Cllr. Steve Cooke

So, Salford Community Leisure (SCL) want to run a city-wide programme of summer sporting activities. The Lead Member of Culture and Sport describes this programme as ‘vital’, but states that has not budgeted for it and expects it to be funded from devolved community committee funding. The programme is run, and apparently instigated by SCL (SCL are ‘a membership organisation owned and controlled by the people of Salford’ set up by the council to run its sporting and leisure facilities to open up greater avenues to seek grants and loans) – although I’m currently seeking clarification as to whether the council asked it to run the programme whilst simultaneously refusing to fund it.

Yet another major programme of sporting events which the Lead Member for Culture and Sports affirms is run by someone other than him.

I have requested the Lead Member’s personal work programme so that I can get an indication of what it is exactly that he does do (or doesn’t do as the current evidence indicates), but so far have received nothing. Perhaps it doesn’t exist?

One wonders whether cabinet posts are assigned by Labour in Salford on the basis of competence or as either reward for loyalty or means of keeping internal factional interests happy? Certainly Cllr. Warmisham is proof positive that a cabinet position isn’t always an indication of competence (two directorates he has been put in charge of so far have gone from 3 star to 2 star ratings under his ‘leadership’ and one got so bad that the government came within a whisker of taking control of it away from the council).

At council yesterday I asked Labour’s lead councillor for ‘Culture and Sport’ what level of losses would be deemed acceptable for the Proms in the Park and the Ice Rink, which between them have cost the tax-payer many hundreds of thousands  of pounds.

His response was to say that none of the items on a recently published list of cultural and sporting activities ‘are anything to do with him’. They are all part of the Chief Executive’s programme of events.

I’ve just now seen an email in which the same member responds to question from another councillor asking about the new Community Sports Stadium where he says that that too is under the Chief Exec and not him, and that he has ‘not had any involvement in this project’.

Here’s a list of things that the Lead Member for Culture and Sport (paid £23,320 last year) has nothing to do with and no involvement in:

1. Salford Community Stadium – sports stadium which will host the Salford Reds rugby team
2. Zapcat Racing: proposed opening City Championship catamaran powerboat race.
3. Great Salford Swim: large scale mass participation open water swim.
4. Salford 10k Run: 10k run for up to 500 competitors around The Quays.
5. Proms in the Park: an 8,000 capacity Proms in the Park event with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and a headline act
6. Salford Music Festival: one day outdoor music event in Buile Hill Park as part of a bigger music festival and to be delivered in conjunction with the Proms event.
7. Salford Food and Drink Festival: Food Fayre to be held on the Civic Centre lawns as the opening and main highlight event of the sixth festival which will run at various venues across the city
8. Bonfire Night Events: annual large-scale traditional bonfire and firework shows at Buile Hill and Prince’s Park, Irlam.
9. Salford Film Festival: Annual film festival
10. Slave: World premier play to be held at The Lowry and produced by a local theatre company profiling the true story of a girl kidnapped in Sudan and forced to live as a slave in the 1990s.
11. Ice rink: Ice rink to run during December and the early New Year period

Just what is Cllr. Warner being paid to do, because from where I’m sitting it looks like absolutely nothing? It’s about time he justified his councillor’s allowance.

Edit: I’ve just looked through last year’s cabinet work plan and there are zero mentions in it of culture, sport, or leisure. The picture gets worse.

Today the council wrote-off debts totalling £488,218.7 Sadly, councillors receive notices of debt write-offs like this on a fairly frequent basis. Apparently, this month’s council-tax write-off is an improvement of ‘1.46% compared with the same period in the previous year’. The vast bulk of this money represents people moving home and leaving debts behind.

At the same time the Lead Member has approved a contract for the council’s street lighting power that represents a 25% price hike for our electricity for the year (that’s an extra £239,040).

The council’s budget, which Labour and the Independents forced through in February, listed Budget Assumptions that included, as a ‘key assumption’, price inflation of:

• ‘5% for utility and insurance costs’.

Last year’s key assumption on price inflation was:

• ‘5% for gas/electricity costs’.

So we’ve budgeted for increased costs of £47,808 and will end up paying £191,232 on top of this. This money is coming out of our Highways Budget.I wonder just what Highways Projects will have to be cut thanks to this budgeting underestimate? Not so long ago I asked how much had been spent in the past few years on fixing potholes on Dorchester Rd. in Swinton (it’s a glamorous life being a councillor) – it turned out that 71 pothole repairs had cost approximately £44 per pothole to repair (and around £10,000 less than resurfacing would have cost). So, let’s hope that this massive underestimate doesn’t end up meaning some 4300 odd potholes don’t get repaired this year.

How on earth is the council getting it so wrong?

Compare and Contrast:

26 February 2010 – Salford Council Press Release

“Salford’s ice rink could have a new home this year if councillors agree a move for the festive attraction. Alternative venues, including Salford Quays, are being looked at in a bid to improve the pulling power of the event for would-be skaters and to offer more opportunities for partnership working.”

10 March 2008 – Salford Winter Wonderland evaluation report

“Two options were considered as a location for the Winter Wonderland: The Quays and the lawns of the Civic Centre in Swinton, at the heart of Salford’s ‘civic quarter’. Salford Quays was rejected for three main reasons: its location (at the far eastern end of the city), the desire to bring activity to the civic heart of the city and the desire to support Swinton’s shopping offer.”

I  have a vague memory that an Ice Rink was tried on the Quays many years ago but was a complete flop. Have to do some digging on that one. I know a place where a publicly funded ice-rink could make money and improve the economy of the area – it’s called Manchester. Sadly, Labour in Salford are more interested in showy gestures than prudence and common sense.

The Ice Rink has cost Salford tax-payers over £340,000 in the last three years.

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?