The Manchester Evening News is today carrying a story that Salford Council has been vindicated in it’s sale of land to Tesco, despite Salford Shopping City owners Salford Estates attempts to halt the sale by launching a judicial review.

Salford Estates complained that the Council did not get the full value of the land from Tesco but judges disagreed and said the information the council received over the cost of the deal from independent experts was ‘proper’ and was taken on board by planning bosses. The court heard there was ‘no proof’ that the land was worth more than Tesco paid.

Additionally, the judge said considerations on behalf of the council were ‘properly taken’ and bosses decided ‘rationally’ to take up the Tesco deal.

Ruling out reversing the planning permission, the judge  added: “The council did not act irrationally or on an error of law.”

I blogged about this pending case back in January when I was unconvinced by assurances from the Councl that everything was above board. I was wrong when I said “a dodgy land deal was done” – is it has now been proved there was nothing wrong with the land deal between Tesco and Salford Council.

While I still find it odd how Salford Council handled a £4m “pre-payment” from Tesco (which paid for the new Willow Tree Primary School) the judicial review has proved, beyond a reasonable doubt, that this was neither a ‘bribe’ nor involved corruption on any part by any council officer or councillor. I was wrong to suggest this in my January blog post.

I call on Salford Council’s Monitoring Officer to quickly respond to my January complaint  and a issue a formal response to the above affect, as it would be my preference not to 100% rely on the Manchester Evening News for the full facts in this case.

As of last week the ‘free’ bulky waste collection in Langworthy came to an end. Since the start of Langworthy’s SRB5 re-generation the council has collected bulky waste free of charge and this has helped to combat (but not eliminate) the fly-tipping that has plagued our ward in recent years.

All this has now come to an end in a short-sighted cut by Salford’s Labour Council.

The new charges are £24.14 for up to four items (excluding builder’s rubble, bricks, concrete, paving flags and other heavy items and gas bottles).

However, all is not lost. Salford Community Transport ‘New to You’ have been providing local residents with a free collection service for  re-usable bulky waste items such as beds, suites, drawers, washing machines and tumble dryers for some time now. This will continue.

Salford Community Transport ‘New to You’ is a charity which collects good quality unwanted furniture for the re-supply to families and individuals in need and will collect any reusable household items free of charge, such as Beds, Three piece suites, Washing machines, Tumble dryers, Wardrobes, Chest of drawers, Dressing and dining tables.

Bulky waste items need to be in good condition and not flat packed, damaged or in need of dismantling for transport.

To arrange a collection of re-usable bulky waste items or for more information please call Salford Community Transport ‘New to You’ on 0161 736 8852 or email: salford@communitytransport.org.

Alternatively, you can also donate your unwanted furniture at the Lumns Lane Household Waste Recycling Centre.

Back in March I wrote about the now closed Seedley Primary School and how residents who live adjacent and nearby were worried about what was going to happen to the site.

Langworthy Lib Dem Councillor Drake who lives next door to the school building (and whose gated alley joins the school building wall) was concerned that given Salford Council’s lack of maintenance of other buildings locally there was a danger the school could become unsafe so she attempted to get assurances from the Council over the school’s future.

No information was forthcoming until a demolition notice was posted on the lampost outside on Liverpool Street indicating the school was to be demolished in May 2011.

As residents have not been consulted or their concerns allayed about the affects the demolition will have on adjacent homes, as well as the future plans for the site (both short term and long term) we are calling a public meeting for all residents concerned to talk with officers about the situation.

The residents meeting will be on May 24th at 4pm, either at The Moorside Sports and Social Club (formerly the Weaste & District Conservative Club) at the junction of Liverpool Street and Seedley Park Road or at the All Souls Church on Liverpool Street at the junction of Derby Road. Watch this space!

While 4pm is hardly an ideal time, it was the only timeslot we could get Urban Vision and representatives from the demolition company to agree to. It’s hope a further residents meeting can be held at a later date in the evening to update residents who cannot attend this one.

I’ve had a short break after the local elections and while I didn’t get the result I wanted in Langworthy (or indeed across Salford as a whole) I’m proud to have stood for what I believed in (and still do!). For those that have not seen it, the result was:

• Elected: LOVEDAY, Gina (Labour)
• Electorate: 9,256
• Votes cast: 2,415
• Turnout: 26.1%
• Majority: 1,032
• Void votes: 23
• Status: Labour hold

Tomorrow is polling station and the polls are open from 7am-10pm. Here is a list of polling districts and polling stations in the Langworthy ward and remember, you do not need your polling card to vote (although it makes it a bit easier for the poll clerks to find and identify you on the voting register).

