about Langworthy. He’s proved this by closing local schools and being conspicuous by his absence.

Contract this with the Focus leaflets the Langworthy Lib Dem team have delivered in the past few months:

The above doesn’t include the Pendleton focus that has gone out to residents in the town centre.

Remember, don’t vote for Labour’s man who lives in Broughton.
Vote for local Langworthy resident Steve Middleton for the Liberal Democrats on May 6th.

It was great to spend some time touring Langworthy today with local Lib Dem ward councillor Lynn Drake. Councillor Norman Owen, Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Salford & Eccles tagged along as we talked to local residents about problems and issues in the area.

Along the way, we picked up quite a bit of casework, including graffiti removal, flytipping clear-ups, emergency repairs to vandalised property on Liverpool Street and, what a surprise, more potholes in need of repair.

Residents on Southgarth Road in Langworthy agreed that locally we need more councillors like Lynn Drake who live in the area and are familiar with the territory (and the day-to-day problems). It was noted that those ward councillors who don’t live in our area, can’t properly understand the issues we have to deal with on a day to day basis, and therefore are not ideal for the task at hand.

That’s why we promised them that after May 6th, with their help, we’ll be adding another LOCAL Lib Dem councillor (me!) and removing failed Labour from Langworthy.

Tonight we are holding the Seedley & Langworthy Community Forum at the Salford Arts Theatre on Kempsing Walk (off Liverpool Street) at 7pm. Please come along, our Forum meetings are always well attended.

At the last Forum meeting it was decided to roll our PACT (Police & Communities Together) meeting into the Forum – this means your local beat officers and PCSOs will be attendance to answer any questions you may have about policing or crime across our area.

Items on the agenda include: Priorities for regeneration, Friends of Chimney Pot Park, community health projects, crime & community safety, how to get involved spending the community £100k devolved budget on highway repairs, an update on the SALT trust and an opportunity for questions (and hopefully answers) at the end.

It’s my intention to float the idea of memorial benches to be located in Langworthy to commemorate the lives of Albert Scanlon (former Busby Babe) who lived in Langworthy for many years and sadly passed away in December, and Neil Bullivant, former co-owner of Neil’s Friary aka Langworthy Road chippie. I believe both deserve to be recognised for their contribution to our area.

I hope that you can come along.

A little over three weeks ago, I wrote to Urban Vision (copy here) and requested a walkabout so that I could personally show them the dreadful state our road had deteriorated to. Less than a week later, I was pleased to be joined by Steven Lee (Director of Engineering at Urban Vision) on Seedley Park Road where we met and discussed the current condition of the road and poor previous attempts to fix it.

Steven promised an immediate fix for the pothole and longer term, a partial re-surfacing of Seedley Park Road in the Summer.

I am pleased to report that today Urban Vision workers arrived on-site for the first of two days work to cut out the damaged sections of Seedley Park Road and fill in the holes. I will be checking by tomorrow to see the completed works, but I would just like to pass on my personal thanks to Urban Vision for re-acting quickly.

My enthusiasm for Urban Vision is, of course, tempered – because it took a resident’s complaint (i.e. mine) to get Urban Vision to agree to action. If it hadn’t have been so close to election time, who knows how long it would have taken to get the road sorted?

I am sick of hearing that a pothole “doesn’t meet intervention criteria” and I am looking forward to meeting Steven again to discuss how we can make changes to the decision to fill/not fill a pothole. Further, there are many a road that need complete or partial resurfacing – yet the policy seems to be just to fill in the holes, no matter how many they are and how close together they are.

This policy is wrong and needs to be changed.

During March and April, the Seedley and Langworthy Trust in partnership with Take Part Salford are hosting four ‘Salford Question Time’ events featuring the key political leaders in local politics. The Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives have all agreed to sit on the panel, alongside others with specialist knowledge.

Elected members will be addressing potential voters and confronting Salford issues in public. The format will be very similar to the BBC’s own Question Time TV programme and the events will also provide a training experience for members of Salford Community Media Partnership who would be involved in set design; sound; film and lighting.

Tickets are free, but there is limited availability – so book early.

