Cllr. Cooke's Blog.

Yesterday was a day of meetings. First was with City West and the Police to address problems with crime on parts of the Valley. We’ve got a commitment for the police to provide more useful information to housing, and for housing to carry out more targeted tenancy inspections in the area to make growing cannabis in homes more difficult (in the past some residents have been coerced into growing it). We also looked at the progress in getting the CCTV camera installed to monitor the worst hotspot, and the change of location for the Valley Resource Centre to a spot that should make dealing nearby more difficult. City West have also agreed to investigate whether there are funds to redesign the street-scene to make it less inviting for gangs to congregate in the area. All good stuff.

Later I went to the Friends of Victoria Park meeting, which is a great group of dedicated residents who have worked with the neighbourhood team and ranger service to help deliver some wonderful improvements to the park. They are the people who deliver the wonderful band concerts in the park throughout the year, and the Christmas Carol concert. Currently the group are fighting to get improved lighting in the park – a project that’s been a bit of long slog, despite being really needed. The group welcomes new members – so if you’re interested in getting involved in the running of the park then drop me an email and I’ll pass your details on to the secretary.

Finally, I finished off the day with a local Lib Dem executive meeting before making it home to catch the last ten minutes of the United match and answer a few casework and candidacy related emails.

I recently asked for for an assessment for housing adaptations to be carried out for a lady who is in her eighties and has had a knee operation.  She’s facing real problems getting up and down her stairs and told me that it’s so bad that she will have to move home if she doesn’t get help. The assessment has been arranged but the lady has been told that she will have to wait several months. Just to get an assessment done – never mind be put on the incredibly long waiting list for the work to be carried out – will take months. Appalling. All she wants is to live independently for as long as possible. And yet Labour and the Independents voted against a Lib Dem proposal to target extra resources at reducing those waiting times. Who really cares for the people of Salford?

Out and about on Operation Portcullis

Been out today on operation Portcullis with, local activist Paul Gregory and our fantastic local PCs and PCSOs. There were 23 arrests this morning for alcohol and outstanding crimes, and the police have been doing a range of activities to crack down on alcohol related crime and antisocial behaviour.

Local Lib Dem activist Paul Gregory joins Operation Portcullis

The operation will be running up till midnight, with police, social workers, youth workers, trading standards, housing officers and independent advisers all working with the police to market alcohol related crimes, problems and anti-social behaviour. There have also been activities for young people such as Calipso and drama at Clifton Youth Centre and some work on the ‘Having the Bottle to Say No’ campaign.

In other parts of the city detached youth teams have been active – in Langworthy, Eccles and Irlam and Cadishead – all aimed at reducing crime and disorder and improving trust and confidence in the police.

I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve seen today – the whole division have been working amazingly hard, and not just today and tonight. And best of all, the neighbourhood team for our area are fantastic. Despite the lack of resources and the impending cuts in police numbers, our PCs and PCSOs continue to impress me and I’m enormously grateful for the work that they do.

I’ve decided to publish the Lib Dem group budget overview online so that residents can take a look if they wish. Our priorities this year have been sticking to a 0% rise in council tax, whilst improving key services like housing adaptations; roads and pavements; winter contingencies; litter and street cleansing; and community safety. We’ve also been keen to avoid some of the more harmful cuts and price hikes proposed by Labour – like increasing the costs of Meals on Wheel; bereavement services and funeral administration; and ratcheting up costs for cash-strapped schools.

Full overview here, together with our concerns about Labour’s budget proposals here:  Salford Liberal Democrat council budget 2010/11 (PDF)

On 26^th Jan the Labour group used the council press office to issue a spin-filled press release about the council tax level – proposed at 0% (not including fire and police costs, which will probably bring it up to +.75%) – for the next year. They then waited until the absolute limit of the permitted time to tell opposition councillors how they intended to pay for it – council papers for the budget meeting next Wednesday arrived yesterday. Sixteen days later. That leaves opposition councillors just 6 or 7 days to scrutinise their budget and get it approved as legal by the council’s treasury officer.

Every year the opposition, both Lib Dem and Tory, raise the issue that Labour keep them in the dark and leave the release of budget information till the last minute.

Six days to properly scrutinise a 114 page budget of over £220 million is asking a lot. There’s a reason Labour do this – it’s because they don’t like being scrutinised and held to account. It’s because democracy in the form of transparency and accountability is not very high on Labour’s agenda. Keeping power is what motivates them.

I am heartily sick of Labour announcing things like the yearly budget through the press before they inform councillors (like those who sit on the Budget Scrutiny Committee). If they have enough information about their budget to crow about it in the press then they should be prepared to offer up their planned budget for full scrutiny at the same time. Anything less marks them as creatures of spin and obfuscation rather than accountable democrats.

Salford Council has budgeted for 0% pay increases this year. On the surface this is understandable – the national pay offer from the Local Government Employers is 0%. However, negotiations are not yet complete between unions and the Employers’ organisation. This headline says it all:

“Council employers looked set for another explosive showdown with the unions this week after refusing to offer workers any pay rise this year.”
http://www.lgcplus.com/finance/latest-finance-and-partnership-news/clash-looms-after-pay-freeze-offer/5010605.article

Effectively, what the council have done is say that no matter what figure the national pay negotiations end up at they are setting pay at 0% (a real-terms cut in pay). So if the national picture is that councils end up offering a 1.5% pay rise – Salford will ignore it. Ignoring national negations and ploughing their own furrow may make for a pretty restless workforce. Mind you, the council did make manage to save £400,000 in staff pay last year thanks to industrial action – perhaps they see upsetting the staff as a way of saving more cash this year too?