QA Langworthy Cornerstone, 451 Liverpool Street, M6 5QQ

QB Fit City Clarendon, Liverpool Street, M5 4AY

QC Fit City Clarendon, Liverpool Street, M5 4AY

QD Temporary Building, Visitors Car Park, Willow Tree Primary School, Greenland Street, M6 5TJ

QE Temporary Building, Lower Seedley Road, M6 5WL

QF Pendleton Gateway, 1 Broadwalk, M6 5FX

QG St. Paul’s Primary School, Cross Lane, M5 4AL

QH Pendleton Gateway, 1 Broadwalk, M6 5FX

QI William Sutton Trust Community Centre, Doveridge Gardens / Seedley Road, M6 5NQ

QJ Community Room, 15 Springbank, Brentwood, M6 8RH

QK Halton House, 36 Eccles Old Road, M6 8RA

If you’re unsure what polling district you live in and do not have your polling card to hand, please feel free to telephone the Lib Dem Office on 0161-736 5500 and we will look it up for you.

Remember to vote STEVE MIDDLETON for Langworthy, an all-year-round hard worker who lives locally.

Local community website SalfordOnline have asked all candidates standing in this year’s Salford local elections three questions. As it’s taking them a while to post the answers, I thought it’d be worthwile me posting my own answers on my blog:-

1) Why have you decided to stand?
As a resident of Langworthy I really care about my neighbourhood and feel that we are under-represented in the community and on the council. I want to make a difference to the quality of our lives in Langworthy, by ensuring that Salford Council are more pro-active in helping to reduce crime and finishing the regeneration of our ward. I would vote to ensure that taxpayer’s money is not wasted on marketing spin, glossy magazines and consultants and instead spent in our community to provide services to local residents. Somebody needs to stand up for Langworthy and it’s clear to me that if our elected representatives do not live in our area, they cannot understand the problems we face and what we want – I see the problems for myself every day and my neighbours tell me what issues they face every day.

2) What do you see as the main problems affecting your area?
Salford Labour have failed to complete the promised re-generation of Langworthy and, like many other parts of the city, we are left with tinned-up houses and fenced off grassed areas where good, solid family homes used to be. While the Lib Dems in government have backed the PFI project for Pendleton, which will give the area a much needed facelift, it comes years later that it should have. Labour have forgotten Langworthy and allowed many of the council-owned and maintained buildings in the area rot to the point of collapse, two examples of which are the Langworthy Hotel and the shops on Liverpool Street. Drug farms are becoming an increasing problem across the ward, along with anti-social behaviour which is usually alcohol-related. Finally, our roads have deteriorated to such a state that last year Labour’s leader admitted the council had a £100m backlog of road repairs with no possible way to reduce that backlog.

3) How would you go about solving those problems?
The Liberal Democrats in government have approved the Pendleton PFI project which is a welcome start to begin the regeneration of the area, but there are still many homes and streets across the whole ward where improvement is needed. Salford Lib Dems will be pushing for improvements to homes across the area so that they reach the decent homes standard and insisting that council-owned property is properly maintained and looked after. Many of the drug farms that have been closed down by local Police teams have been inside socially rented council houses and the Lib Dems on the Salford Council are committed to evicting tenants who allow their homes to be used to cultivate drugs, something Labour seem hesitent to do. Anti-social behaviour should not be tolerated and many occurences have been fuelled by alcohol – as Langworthy has far more licenced premises than any other ward across the city, we would put a temporary hold on granting of any further licences to sell alcohol and immediately order a review of those premises currently selling alcohol in the area. Alcohol retailers have a duty to their neighbours and we would encourage them to work with the council to ensure that alcohol is sold responsibly and legally. Finally, I am happy to report that Lib Dems in government have recently granted Salford over £608,000 to immediately tackle road repairs across the city which comes on the back of £100m which was earmarked for potholes in February. Lib Dems in government have recognised that potholes and poorly maintained roads are a danger to all road users and brings the total extra funding to £200m since the election.

From today, Tuesday 12 April 2011, your blue and brown bin, recycling collections will be changing from a fortnightly to monthly collection schedule.

