Iain Roberts

Dear resident,

I hope that I find you well after such a cold start to 2010. January and February have been unbelievably busy – largely because of an ever-growing list of engagements and commitments to do with the fast approaching General Election, which is now certain to take place in the coming weeks.

Thanks to all of you that have already been in touch to voice your support for my re-election – not to mention those that have made financial donations to the campaign – serving local residents is my passion and I hope to work hard towards building on my current record of action for many more years to come.

Let me fill you in on what’s been happening in recent weeks:

• With regards to the cold weather, there are a number of pieces of info:

1. To save money on your heating bills which will inevitably by more expensive with the weather take a look at this: More Info

2. Make sure you are not one of up to 8000 people in the area who are entitled to cold weather payments that don’t receive a penny: More Info

3. Freezing temperatures are responsible for a large number of new potholes across the area. The Liberal Democrat team are as a result checking roads across the area and reporting them to the Council. Just this week Stockport Council have announced an extra £2 million to tackle this problem – I am sure residents will agree this is an important step!

• We have all seen the images and heard of the tragedy in Haiti, and many of us have donated money to the relief project and emergency funds. Many will be aware that our local fire-fighters in Greater Manchester have been out there saving lives – my parliamentary colleagues and I co-sponsored a special parliamentary motion to pay tribute: More Info.

• I’ve been campaigning for the introduction of vital new heart drug (Dronedarone) to be made available on the NHS – it has been rejected because of costs but experts predict it could save an estimated 40,000 lives a year – see the article on the front page of the Daily Express.

• I challenged the Secretary of State for Transport in the House of Commons to guarantee any new high-speed rail links would stop at Stockport – as a Lib Dem Shadow Transport Minister I will continue to campaign to make sure we get the best deal from High Speed Rail, despite the Conservatives putting its funding in doubt: More Info

• Great news for Cheadle Hulme – there are to be massive railway station improvements after continuous campaigning from local Lib Dems and the Cheadle & District Rail User Group. This includes full disabled access for the first time – just get in touch if you’d like a copy of the plans: More Info.

• I recently revisited Cheadle Kingsway Sports Club’s impressively refurbished clubhouse – here’s further information on the opening and for booking details for social functions.

• I joined with residents in Bramhall to oppose a controversial planning application in Bramley Close near Bramhall village centre: More Info

• Cheadle Hulme Shopping Centre traders got together to beat the cold and celebrate Chinese New Year recently. I was delighted to join in the festivities organised by Linda Lee and her team at Rainbow 88: More Info

• One of my key election pledges is to protect and develop local health services – here’s a note on a recent pledge I’ve signed on cancer care.

Often readers of my Notes ask me why other pieces of local news they know I’ve been involved in aren’t included – the answer is simply that to include everything would be impossible – since I’ve been the local MP I’ve helped many thousands of people and these notes are just to give you a taster of what I’m working on locally and nationally 365 days of the year. In addition, the Lib Dem team regularly send out Keeping in Touch leaflets and Newsletters to keep everybody informed – always funded by voluntary contributions.

As always, if you require any further information or I can help with any problem whatsoever, please do get in touch!

Best wishes,

Mark Hunter MP

Stockport’s first ‘Enterprise Centre’ has been launched as part of the Stockport Boost programme, offering free help and guidance to new businesses or those thinking of setting up a business.

The Centre is located in the Business Incubator at Broadstone Mill in Reddish, Stockport Enterprise Centre and offers companies up to three years of free one-to-one advice, general awareness sessions, assistance with business plan generation and networking opportunities.

The Centre will act as a focal point for business start up support and assistance across the borough. Business Link’s Intensive Startup Support Programme (ISUS) is also available through the Centre. ISUS aims to help people to start their own business through a series of workshops and one-to-one support.

The Centre has been launched as part of an expansion of the Stockport Business Incubator which now operates 37,000 square feet of high quality, flexible workspace at Broadstone Mill. It is home to 24 small businesses and over 100 employees.

For information on Stockport Enterprise Centre call the Council’s Economic Development Team on 0161 474 3734 or 0161 474 3737. Information on ISUS is available through Business Link Northwest on 0845 00 66 888.

Here’s the official announcement on Stockport’s Council Tax. Because of rising costs and the small grant we get from central government, millions have been cut from spending to keep the rise this low - I’m very happy to go into more detail about exactly what’s changed, and any other details (some of which I’ll try to post over the next few days anyway).