The themes and dates are as follows:
* Housing & the Environment – Thurs 4th March, 7–8.30pm
* Economy & Employment – Thurs 11th March, 7–8.30pm
* Education, Children & Young People – Thurs 18th March, 7–8.30pm
* National Issues (MPs) – Thurs 8th April, 7–8.30pm

To apply for tickets and submit questions for the event, please telephone Seedley and Langworthy Trust on 0161 737 9918 or email: admin@sali.org.uk

RE: Deterioration of Highways in Langworthy ward

Dear Sir,

I am writing to express my grave concern for the deterioration in our ward’s roads following the recent freeze and thaw.
While the roads in Langworthy were already in a pretty terrible state to begin with, the situation has gone beyond a joke.

For example, recent repair activity on Seedley Park Road has to be seen to be believed. The repairs that were actioned last week are of the worst quality “repair” I have yet to see on any road in Salford (or indeed the UK). Actionable potholes were ignored, possibly due to the fact that white markings had faded/disappeared in between the reporting date and the repair date. This is unacceptable incompetence on the part of Urban Vision.

Further, the quality of the actual repairs to holes that were filled in is of extremely poor quality, with inferior material being used coupled with poor workmanship.

As a consequence, I request a ward walkabout/inspection(as was recently granted to Claremont and Weaste & Seedley wards) so that residents, ward councillors and Urban Vision staff can all collectively agree on what are and are not actionable repairs and acceptable repair quality.

Monday 15th February would be an idea day for me and I can pretty much accomodate any time on that day.

I hope each of you will take the time to consider this request, purely in the interests of the residents of Langworthy.

Best Regards,

Steve Middleton

I’m happy to report that as from tomorrow (Tuesday 12th January), Salford Council is able to resume it’s bin collection services.

Therefore all Langworthy residents should put their grey bins out as normal. If your bin is full (mine is – no collection for weeks!), you can put extra refuse in a SEALED black bin bag, I am assured these will be collected as well.

Please do not put out your recycles – this service is still suspended at the moment,

Just a quick note to let everyone know that tonight’s Ordsall & Langworthy Community Committee meeting has been cancelled.

Will update here as soon as possible when it is re-scheduled.

I know it’s Christmas-time and my thoughts should be on other things, but when it’s right outside your front window – the broken/non-working street light is hard to ignore. In fact, due to Christmas I haven’t really been too minded about hassling Urban Vision about the street light.

However, this evening I was clearing out old emails and came across the email (and reply!) I sent to Urban Vision about the street light which is not working on Seedley Park Road. Monday 30th November was the date – and I even received an email back confirming that it would be added to the list of jobs.

What is taking so long? Four weeks to fix a street light?

Once we are well into the new year, I’ll be highlighting this with Lead Members as an example of how inefficient the Council’s highway repairs are tasked and carried out (if ever). Things must change in 2010. It is unacceptable to pay through the nose, by way of council tax, for the quite frankly crap service we all get from Salford Council.

Following my earlier post here, where I asked “Are these the best Christmas lights in Salford?” in answer to Tony Flynn’s question over on Salford Online – Tony has now tracked down the owner of 37 Seedley Park Road and revealed that Donna McLoughlin is the genius behind the impressive festive display.

Salford Online retain full copyright of this video and it is re-published here subject to their consent.

I still think these are the best Christmas lights in Salford and I love the fact that Ms. McLoughlin’s display gets bigger and better each year. I can’t wait to see how she improves on her work in 2010! Well done Donna.

May I take this opportunity to wish all my blog readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Tony Flynn of Salford Online has posted this gem of a video here, and he has already posed the question: Are these the best Christmas lights in Salford?

While my neighbour has made a fantastic effort – I don’t think even her efforts are quite up to the standard offered by David Brierley.

Still well done – her display gets bigger and better each year. We’re quite lucky on Seedley Park Road, many residents have made a great effort and I really do get in the christmas spirit every time I come home from work (as it’s always pitch black when I do).

