February 7th, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
2010 will be an exciting year for Longford Park after the successful award of £50,000 from the People’s Millions. Some of the things planned include:-
Groovy Kids Disco 28th Feb
Our first event of 2010 is a Groovy Disco for 6 to 11 year olds on the 28th Feb 2pm at Longfords, Tickets £2 from Adrian (374 5542) Or Bob (286 6979).
Kids can can enjoy themselves and find out how they can be involved in their local park while there is a fully licensed bar for adults to stay a while and relax.
Ceilidh Night on the 23rd April
The excellent Cutback Ceilidh will be playing at the Chorlton Irish Club. More details soon …
PlayBuilder Event Celebration May 2010
In May there will be a event celebrating the opening of a new older children’s play area. More details coming soon …
Health Walks
The Friends of Longford Park Health Walks will continue to take place at 10.30am on the last Sunday of every month (more details here). Tea, Coffee and biscuits will be available at the end of the walk. Thanks to Jean and Janice for continuing to organize this popular event.
People’s Millions
The working group has made good progress on this and there will be more details soon …
Park Lighting and Other Park Improvements
We are very pleased that the council has committed to installing new park lighting by February 2010. We will keep you informed of other developments.
February 4th, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Greater Manchester Police are reporting the arrest of a suspect over the desecration of muslim graves in the Autumn.
A 22 year old man has been detained.
I am delighted. I attended a vigil protesting against this in November, along with John Leech MP & Cllrs John Grant & Norman Lewis. Cllr Grant and I also attended a meeting with community leaders and Police.
As a result of that, CCTV was installed outside the cemetery.
Good work GMP.
February 4th, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
The Manchester Evening News report on our taking the Labour members of the Planning Committee to the Standards Board. It relates to Chorlton Meadows and the Labour team delivering letters within an hour of the decision.
I briefly spoke at Full Council on the matter last week. Obviously, I am glad that the meadows plans would have been rejected(had they not been withdrawn), but it can’t operate behind closed doors. There can’t be any impropriety on Planning matters.
February 3rd, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Manchester Lib Dems have successfully campaigned to freeze Council Tax next Year, despite Labour previously opposing plans.
Chorlton campaigner, Victor Chamberlain said “This is excellent news, I believe
Manchester residents should not have to worry about a rise in their Council Tax next year whilst we continue to fight the effects of the recession in the city.
This move will put more money back into local people’s pockets”
Cllr Paul Ankers said: “This is great news, the Council needs to be much more careful about how they spend tax payers’ money”
February 2nd, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Local Lib Dems are appalled by the Labour Council’s decision to close
Ewing
School despite an 11,000 strong petition. Labour Councillors voted to close the school for children with speech and communication disabilities.
Chorlton MP John Leech said: “I am amazed about the breathtaking ignorance of Labour Councillors, who clearly don’t know about the excellent work Ewing does.”
Local Resident, Victor Chamberlain said: “This is the wrong decision; an excellent school is closing without any guarantees that what replaces it will be better.”
Manchester Lib Dems will reverse the decision when they win control of the council.
February 2nd, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Yesterday, Nick Clegg announced one of the Liberal Democrats four key policies for the General Election campaign ahead - A Fair Start for Every Child.
Education has long been a cornerstone policy for our party. We have been proved right in our consistent support for increased investment, particularly in early years education.
That is why we are placing our pledge to improve childrens’ education at the heart of our electoral contract with the country. A Liberal Democrat government would cut class sizes by delivering a multi-billion pound pupil premium. This would mean that children from less privileged backgrounds would be funded up to the level of private school funding. The money will be targeted at schools taking on children who need more help, but will benefit every child in every school.
Right now, children from the poorest backgrounds start school already struggling and fall further behind as they grow older. We’ve got to change this.
You can learn more about our policy and read the speech Nick made yesterday, here.
Giving every child a fair start will bring about the social mobility that our country so desperately needs.
February 1st, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Chorlton Lib Dems have criticised the Council’s gritting programme.
Local campaigner, Victor Chamberlain said: “During the recent cold snap some key roads in Chorlton weren’t gritted. The council must learn from its mistakes and particularly grit areas around schools and those used by the elderly and provide grit bins for local residents to keep things moving.
Manchester Lib Dems have called for a review of the Council’s gritting strategy.
I have asked for all cycle paths to be gritted as priority roads in future. Cyclists have got a raw deal. Fallowfield loop doesn’t ever get gritted. One thing that clearly worked well was the community spirit.
I rang around many of our older residents and nearly all had a neighbour or relative looking out for them. One octigenerian resident of Nicolas Rd wasn’t letting half a mile of sheet ice stopping her shop, but most people needed a bit of help here or there. Thank you for providing it.
February 1st, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
With the help of others I’ve looked into how much aviation contributes to our total Co2 output.
In 2003 the government published its Air Transport White Paper, which encouraged the UK’s aviation industry to continuously expand its capacity to 2030 and beyond.
In 2008 the government passed its Climate Change Act, which included international aviation and shipping into its calculations of reducing our Co2 output by 80% of 1990 levels.
I found a study, commissioned by the Government and conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University which calculated two projections for the UK’s international aviation emissions (http://randd.defra.gov.uk/Document.aspx?Document=GA01060_3754_FRP.pdf).
It concluded that if we allow our airports to expand in line with the 2003 white paper, then by 2050 international aviation will contribute between 86% and 128% of our total carbon budget. If we were to take the average between these two projections, we would arrive at 107%.
If we were to continue on our present course of airport expansion, aviation alone would bust our carbon budget, leaving nothing left for the rest of the economy!
I want the Prime Minister to explain how we hope to achieve our targets of Co2 reductions if we continue to expand airports such as Manchester, so I have created an ‘e-petition’ on the number 10 website calling for this.
We need 500 signatures by the 6th February to provoke an official response - so please sign and then forward this email onto others: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/aviation-growth/
January 31st, 2010 by paulankers | Comment?
Thank you readers for a record month of hits on the blog. I hope you continue to find it interesting. Comments for improvements are appreciated.
January 31st, 2010 by paulankers | 1 Comment
Tesco & Sainsbury’s are planning to unleash a supermarket war on Chorlton’s doorstep, with developments close to Lancashire Cricket Ground. Chorlton Lib Dems are campaigning against both, fearful that Chorlton could be the real loser in their battle. According to Tesco’s own figures, 10% of Chorlton trade would be lost. The combined toll could be 25%.
Local Campaigner Victor Chamberlain said “These developments could severely affect the vitality of Chorlton centre and could be disastrous for local businesses. That is why I have asked Manchester City Council to put in formal objections. ”
The Council have since objected, but campaigners feel it is a lukewarm objection, one designed to look like an objection, but do very little to stop the development.
The final decision should be made by Trafford Council on 11 February.