Under the new scheme:

• Your blue and brown recycling bins will be collected once a month (instead of once a fortnight) on the same day as your black bin.
• Collection of all other bins will not change with your general domestic waste (black bin) collected weekly and your garden waste (pink lidded bin) collected fortnightly.

All households in Salford should have received a new calendar sticker attached to your blue and brown recycling bins which detail your new monthly collection dates. Please make a note of the calendar dates showing your new sequence of recycling collections.

Because I live in Langworthy, I’m frequently checking planning applications to see if any potential development could cause problems for my neighbours and this evening I have come across a troubling application from Tesco, in relation to the Pendleton Store.

Late last year, Tesco were controversially granted planning permission for their new “eco-store” in Pendleton (despite nothing about the building being eco-anything) and to protect local Langworthy residents from noise and being disturbed in the early hours, a restriction was put in place on the times that Tesco would be allowed to deliver their produce to the store.

These restrictions were no HGV movements/loading/unloading outside the hours of 9am and 9pm and no other loading or unloading outside the hours of 9am and 9pm.

Tesco is now seeking to remove these planning restrictions by way of planning application number 11/60166/FUL which is a variation of their original application number 10/59130/FUL which has already been granted permission.

All local Pendleton and Langworthy residents should immediately write to Salford Council’s planning committee quoting planning application number 11/60166/FUL. Langworthy and Pendleton residents have an automatic right to quiet enjoyment of their homes without being woken by deliveries on a Sunday morning before 9am.

Tesco’s reason for removing the above loading/unloading restrictions are “to enable the foodstore to operate more efficiently with regard to deliveries to the store” which is a nonsense reason. Tesco takes no account of it’s neighbours and the store is fully capable of operating just fine with loading and unloading between the hours of 9am and 9pm.

You can comment on this planning application by going to http://publicaccess.salford.gov.uk/publicaccess/ and searching for planning application number 11/60166/FUL and then clicking on ‘Make a Public Comment’

I took this photograph in June 2009 a few months after construction began of the new Willow Tree Primary School on Greenland Street in Langworthy. As you can see from the state of the road, contractors heavy goods vehicles that delivered and removed building materials completed wrecked the road.

We were promised this would be “looked into” by Urban Vision and the state of the road has regularly been reported to Community Committee with a view to insisting the building contractor return the road to the condition it was before they started their work.

Today the condition of the road on Greenland Street is no different (ok, it’s slightly worse). While the school has now opened and the HGVs have gone, the potholes and uneven surface of the road remains.

My neighbours and I are sick to death of having to drive down roads like this – and I cannot imagine what is must be like to cycle down it!

What really annoys is that they “forgot” to paint the yellow “no parking” lines outside the school entrance and had to come back and do it after the school has opened. The even painted the lines through the potholes!

Unfortunately, as a mere resident (and community committee member) I have reached the end of what I can do to remedy this problem. If I was a Councillor, I could speak directly to Salford Council’s Highways Department and Urban Vision themselves, perhaps even with the school building contractor, to reach a resolution to this 2 year problem.

Our Labour Councillors in Langworthy have failed us. If you elect me as your Councillor in Langworthy on May 5th I promise to do everything I can to have Greenland Street resurfaced out of the extra “pothole cash” provided by our coalition government.

These are difficult times for people across Britain, but this week has shown that this can also be an opportunity to reshape Britain into a fairer, more equal and greener country.

Labour’s financial legacy has left Britain needing to borrow an extra £400million, every single day, just to get by. Labour also left us paying £120million in interest on our debt each and every day – for that we could build a new primary school every hour.

Salford’s share of the country’s debt now stands at a monstrous £7.98billion and in order to sort that out the government is making the savings which I know a lot of people are finding painful. As a public sector worker myself, having a pay freeze as prices go up, I know exactly how a lot of people feel about this. But the alternative would be worse.

I am pleased that despite all this, Liberal Democrat policies coming into action this week are making a positive difference to people’s lives in our great city.

Over the last seven days in Salford, thanks to Liberal Democrats:

• 74,000 local people are getting a £200 income tax cut – benefiting 23 million people across the country
• 3,400 local people have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether, with more to come
• 39,500 Salford pensioners have been given an extra £4.50 a week – and those retiring from today will be on average £15,000 better off over their retirement.
• Nationally, £625million extra has gone to our schools, aimed at the most disadvantaged pupils – rising to £2.5billion a year by 2015

Liberal Democrats in government will not stop there.

