Continuing with my “blast from the past”, the video below is an interview with me, by Sky News presenter Colin Brazier, where I took the government to task a few years ago over it’s plans to increase tax on petrol and diesel. Also participating in the debate was Mike Rutherford from the Motorists Association and CONSERVATIVE MP Tim Yeo. While I think I made some valid points, this wasn’t my finest performance (at one point I inadvertently inferred that Tim Yeo was a Labour MP, of course I knew that he was a Tory, as Colin had just pointed it out moments before).

I guess I was a little infuriated with the idea of the already high price of fuel going up even more, simply because the Labour government at the time had little idea what else to do.

NOTE: At the time, I lived in Prestwich, Manchester – hence the introduction. I start speaking around the 4 minute mark, but it’s worth listening to the whole interview to get an idea of the issues at the time (of which, the issue of high petrol prices and car tax rates is still a big problem today).

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.

Seedley Park Road

Seedley Terrace

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.

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.”

Back in late 2007 an idea was muted by council officers that Salford needed a shiny new “gateway” into the city that looked appealing, instead of the drab entrance to Salford that the M602 roundabout offered. With the news that MediaCity:UK was to happen, a £3m funding application was submitted to the North West Development Agency and the idea was born.

The programme was split into two phases, the first involving updates to lighting, subways, plaques and pedestrian crossings at the M602 and Broadway roundabouts, which many considered necessary due to the complete lack of maintenance by the council.

The second phase involved the relocation of the Quays Cargo Cranes from their current location at the head of Ontario Basin to the M602 Roundabout. Many Salfordians have often complained about the way the cranes have been allowed to rust and rot and a lot of people wanted to see them saved and restored. However, phase two came at the astronomical cost of £750,000. Personally, I was quite vocal about the plans, and many shared my view that £3m spent on prettying up a roundabout, carrying out repairs that should have been done anyway and moving 2 huge lumps of metal up Trafford Road did not present value for money. That money could have been better spent saving Hope Hospital’s Maternity Unit, our NHS drop-in centres, building schools big enough for the number of children or repairing our dilapidated roads and council-owned buildings.

Yesterday I learned that funding for phase 2 has been withdrawn. The official word is that phase 2 has not been “scrapped”, but essentially (other than what work has already started) the rest of the plans are very unlikely to go ahead.

Why blog about this? Well a small, almost insignificant part of phase 2 was the construction of three “super crossings”, aka wide pedestrian crossings at key locations on Trafford Road and Broadway, which would make it a bit safer for pupils to cross these busy roads when the new Oasis Academy at Media City opens. With phase 2 being in doubt (read cancelled), the super crossings are unlikely to go ahead without the funds being found elsewhere.

One proposal put forward has been for the Ordsall & Langworthy Community Committee to exhaust it’s entire budget for the year to pay for these 2 super crossings. It’s worth noting that when the plans were submitted  by Oasis Academy for planning permission, they did so on the basis that these extra crossings would be in place by the time the new school opened. Their plans included the bare minimum needed (in terms of pupil travel plans) to allow for planning to be passed.

So, what’s the cost of these super crossings going to be to the community?

The answer is circa £160,000-£170,000 – and the reason I am blogging about this is to ask what you, the Langworthy community, think about this. I’d love to hear your thoughts, either by leaving a comment below or emailing me at steve@stevemiddleton.info

There will be further discussion on this at the next community committee meeting on January 11^th (6.45pm). I urge as many Langworthy residents and groups as possible to attend to ensure you get your voice heard. If you cannot make it, I will do my best to get as many responses heard by the committee as possible.