Iain Roberts

Following the launch of the national annual ifs Young Business Writer of the Year competition, Hazel Grove MP Andrew Stunell has urged teenagers living in the Stockport area to get involved and say what they think about bankers pay and bonuses.

The banking crisis has had wide ranging effects on the UK and much has been said about the huge salaries and bonuses enjoyed by City bankers but up until now voices from younger generations have been left out.

That’s all set to change with the start of this competition which is open to all UK school and college students aged between 14 and 19 and enables them to test their writing skills by inviting them to come up with a 1,000 word article with the headline, “Bankers rewards - asking for trouble?” As well as the title “ifs Young Business Writer of the Year”, the winner will also receive a £500 cash prize.

Commenting, Andrew Stunell said:

“This competition offers teenagers a fantastic chance not only to hone their writing skills and get them thinking about banking and finance issues but also to have their voices heard on a wider level.

“I strongly urge bright and engaged youngsters from across the Stockport community to grab this opportunity with both hands.”

Rod McKee, Head of Financial Capability of the ifs School of Finance, said:

“We are pleased that Mr Stunell has highlighted some of the benefits of this popular competition and urged his constituents to submit an entry. Issues relating to bankers rewards can be complex and contentious so it will be interesting to read local teenagers views.”

Anyone aged between 14 and 19 who wishes to enter the competition simply has to e-mail their article (which must not exceed 1,000 words) to ybwy@ifslearning.ac.uk between now and the competition closing date of Monday 26 January 2009.

For more information please visit www.financialcapability.co.uk

As reported in the Manchester Evening News:

 only 749 people have made an appointment to enrol in Greater Manchester for an ID card.

That is around 0.04 per cent of the total eligible population of 1.8m in this ‘pilot’ area for the ID card scheme.

When will the Government admit they’ve got it wrong and stop wasting our money on this daft scheme.

I was really surprised to see the University Hospital of South Manchester Foundation Trust listed in an Observer article as the sixth worst in the country.

University Hospital South Manchester is the new name for Wythenshawe Hospital, somewhere I’ve had several occasions to visit over the last few years.  In addition to a few visits for the kids’ cuts and breaks, I had an operation there a few years ago and my daughter was in for a week with suspected meningitis.

On none of those visits did I feel the standard of care and cleanliness was below par - generally I found it excellent.

And yet the Dr Foster Hospital Guide rates the hospital poorly on patient safety.

Just taking the personal experiences of my family is a poor way to judge a hospital - perhaps there are problems we didn’t happen encounter.  Statistics that look at the experiences of the thousands of people who use the hospital every year are much better.

If there are real problems, they need to be tackled - whether or not my personal experiences found them.  But we need to be careful about taking a bunch of measures, weighted and scored in a particular way, and assuming that tells the whole story.  Often small changes in the way the counting is done can make big differences to the outcome.

(And by the way - this is a particularly poor use of the phrase “postcode lottery” in the Observer - meaning nothing more than different hospitals score differently.  How could it have been otherwise?  Apart from anything else, the Dr Foster Guide would surely not have bothered with any scoring system where all the hospitals came out the same).

The public meeting to discuss the traffic issues around Schools Hill and Wilmslow Road will be on Tuesday 8th December 2009, 6pm in the Lecture Theatre, Kingsway Lower School, High Grove Road, Cheadle.

At the meeting I hope we can do two things.

The first is to get a list of what the different issues are, and the priorities residents assign to them.

The second is to have some initial discussion of the possible solutions.

We don’t have firm plans or budgets, so we aren’t in a position to make any commitments at this stage.  My hope is that the information from the meeting will give us as councillors what we need to focus our efforts.

I’ve got several hundred leaflets to deliver, which I’m hoping to get out in the next few days.

From Mark’s website:

Cheadle MP Mark Hunter has launched a new campaign to “save the cheque” after growing concern over news that high street banks are planning to stop the use of cheques.

Yesterday (26 November) Mr Hunter tabled a cross-party Parliamentary motion which, just two hours after calling on other Members to sign it, had collected the signatures of over three dozen MPs including that of Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable.

Mark also challenged Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, at Business Questions yesterday to remind the banks of their role in serving customers, and asked her to hold a debate on the issue.

Commenting, Mark Hunter MP said:

“Abolishing the cheque will cause great inconvenience to many people who rely on cheques as a means of payment - particularly many elderly people.

“This development is most unwelcome in its own right but taken together with the news on bank charges I think they amount to nothing less than a two-fingered gesture to the British public.

“What a way to say thanks after what we’ve done for them!”

The Cheadle Area Committee meets on Tuesday 1st December, 6pm at the Ladybridge Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme. All welcome to come along.

There’s one planning application up for consideration: DC043046, the erection of 5 no. three-storey mews houses at 176 Kingsway (this is on the Kingsway service road, South Park Road Estate).

Other issues on the agenda include amending the parking restrictions on Chapel Street, Cheadle and discussion about parking on pavements.

You can view and download the agenda here (PDF, 2.2MB) .