This week also saw Pensions Minister Steve Webb announcing that the Government will be introducing a simple, flat-rate state pension of £140 to replace the current complicated, unfair and means-tested system.

Business Secretary Vince Cable is cutting regulation to promote small business and create jobs.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Chris Huhne revealed that Britain will be hosting the 2012 Clean Energy Summit – putting Britain at the heart of the Green Energy Revolution.

These are some of the reasons I am proud to be a Lib Dem candidate in the coming local elections. In these tough times (and, let’s face it, they’d be tough whoever was running it) we’re making the most of our position as a junior partner of the coalition and putting into action nationally things that are really helping Salford people.

It’s now under a month until the Salford local elections on May 5th and I am proud, to once again, be selected as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Langworthy.

My main reason for standing again is simply because I enjoy helping people and solving problems. Being a Councillor allows me to do that in an official capacity and offers me an opportunity to put resident’s concerns and problems direct to council officers.

While party politics is important, I see myself more as a local champion than simply “the Liberal Democrat candidate” – the Lib Dem way of getting a pothole fixed, a broken street light repaired, an illegal off-road motorbike reported or graffiti cleaned up is no different to the Labour way. There are only the differences between good Councillors and bad ones – Councillors who respond to calls for help and stay in touch, and ones who don’t. I hope people vote with that in mind, and that they think I am worth their vote.

Living in Langworthy (unlike all my opponents in this election, apart from the UKIP candidate) means that my wife and I are a part of this community and we want it to thrive.

I hope that people feel I am worthy of their vote. I would be happy to speak to anyone about any issue, large or small, at any time. Just drop me a line on 07870 444 235 or email me at steve@stevemiddleton.info

People can also read this blog which I have updated often over the past couple of years to give people the chance to hear my views and engage in debate. A few Salford Lib Dems from my party have sites like this in Salford and I am proud of this as a tool to keep people informed and engaged. You’ll also notice that many of my opponents in Labour and  the Conservatives have commented on my blog posts – I actively encourage them to do so, as I am not afraid to debate my points, I welcome the opportunity to do so.

Over the next few weeks I’ll talk about the issues and why I think I am worth your vote more than my opponents. I hope I can convince enough people. If you’re unconvinced, let me know why and I’ll see what I can do.

Whilst reviewing a response to Monton residents and business owners from Salford Council’s Lead Member for Planning Labour Councillor Derek Antrobus on the excellent Salford Online, I notice a startling sentence in his official statement:

“It is important to bear in mind that…users at Monton have had nearly a decade of free parking when charges should have been imposed”

It’s an astonishing fact that almost 10 years ago, Salford Council’s Planning and Transportation Regulatory Panel passed a resolution to introduce car parking charges in Monton, but then forgot to do so.

And while I have every sympathy for Monton residents and business owners, since I disagree with having to park to shop locally (Bury Council can manage free parking, why can’t Salford?) – it seems that this is yet more proof of Salford Labour’s financial mis-management of our beloved city.

If Salford Council had implemented the Monton car parking charges back in 2002 when they were supposed to, that might have stopped this month’s increases in all the other council-controlled car parks across Salford.

You can see Councillor Antrobus’ full statement, including his admission that they simply forgot to implement car parking charges in Monton on Salford Online here.

Vote  out incompetent Labour on May 5th.

Vote Liberal Democrat in Langworthy.

The candidates for Langworthy ward in the 2011 Salford City Council local elections were published yesterday, revealing six candidates have been validly nominated in Langworthy. They are as follows:-

• Andy Behan, Trade Unionists and Socialists Against Cuts
• George Darlington, Conservative Party
• Keith Fairhurst, British National Party
• Graeme Hulse, UK Independence Party
• Gina Loveday, Labour Party
• Steve Middleton, Liberal Democrats

A few interesting names in that list. Yours truly is at the bottom of the ballot paper and current incumbant Gina Loveday (who lives in Blackfriars, Irwell Riverside ward) is 5th on the ballot.

Andy Behan stood for TUSK/TUSC/Hazel Must Go last year in Ordsall and garnered 255 votes. It’s hard to believe he’ll even match that in Langworthy, since most of his Ordsall voters were undoubtedly making a “anti-Hazel Blears” vote.