Seedley Park Road, Salford. M6

Following on from my previous blog article, Councillor Owen and I stopped to inspect The Langworthy Hotel – this superb example of 19th century architecture is now destined for demolition by Salford Council, who purchased the property in 2000. After several failed attempts to secure investors and sell it to developers, the decision seems to have been made to level it. Rather strange, considering this page from Salford City Council’s own website (which was recently updated) states “We believe that this building (and land), its location, architectural attributes and close ties to the local community provide the essential requirements to create a positive impact.”

The money that has been spent on The Langworthy Hotel by Salford City Council since it took ownership is not inconsiderable. Following the purchase, the council spent almost £26,000 in 2004 engaging consultants Meadowhead Consulting to come up with a business plan for the retention of the building. At the time, the proposal requirements stated by the council were “We would like to engage the consultants to provide a realistic, concrete, action focussed business plan for the building with a sustainable end use or uses so that this valuable local asset and landmark building is regenerated and does not become a further burden to the public purse.”

But now it seems the fate of The Langworthy Hotel is sealed. The Sustainable Regeneration Directorate has proved what an oxymoron it really is, by approving it’s demolition. While it’s sad to see such a wonderful building disappear, it is even more disheartening when the local community has made it’s opinions clear that the hotel would complement the ongoing developments on Langworthy Road.

In April 2004, The Seedley and Langworthy Initiative published a report entitled “Accessing Community Demand for The Langworthy Hotel” in which the responses to questionnaires sent out to every household in the area are summarised. The majority (well over two thirds) of residents thought that the Hotel would make a suitable additional community venue and their last choice would be for the Hotel to be demolished.

Indeed, in publishing it’s decision to demolish the Hotel, the Sustainable Regeneration Directorate even mentioned that The Seedley and Langworthy Trust (S.A.L.T.) was interested in exploring a bid from the Community Builders fund, that could bring the building back into use for the local community. The Directorate ignored this expression of interest from S.A.L.T. on the ground it would “take too long”.

I think this decision is a travesty and hope that Langworthy residents can come out in support of The Langworthy Hotel before it’s too late. Surely until every possible option has been exhausted, including any bid via SALT, the Hotel should not be demolished. I don’t understand why Salford Council see demolition as the answer to Salford’s problem. Demolition should always be the last resort.

This afternoon I took advantage of a break in the torrential rain to join the Liberal Democrat’s parliamentary candidate for Salford & Eccles, Councillor Norman Owen and Weaste & Seedley Councillor John Deas for a few hours.

We toured both Langworthy and Weaste & Seedley wards to examine some of the problems in our areas, but it was also great to talk to local residents and hear, first hand, what the main issues are.

Our first stop was Dodd Street where there are more potholes than actual flat road surface. As you can see from the picture on the left, previous attempts at patching the road have been nothing but a waste of time and money. This road needs investment. Investment that Labour seem unwilling to pay for. For now, all we can do is continue to report potholes and highlight to residents the ridiculous rule that states repairs will not be considered unless the pothole is 2 inches deep. The only way to change this stupid rule is to vote Labour out and bring in Liberal Democrat councillors who understand what our area needs.

I brought Councillor Deas down to Derby Road, which spans both wards of Langworthy and Weaste & Seedley. The two pictures below show the state of the road 12 months ago and today. Can you spot the difference? The road’s terrible state has been a crumbled mess for as long as I have lived in Langworthy – I cannot see the situation ever changing under Labour. Again, we have reported these holes to Urban Vision, but it’s obvious their hands are tied by the “2 inches rule.”

As we moved away from Weaste & Seedley into the heart of Langworthy, Councillor Owen and I left John talking to residents and we hopped over to the new Glendinning Primary School, which is almost directly opposite my house. Parents are rightly concerned that the school is not big enough to house the pupils from the three closing primary schools of Langworthy Road, Seedley Primary and Tootal Road. I blogged about this back in September, when I spoke with the new headteacher of Glendinning Primary School, Ros Munro.

Chimney Pot Park proved to be an eye-opener for Councillor Owen when I pointed out the serious lack of lighting, which means that the CCTV coverage is not as effective as it could be. The poor lighting also means local residents are afraid to venture out after dusk and criminals use the situation to their advantage. I’ll be pressing our Neighbourhood Manager to seek funding for improved lighting in Chimney Pot Park at our next Local Delivery Partnership Group meeting. What a shame that Langworthy’s Labour ward councillors never attend this vital group meeting, which is made up of Police & Fire authorities, Salix Homes, Environmental Services and other service providers of our area.

