Published on September 8, 2008
in Walkden.
Local residents may be aware of the United Utilities proposal to build a giant new water pipeline between Bury and Merseyside. The proposed route for the pipeline passes through (well, underneath) Walkden and I have a meeting next Tuesday (16th September) with representatives from UU to discuss any potential impact that it may have on local residents in the construction phase.
If anyone has any comments, questions or issues they’d like me to raise as a local Councillor about the proposals, please leave a comment on this post or get in touch.
Published on September 8, 2008
in Walkden.
There will be a “multi-agency walkabout” on the Birch Road estate this coming Wednesday (10th September), starting at Chestnut Avenue at 2pm. This is a chance for local residents to pass on problems to New Prospect Housing officers and representatives from the Council and Police. If you live in the area and would like to point out any problems, keep an eye out for the walkabout on Wednesday afternoon.
Unfortunately I have a meeting of Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday so I won’t be able to attend - sadly my abilities do not extend to being in two places at once - but one of my ward colleagues Cllrs Les and Nicky Turner should be there.
Unfortunately I have to return to the Barbara Keeley newsletter for a second (and hopefully final) time. Now I’ll skip over for the moment attempts to use taxpayers’ money to collect voter ID and data about a political hot potato, but how exactly do you answer this question…?
In response to a request I made, Iain Dale has now kindly published details of the Top 100 Conservative Blogs in the Total Politics survey - previously he had listed the Top 100 Right of Centre Blogs. In the Right of Centre list I came in 78th and in the Conservative blogs list I have sneaked into the top 50 with a ranking of 45th.
Once again many thanks to everyone who included this blog in their submissions!
Continue reading ‘Top 100 Conservative Blogs’
Now I try not to make a habit of referring to opposition literature on this (or indeed any other) website, as it is usually counterproductive. However, the latest edition of Barbara Keeley MP’s “Constituency News” has just dropped out of my Advertiser and I feel duty-bound to comment.
This edition of “Constituency News” like all previous editions has been paid for by the House of Commons Communications Allowance - so it is taxpayer-funded. This is allowed under the Labour Government’s £10000-per-annum (per MP!) Propaganda Communcations Allowance. I think in this instance I’ll let others be the judge. I’ve scanned part of the front page and reprinted it below. Do you think that this is a) a neutral newsletter that is worthy of taxpayer funding or b) a political leaflet which should be funded by Barbara Keeley MP herself or the Labour Party should they so wish?
The next Conservative Government will of course scrap this gross misuse of public funds. In the meantime, local residents can rest assured that any leaflets they receive from their local Conservatives will not be funded by the taxpayer (or the trade unions) and aren’t costing them a penny.
Published on September 6, 2008
in Salford.
I had a very enjoyable afternoon at the Salford Garden Party. It was an excellent event - fortunately after the horrendous weather overnight it stayed dry and at times the sun even managed to appear.
Along with a number of other Councillors I was interviewed by Salford City Radio for broadcast at a later date - I’ll post further details about the show when I find out myself. I also deputised for Cllr Karen Garrido at the Big Ask debate, which I thought was a robust and interesting debate - I hope that the local residents present felt that it was useful.
Thanks to all the events staff who did all the organising and to the officers and community representations who manned the stalls and helped with the activities.
Published on September 5, 2008
in Salford.
I’ve been assured that despite the appalling weather, the Salford Garden Party will be going ahead as planned tomorrow. Hopefully things might brighten up a little tomorrow, but I’m not counting on it!
At 12.35pm I’ll be fielding questions from Salford City Radio in Marquee 2, as will a number of other Councillors throughout the day - I’m not sure whether they are broadcasting live though.
Over at the Vote UK Forum there’s a bit of a discussion about a possible Mayoral referendum in Stoke-on-Trent. This is to say the least a rather niche political issue (unless you live in Stoke - any Potteries readers want to show themselves?) and I’m far from an expert on it, but I did think this comment was interesting:
The date of the referendum will apparently be either 23 or 30 October, with the latter date being after the clocks have gone back. One fears that the turnout will suffer if voters are being asked to go and vote on a date when darkness descends before six o’clock.
I wonder what the poster who made that comment would think of the prospect of a referendum - albeit an all-postal one - being conducted in the middle of December. Yet this is exactly what will happen for the TIF poll.
I do agree with many of the concerns raised. An all-postal referendum in the middle of the festive rush is likely to see both a depressed turnout and a whole stack of ballots declared invalid having been posted in time and held up in the Christmas post. It’s also far from clear that the new registers will be ready in time, leaving thousands of voters disenfranchised entirely.
I can understand the wish to hold the referendum as quickly as possible, but it would hardly be a travesty of democracy to wait until January. For the Labour Council leaders to say that “voters would lose faith in the process if the election was put back until January” is hypocrisy in the extreme - if Labour hadn’t dragged their feet over a referendum it could have been done and dusted by now!
Published on September 3, 2008
in Salford.
The TIF roadshows roll back into the City of Salford next week. We’ve already had exhibitions in Salford (two days at Regent Retail Park) and Swinton (at Morrisons) and next Tuesday (9th September) the roadshow alights at Morrisons in Eccles for the afternoon. There are further exhibitions planned for Walkden (25th September) and the University of Salford (1st October).
So why have residents in Irlam and Cadishead been left out? That’s just not good enough.
Iain Dale has been releasing the details of the Total Politics Top Political Blogs slowly over the last week or two. Today he has published the Top 100 Right-Of-Centre Blogs and this site has managed to sneak in at #78. Many thanks to everyone who e-mailed in and voted for me, it is greatly appreciated.
It would be interesting to see an extrapolated list of just Conservative blogs as the “right-of-centre” list includes quite a few media and non-aligned blogs as well as the odd very uncomfortable bedfellow!
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