George Darlington was the Tory paper candidate here in Langworthy last time and managed a distant third place, just managing to beat the BNP by 67 votes.

Keith Fairhurst recently stood as the BNP candidate in Walkden North on 3rd March this year finishing 4th with 92 votes. He didn’t stand anywhere last year but in 2011 has suddenly popped up on the electoral register, living in Irwell Riverside ward.

UKIP didn’t stand a candidate in Langworthy last year, this year newcomer Graeme Hulse is nominated by them and, thankfully, at least lives in the ward like me (unlike the Labour, Conservative, BNP and TUSC candidates).

I suspect UKIP and BNP will split their small representation between them this year and it’s clear from previous years that the Conservatives just can’t win here.

It’s a straight fight between local Langworthy Lib Dem Steve Middleton and Labour’s candidate from Blackfriars. Who would you choose to represent your neighbourhood? A fellow neighbour….it makes perfect sense.

Kick Labour out by voting Liberal Democrat in Langworthy on May 5th – it’s the only way to get rid of Labour here.

Local Liberal Democrats have welcomed a commitment made in last week’s Budget to give another £100m to repair potholes in the nation’s roads. The extra funding, which will see £608,644 to repair pot holes across Salford, comes on top of the £100m earmarked for pot holes which was announced by the coalition government in February.

Commenting on the news, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Langworthy ward Steve Middleton said “This is great news, and brings the total extra funding prioritised by the government to £200m. Hopefully this will start to undo the estimated £100m maintenance backlog for Salford roads which accumulated under our Labour-controlled council.”

Steve continued “Road and pavement repairs are one of the biggest issues local people have asked me about while I’ve been campaigning this year. We are crying out for investment, and locally Lib Dem Councillors and Campaigners have been pressing for repairs year after year. Now the Lib Dems in government are coming up with the goods even in these bad financial times. Potholes are bad for cars, bikes and buses, and wonky pavements are bad for pedestrians. This money from the government will help sort it, and we’ll campaign hard to get the worst local roads fixed.”

Greater Manchester Police has issued a warning to smartphone and iPhone users to keep their expensive gadgets and mobile phones safe after a theft earlier this month at the Langworthy metrolink stop.

A thief snatched an iPhone at about 2.30pm on Friday 4 March 2011 from a 27-year-old woman who was travelling towards Eccles on the Metrolink.

She was flicking through applications on the phone when the tram stopped at the Langworthy Road stop on Eccles New Road and a stranger snatched the phone from her and ran out of the tram.

The victim and another passenger chased the offender.

There is no clear description of the offender and it is not known whether the person responsible is a man or a woman. The person was wearing a grey hooded top.

Police Constable Mark Gingell said: "The offender may have thought he or she could get away with this but we are now actively pursuing this person.

"We are appealing to anyone who was on this tram and who might be able to paint a better picture of the offender. The descriptions we have are scant because the incident took place so quickly.

"The more witnesses we get the better the chance we have of tracing the person responsible."

Anyone with any information is asked to call police on 0161 856 5250 or call the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Following Salford Council’s budget and their announcement that school crossing patrol numbers are at risk I note that Liberal Democrat-controlled Sefton Council (just down the East Lancs Road) has voted in it’s own budget to reduce Councillor allowances by 5%.

This measure (suggested by both opposition parties on Salford Council and rejected by Labour) has saved all of Sefton’s “lollipop services”.

Sefton Councillors now receive £8,520 which also includes a fixed amount for travelling expenses. Compare that to Salford Council’s £10,080 standard allowance plus travel expenses can be claimed on top of that.

All councils throughout the country are getting less taxpayers government grant money to pay for running their services because Britain is hugely in debt and they are having to make big savings. The previous government spent money that it simply didn’t have.  Instead, it borrowed.

Our “national credit card” debt is now equal to £22,400 for every person living in our country. We are in hock to others who lend us this money and we cannot go on like this and must reduce this huge national overdraft for us and future generations.  Government has to pay out millions of pounds every day in interest payments.

It’s difficult to realise, as we all go about our daily business, that Britain’s finances are in such a dreadful, perilous state. In fact, worse than any other developed country. That’s how bad things are and they are no different at a local level.

Huge cuts to frontline services have already been made by Labour-controlled Salford Council, with more than 600 job losses – but savings could have been made elsewhere without impacting essential services.