My personal feeling is that we’ve got the balance about right.  We’ve cut spending but protected services in this budget.  The Conservatives are arguing for big cuts in services too (15-20% over some years - equivalent to hundreds of job losses).  I’d prefer to pay a few pence extra a week to secure the important services.

At the Budget Council meeting on 25 February, Stockport Council set its budget for the financial year 2010-11 and a Band D Council Tax of £1,362.98 for Council services. This represents a 3.25% increase in the Council-controlled element of the Council Tax or an extra 83p per week for a Band D household.

When taking account of the Greater Manchester Police and Fire and Rescue precepts, which the Council does not set but has to collect, the overall Band D Council Tax is £1,559.96, an increase of 3.6% or an extra 91p per week for a Band D household.

The overall Band D Council Tax for the Offerton Park Parish area is £1,626.70. This is because of the precept of set by the Parish Council which results in an addition of £66.74 to the Council Tax.

The Council Tax charges in 2010-11 are:-

For quite a while the fence alongside the alleyway from Gatley Station to Gatley Road (passing the end of Brentwood Drive) has been falling into disrepair.  At the Gatley Road end, a couple of panels have been missing for ages; at the station end a couple of panels were bending inwards.

I’ve been trying to get it sorted out for a while.  The sticking point seems to be the ownership of the fences.  They’re the responsibility of the landowner to sort out, but we didn’t know who the owner was and it’s hardly fair to saddle taxpayers with the cost.

A couple of days ago, I was told by the Council that they’d tracked down the owners via a land search.  That means the Council can serve 14 days notice for problems to be sorted - if not, the Council do the work and charge the owner, recovering the costs through the courts if necessary.

But then I was told the fence had partially collapsed.  I went over to look and saw two panels had fallen into the path and were mostly blocking it.

On this one, the Council’s Rights of Way people were very helpful.  Within a few hours, the fence panels had been removed from the path, making the alley passable again.  We still need to get the landowner to sort it out properly

Stockport had two Full Council meetings tonight.  The first passed a resolution saying we would only go into a City Region if it retained two-thirds majority voting and we could leave in three years if we chose.

The second passed Stockport’s budget for 2010/11.

As usual, I was reporting from the meeting via Twitter, so here it is.

Cllr syd lloyd taken ill before mtg - hope he makes a swift recovery.
1st of 2 full council mtgs kicking off. Let’s hope we’re not here to 2am.
1st mtg considers whether we support new city region plans for greater manchester.
Fond farewells being said to our retiring chief exec, John Schultz.
Leader dave goddard presenting report & recommendation for city region
leader - why are we rushing decision: new region won’t meet until apr 2011.
Leader - red line 1: losing 2/3rds on new combined authority.
Leader - red line 2: a council must be able to withdraw in 3 yrs.
Leader - we will oppose the city region plan unless red lines met.
Leader - at least 1 other council will take same line tomorrow.
Labour supporting motion. Tories reject idea of city regions,
Cons agree with red lines, can’t support motion due to overall opposition to city region.
resolution passed, only tories voting against. Red lines will stand.
And we start the 2nd meeting, to agree stockport’s budget for 2010/11.
Cllr syd lloyd enters the chamber, glad he’s recovered.
Cons critical of healthy eating & fitness agenda.
Cons say ld have good intentions but concerned over delivery.
Lab disagree with con - work on lifestyle & quality of life important.
Cllr candler (ld) 1 yr plan prudent given huge unknowns.
Cllr candler (ld) “kill the chill” campaign saved lives - money worth spending.
Cllr candler (ld) rejects con claims that communicating with residents should be cut.
cllr les jones (con) singing praises of stockport homes.
Cllr foster-grime (ld) stockport homes good; we will look to make it even better.
now running through med term financial & capital strategies, agreed by all.
Now onto the substance of the budget for 2010/11. Cllr derbyshire presenting.
if we had same central gov funding as manchester, our coun tax bill would fall by 90%.
we get £296.33 per head support grant. Even Trafford gets more. Manchester gets £729.62.
Our council tax increase will be 3.25%
by end 2010/11 efficiency savings of over £16.5 milliom per annum will be achieved.
8 people in public gallery tonight.
Con-led bury has higher council tax rise than stockport, tho’ get much more govt. Funds
Stockport council employees get no pay rise this year, in line with national agreement.
Neither lab nor tories offering any amendments to lib dem budget.
Lab don’t think stockport should get higher govt grant - we get less than Trafford!
Cllr weldon’s phone goes off. That’s a contribution to the mayor’s charity (mine is on silent).
Cllr lloyd (con) appears to be critising us for making efficiency savings. Bad lib dems!
Cllr lloyd (con) not a happy bunny. Cons will not offer amendments or an alternative budget.
Cllr syd lloyd (con) runs out of time whilst accusing lib dems (inc. Me) of lying about tory cuts.
Sadly for cllr lloyd, tory leaflets call for no council tax rise: an extra £5m in cuts. Nice try, Syd.
You can’t have it both ways, syd. If you want no tax rise, it means cuts.
cllr bailey (lab) wants more involvement in settng the budget.
Cons claiming budget is too large. Odd: stockport is one of the lower spending authorities.
Cons calling for council to do less; but reject our suggestion they want cuts. Very confusing.
Cons claim lib dems inconsistent - not all ld councils have same council tax increase. Wonder how cons measure.
Deep into “worthy but dull” phase - lab theme is lack of transparency & not enough consultation over budget.
Cllr pantall “after 30 budgets…”. I was in primary school at the first of those,
full council brings out ding-dong politics - cllrs on all sides behave differently in other meetings.
Lib dem speakers attacking cons for calling for big cuts, sticking up for council’s record.
Cons want 15-20% cut in council spending. Would mean 500+ job cuts, but no clues where they want the axe to fall