Last night I attended the Seedley and Langworthy Trusy (S.A.L.T.) Annual General Meeting. S.A.L.T. supports the regeneration of Langworthy and Seedley and helps residents and businesses by offering resources including training & equipment and develops alliances with outside agencies, all for the benefit of our ward.

I was expecting a rather dry affair (having never been to one before), but what a pleasant surprise!

Whilst there was still important business to take care of (this was an AGM after all) such as approving the trust’s accounts and voting on new or re-elected board members – there was some interesting additions to the agenda that I certainly didn’t think would be at an AGM.

The first was an awards ceremony, I scribbled down the awards as they were read out – but apologies to anyone whose name I have inadvertently mis-spelled (or omitted!)

Young achiever of the Year: Lee Gillespie
Best Neighbour of the Year: Ronny Birkhead
Learner of the Year: Paul Adams
Volunteer of the Year: Andy Lane
Active Citizen Award: Danny Fox
Best Community Project: In Bloom

After incoming and outgoing board members were confirmed, the board introduced themselves and explained what role they played in the community – this was extremely useful to AGM newcomers like myself. I knew many of the faces, but didn’t realise their attachment to Langworthy until now. Very useful!

A short DVD was then played for the AGM, which had been filmed and produced by Salford Community Media Partnership (SCMP). The DVD was an excellent showcase for the training that SCMP offer to the local community and I definitely spotted Steve Kingston of Salford Star fame amongst the interviewees.

At this point we took a break…… for food! What other community meeting feeds you half way through? What a pleasant surprise, and it was an excellent buffet too.

Following the break there was a very entertaining Bollywood demonstration, followed by a short ‘lesson’ for some willing (and a few unwilling) volunteers.

The meeting was filmed by SCMP and I hope that the highlights can be published soon for all to see. I’ll certainly post a link here if a video makes it onto the web.

SALT has a community resource centre (ok, it’s a shop) located on Langworthy Road and is staffed by some very helpful people (most of them live locally). It’s open 9am to 5pm weekdays and 10am to 12.30pm on Saturdays. The SALT shop can be contacted on 0161-737 9918 or by email at: admin@seedleytrust.co.uk

Bash, our local PCSO emailed me a few days ago with a reminder about our next Police and Communities Together meeting, which is taking place at the Royal British Legion on Langworthy Road this Thursday 19th November.

This is a chance for residents of Langworthy to meet your local Police and PCSO’s. The meeting starts at 7pm.

Please attend if you have any issues you wish to raise with the Police or even if you’d just like to meet your local neighbourhood policing team.

PACT meetings have proven successful in other areas of Salford, such as Swinton & Ordsall, where they are always well attended. This is your chance to have a say about Policing in Langworthy.

Hope to see you there!

Tomorrow (Saturday 31st October) and again on Monday 2nd November, Pendleton residents will get another chance to meet the three bidders who are hoping to win the lucrative Pendleton PFI development contract with Salford Council.

The winning bidder will be entrusted with a 30-year contract and the money to bring Pendleton right into the 21st century. They will do this by improving existing homes, building new ones and making changes that will make Pendleton a safer and nicer place to live.

Earlier in the year over 300 residents went along to the drop-in sessions asked questions and had their say – now the three bidders have had the chance to take on board resident’s views and are coming back. The three bidders, Inspiral Pendleton, Solutions 4 Salford and SP+ will all be at the Pendleton Gateway between 9am and 12pm tomorrow (Saturday) and between 1.30pm and 4.30pm on Monday afternoon.

Residents will be able to see the latest plans, find out what changes have been made and to ask any questions. For more information call the Pendleton team on 0800 218 2000.

I will be there tomorrow (Saturday) morning along with local ward Councillor Lynn Drake – we’d love to see as many Pendleton and Langworthy residents as possible there.

Nigel Pavaro reports on regeneration in Langworthy.