The Liberal Democrat group on Salford Council wanted to help make sensible savings in the budget, but Labour refused to allow local Lib Dems to engage with them, affectively shutting us out from the process. The Conservative Group faced the same shut-out from Labour and they offered a budget of their own they knew would be voted down by the Labour-controlled Council (it was).

If Labour had listened to some of the budget suggestions made by the Liberal Democrats and Tories, we could have had a budget agreed by all local parties that would not have seen frontline services slashed, but expensive and unnecessary projects such as sponsoring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, commissioning a “world-class” opera and moving two lumps of metal (aka the Quays cranes) a couple of miles up the road.

Labour have their priorities wrong, it’s time to make a change on the council and send Labour a message on May 5th by voting Liberal Democrat and shifting the balance of power away from those that do not deserve it. Cuts to our frontline services in Salford are Labour cuts, don’t let them convince you otherwise.

Liberal Democrat Councillors in Salford were today welcoming the news that due to changes in the national tax system, implemented by Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government, 3,290 of Salford’s poorest residents have been lifted out of the personal income tax band altogether.

A further 91,000 residents will also find themselves better off when the changes are implemented in April this year – paying up to £200 less per year in income tax.

When the coalition was formed the two parties agreed to implement a key Liberal Democrat policy that the personal allowance for income tax should be increased in order to help lower and middle-income earners.

The change is being funded with the money that would have been used to pay for the increase in Employee National Insurance thresholds proposed by the Conservatives, as well as revenues from increases in Capital Gains Tax rates for non-business assets.

After pressure from the Liberal Democrats the two parties also agreed to a longer-term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective. Achieving this would provide much more tax fairness towards the poorest in our society, something Liberal Democrats are committed to.

Speaking about the great news Councillor Norman Owen, Leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Salford Council said,

“This is great news for thousands of Salford’s residents, especially for the 3,290 residents who are being lifted out of the threshold for paying income tax. This will be a really positive bit of news for those people, who are amongst the poorest in our communities, at a time when many are struggling. Liberal Democrats are continuing to push for yearly increases to the allowance until we reach £10,000 as the threshold. This would provide much more tax fairness towards the poorest in our society.”

Residents of Pendleton are celebrating now that the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition government has approved a PFI scheme for the area which will see it transformed. Over £100m of investment from the government will build over 1,200 new homes as part of the scheme and see a massive refurbishment of 1,200 council homes.

Pendleton is already the home to 13,000 proud and passionate residents and they will benefit from this government-backed large scale regeneration which will return the area back to the once thriving community it used to be. Under PFI the properties will remain in council ownership and tenants will remain as council tenants with all their existing
rights, including right-to-buy.

I welcome the government announcement. Pendleton has been in need of modernisation for far too long and for many years Labour dragged their feet over investment here. The regeneration of Pendleton will create a better choice of
quality houising for new and existing residents. In addition to providing new homes and bringing existing ones up to
the Decent Homes Standard, we will now see a much needed re-modelling of streets and estates.

There has been no real investment in Pendleton in the 34 years since it was built and that’s a sad reflection on Labour’s
dismissive attitude towards the community-spirited people who live here. I’m glad that the government has approved the PFI scheme and I think this is an opportunity to make Pendleton a better place.

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Langworthy Lynn Drake said “People have been frustrated by the lack of investment in Pendleton so I am extremely pleased that the coalition has given the green light to Pendleton PFI. I’m particularly gratified to see that social and private housing will be developed in a way that means there is no obvious visual distinction between them.”

Lynn added “Pendleton has a great community but the estate does need redesigning to help reduce crime. I think most residents will welcome the proposals.”

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Lynn Drake has been asking Salford Council officers if they can shed any light on the future of Seedley Primary School. So far the school, which closed last summer, has not been earmarked for any future
use and local residents are worried that the building will be allowed by the council, to fall into unsafe disrepair, just
like the adjacent council owned shops on Liverpool Street.

Councillor Drake who lives behind the school said “The shops on Liverpool Street partially collapsed in June last year and I’m worried this will happen to the school building if it is not maintained properly.”

Recently, Salford Council published a notice of intention to demolish the old school building, but there’s no indication of when that might happen, how the site will be secured both,during and after demolition and what (if any) plans the Council have beyond that. It’s possible the Council will try and sell the site to a developer, if so, both Councillor Drake and I will be keeping an eye out for any future planning applications.