lib dem stockport gave opposition 10 days to review budget. Lab tameside & con trafford produced on night.
budget is passed 36-18 with lab & con against, much to everyone’s shock.

I’ve had reports of an increased problem with dog mess on Greenbank Road, Gatley - probably not helped by the road being used as parking for the vetinary surgery on the corner.

Dog mess is a difficult problem to solve, but we need to do our best to keep on top of it.  It isn’t acceptable for owners to let their dogs foul in private gardens, or not to cleanup after them.

Enforcement normally comes down to getting the dog wardens to visit the area more regularly, hopefully warn a few people or even hand out fines, and get the message across.

I’ve ask the Council to get the dog wardens visiting Greenbank Road more often and I’ll be chasing this up.

Although we’re all hoping not, I’m told this evening’s Full Council meetings at Stockport Town Hall could go on to 2am.

First we’ve got the meeting to consider whether a proposed City Region is right for Stockport and for Greater Manchester.  This would create a new body, on which the leaders of the ten Greater Manchester authorities would sit.  It would deal with transport (replacing the current Independent Transport Authority) and take on some roles around economic development of the region.

I’ve written more about it here, and there are several good comments too.

Next there’s the meeting to set the budget.  The Lib Dems are taking what I firmly believe to be a responsible approach.  We’ve found ways to cut Council spending that won’t impact on front-line services and so are proposing a reduced rise to 3.25%, which is a good deal lower than in recent years.

Despite being a low-spending authority, Stockport receives less money from central Government than most, and the difference has to be made up with Council Tax, so it’s always a tough decision.

I believe we’ve got the balance about right.  The Lib Dem proposals protect services, are the result of spending cuts within the council and come in at under the rate of inflation.

The young people on the latest Princes Trust course will be washing cars to raise money for their project to transform a designated area in Stockport into an oasis.

This is a most worthwhile cause - please drop by the Fire Station on Turves Road, Cheadle Hulme to get your car washed tomorrow if you can.

I’ve reported graffiti on green comms boxes at both sides of Schools Hill, near Cheadle Royal.

Hopefully it will be cleared off quickly.   I’m a firm believer that, whilst we can’t possibly watch over every location all the time, quickly and consistently clearing away graffiti is the best way to stop it.

Let me know if you spot any more graffiti around Cheadle & Gatley.

For this year’s Fairtrade Fortnight Stockport Council is asking all employees to join in with ‘The Big Swap’.

For two whole weeks the Council will be asking staff to swap their usual products for Fairtrade products. This could mean swapping their usual bananas for Fairtrade bananas, their usual cotton socks for Fairtrade cotton socks, and their usual cuppa for a Fairtrade cuppa.

This means that every time you go shopping, you can use your wallet to make a stand. The Fairtrade Foundation is hoping that over one million swaps will be made over the course of the fortnight.

For more information on how you can help please visit the The Big Swap.