Iain Roberts

The latest in my posting of local election results for Stockport from 1973 to 2004.  Not the Liberal’s finest year this one - in fact the party won only a single seat, Edgeley and Cheadle Heath (which now has three Labour councillors).  In Cheadle & Gatley, the Conservatives were way ahead.

The Jeremy Thorpe scandal had been raging in the media, with Thorpe resigning as leader of the Liberal Party on 9th May, four days after these elections took place.

Thanks to everyone from the Cheadle Muslim Association who braved the wind and rain to put on a a fun day raising money for the Seashell Trust (our school for the deaf, an excellent local charity).

We came, we (the kids, anyway) enjoyed their marshmallow-and-melted-chocolate kebabs, fruit-and-melted-chocolate kebabs,  bouncy castle and more.  I didn’t quite make it onto the bouncy castle (probably for the best, if we’re being honest) and enjoyed the rest on offer.

Looking forward to the annual mosque open day in the summer - and hoping for better weather.

From Stockport Council:

Arrangements for the school admissions are available to view at www.stockport.gov.uk/schooladmissions.

Please note that new oversubscription criteria for all Community primary and secondary schools, Church of England primary schools and Reddish Vale Technology College will be adopted for 2011/12.

School Year 2010/2011

Main Term Dates

* Autumn Term 2010 - Monday 6th September 2010 to Wednesday 22nd December 2010
* Spring Term 2011 - Tuesday 4th January 2011 to Friday 8th April 2011
* Summer Term 2011 - Tuesday 26th April 2011 to Friday 27th May 2011
* Primary - Monday 13th June 2011 to Friday 29th July 2011
* Secondary - Monday 6th June 2011 to Friday 22nd July 2011

Mid Term Holidays

* Autumn Term 2010 - Monday 25th October 2010 to Friday 29th October 2010
* Spring Term 2011 - Monday 21st February 2011 to Friday 25th February 2011

Public Holidays

* Good Friday (Friday 22nd April 2011) to Easter Monday (Monday 25th April 2011)
* May Day - Monday 2nd May 2011
* Spring Bank Holiday - Monday 30th May 2011

Old Hall Road in Gatley has suffered especially badly following the big freeze earlier in the year.  A few potholes popped up in January, which we got fixed quickly.  Then more came, then even more.

Currently the section of Old Hall Road by Pendlebury Road and in front of the old cemetary wall has big chunks of the surface stripped away.

Pam King and I are looking for funding to get the work done, either from the council’s central budget or from our (much more limited) ward budget, and we should have more on that soon.

But there were a few particularly bad potholes - not just the surface scraped away but the whole road gone and loose stones at the bottom.

On Wednesday evening we reported those to the council and I was pleased to see them repaired within 24 hours - as the most serious potholes should be.

The work on Gatley Bridge has been completed ahead of schedule (with the potholes on Gatley Hill filled in to the bargain).

The big problem we had at the start was the way the temporary traffic lights had been set up.  A lot of vehicles going north on Styal Road wanted to turn into Church Road, but had to wait for southbound traffic to clear.  This meant, at the start, long northbound queues as only a few cars got through at each lights change.

Pam King and I  quickly contacted the Council and explained the problem.  They liased with the contractors.  It would probably have been better if they’d put a “no right turn except for buses” in right away for northbound traffic at Styal Road, but they wanted to try a voluntary diversion first.

I was very pleased to see that the new bollard on the corner of Gatley Road and Old Hall Road was installed on Tuesday.  This was something I worked with the Council on after a lorry clipping the kerb shot a fragment of concrete that hit our crossing lady in the throat (luckily, she wasn’t injured).

Sadly, though, the Nat West bank on the opposite side of Gatley Road will be closing in August.  Wasn’t it Nat West who ran a big advertising campaign about how important their branch network was?

Our council’s Area Conditions Officer, Julie Henshall, has been looking into the mass of signs at the junction of Longley Lane and Altrincham Road on the edge of Gatley.

Unfortunately, that side of the road is in Manchester, not Stockport, so our council officers have no power to act.  It has been passed onto Manchester Council and we can only hope they act.

At yesterday’s Cheadle Area Committee, we approved the proposal for a new streetlight to be erected on Hawthorn Road near the school, lighting the passageway running from Hawthorn Road to Birch Road.

The total cost of the streetlamp is £1,300, and we’re meeting half that cost from our ward funding (we have £21,000 a year to spend on highways).

After the lamp is installed, it won’t work right away.  There’s a gap - which can be several weeks - before United Utilities connect it up.

The press release from Mark’s office:

Local Cheadle MP Mark Hunter has been appointed Deputy Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats. His appointment also means he now becomes an official Government Whip in the new Lib Dem/Conservative Coalition.

Commenting on the appointment, Mark said:

“This is a great privilege - particularly to have a job in Government - and I am already looking forward to the challenges ahead.

“The appointment places me right at the centre of Government business and I believe that this can only be good news for my constituents who, as ever, remain my first priority.

“I firmly believe that our ground-breaking Coalition will provide the necessary stability for the country to start the climb out of economic recession and into economic recovery.

“These are tough times for many people, and the Lib Dem/Conservative administration will not shirk the tough decisions, but we will always be guided by the principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility.”

Each ward in Stockport gets £3,000 of area fuflexibility funding each year.  Typically, this is given to local organisations applying for funding.  It can also be used for other projects to improve the ward (e.g. in Heald Green they spent around £7,000 on some additional paving improvements in the village centre, on top of the main improvements along the frontage that came from central funding).

Officially, I think the area committee as a whole has to approve each allocation.  In practice, it’s left to the three councillors for each ward to decide how their ward spends its money, and I think we’ve always managed to agree.

In the last meeting we gave £1,200 to the Gatley festival, to help fund the temporary hard surface laid down around the entrance to the field.  That involved spending the last of our 2009/10 budget and a little of the 2010/11 budget.

So for this year (up to April 2011) we have £2703.67.

At this meeting there was a bumper crop of applications - all very worthwhile and all ones we wanted to support.

Cheadle & Gatley Football Club were looking for £2,000 towards kits for their 250+ members.  It’s a great club that does a lot for young people across the area, with 75% coming from our ward and most of the rest from Heald Green.

We allocated £1,000 from Cheadle & Gatley, with £500 from Heald Green and our colleagues in Cheadle Hulme North kindly giving a further £250, so we were able to give them £1,750 in total.

Acorn, Ash & Chestnut Avenues Residents Association asked for  £64.99 to enable their secretary to print minutes, leaflets etc, and we were happy to give that.

Friends of Hall Street Green in Cheadle wanted £1,000 towards the excellent project their working on to enhance the Green (in total it’s over £35,000 and they’re applying for grants from a variety of different places).

So that leaves us with £638.68 for the rest of the year up to April 2011 - wish it could be more!

We sadly felt unable to make a contribution towards the Scouts Japan 2010 trip.  The total cost of the trip, for 150 Scouts and Leaders, is £300,000 and they still need to raise a little over £100,000 to meet the target.  Unfortunately, we didn’t feel we could help.  Not only would our money have barely made a dent in the total; it wasn’t really something specific for our area.