The Star Inn on Cheadle High Street is the latest to join our Community Toilet scheme.

Cheadle now has three community toilets: the Star Inn, Cheadle Library and Jackson’s Fish Bar on Ashfield Road.

You can use these as public toilets.

The Community Toilet scheme replaces the old public toilet in Massie Street car park.  Instead of a single cold, often dirty and vandalised toilet, we now have three.

In the run up to Christmas, car parking in Cheadle will be free in Council Pay & Display car parks in Cheadle on:

• Saturday 28th November
• Saturday 5th December
• Saturday 12th December
• Saturday 19th December
• Christmas Day
• Monday 28th December
• New Years Day

This is not just in Cheadle but all the district centres: Romiley, Heaton Moor, Bramhall, Hazel Grove, Cheadle Hulme, Marple, Marple Bridge and Edgeley (excluding Armoury Street).

Gatley, of course, has free parking all the time anyway - just not enough spaces!

There will also be free parking in Stockport Town Centre in the run up to Christmas, but I can’t remember the exact details (I think it’s every Saturday again, but don’t hold me to that).

I’d like to wish all my Muslim readers happy Eid al-Adha.

Anyone who’d like to find out more about Eid al-Adha, what it celebrates and what happens over the three days could take a look here.  Since we’re taking 1st Gatley Cubs to the mosque on Monday, I’m sure we’ll find out all about it then.

Last night I tweeted from Full Council, to give anyone who’s interested a flavour of what was going on in the meeting.  Here are those tweets

#stockportmbc Full Council Starting shortly. Lamb curry was nice.

#stockportmbc Full Council Shouty mayoral entrance & prayer.

#stockportmbc Full Council Mayor kindly welcomes me to the council.

#stockportmbc Full Council Half the councillors seem to be declaring an interest.

#stockportmbc Full Council some confusion about questions over questions.

#stockportmbc Full Council Leader explaining English Heritage propose protected sites, not smbc, in response to public question.

#stockportmbc Full Council Powerpoint presentation from and about the mayor.

#stockportmbc Full Council Cllr John Pantall & Ian Ratcliffe outlining ‘kill the winter chill’ campaign.

#stockportmbc Full Council Cllr Pantall reminds us the late Maggie Clay founded ‘Kill the Chill’ last year.

#stockportmbc Full Council Before dvla, coucils issued car reg plates. Stockport’s were all JJA, hence mayoral plate JJA1.

#stockportmbc Full Council ‘kill the chill’ cut deaths from cold last year, now being adopted across Greater Manchester.

#stockportmbc Full Council No questions on joint authorities (fire, transport, police & waste)

#stockportmbc Full Council Leader talks about Boost campaign for more jobs.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Leader thanks all parties for sensible approach to future of BAE site in Woodford.

#stockportmbc Full Council: exec reports in flow, seems like time for some cllrs to catch up on those newspapers & magazines.

#stockportmbc Full Council: recycling bins rollout complete ahead of time & budget. Recyling now 43% but Trafford just ahead.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Cllr Candler attacks Tories across country for slash-and-burn approach to local services.

#stockportmbc Full Council: our business services team does work for other local authorities - brings in £250k, won award.

#stockportmbc Full Council: cllr porgess says Tory plans to reward people recycling would require surveillance chips in bins.

#stockportmbc Full Council: cllr bodsworth - installing chips in our bins would cost £2m if George Osborne forced us to do it.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Cllr Bodsworth 10:10 is very tough target. We might not meet it; we’ll try, & encourage others too.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Entertaining political grandstanding from lab cllr verdeille. Tories aren’t in Govt yet, apparently.

#stockportmbc Full Council: cllr foster-grime has to sit down. she’s now an exec member so can’t ask exec members questions. Shame.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Tory Cllr Syd Lloyd attacks ld’s for lack of principles. Good fun, but loosly connected to reality.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Cllr Weldon responds to Tory baiting with some baiting of his own. Two hours gone.

#stockportmbc Full Council: motion time. Cllr weldon: Govt expands nursery provision but doesn’t give enough funding.

#stockportmbc Full Council: half the tories have left the chamber - loo/fag break, I assume.

#stockportmbc Full Council: cllr maureen walsh supporting nursery motion for Tories.

#stockportmbc Full Council: lab cllr foster says lib dems trying to blame gov for council failings.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Lab Cllr Foster now on secondary schools - really not sure how this relates to the motion.

#stockportmbc Full Council: nursery motion carried 45-11. Lab voted against.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Lab cllr scott proposes free leisure provision for armed forces & their families in Stockport.

#stockportmbc Full Council: cllr bodsworth supports army leisure motion & wants govt to promote idea across country.

#stockportmbc Full Council: Con cllr jones supports motion & attacks gov record on military covenent, gurkhas, etc.

#stockportmbc Full Council: army leisure motion passed unanimously.

#stockportmbc Full Council: now considering whether we move to strong leader or mayoral leadership model. Strong leader it is.

#stockportmbc Full Council: charging through dull but worthy stuff. And we’re all done at 8.50, bar the raffle.