Victory for Longford Park!, and What's the Plan for Manchester

Victory for Longford Park

Firstly, congratulations to the Friends of Longford Parkon winning the People's Millions on ITV last Wednesday. The prize is £50,000 towards a scheme which will:

. Transform the deteriorating rose garden into a beautiful garden.
• Use the latest sustainable technology to restore running water to the ornamental rock gardens.
• Provide the opportunity for young people from local schools to be involved in all aspects of transforming the gardens.
• Develop an education pack for local schools.

FoLP Founder and Green Party candidate for Longford ward Margaret Westbrook expressed her delight at the win: "This is the culminations of years of work and preparation and will really make a difference to this great local amenity on the Stretford / Chorlton border. FoLP would like to express their heartfelt thanks to everyone who voted last Wednesday to make it happen."

What's the Plan?

The City Council's Local Development Framework (LDF) is all about the long-term Planning strategy. Occasionally a different bit of the process surfaces bearing an obscure name, and inviting 'consultation' from the Manchester citizenry - at least that's the idea.

The latest such manifestation is the Core Strategy Proposed Option document; I attended a drop in session on this at Chorlton Library last Thursday and was directed to the Council's website for the bulk of the information - see here. There is a consultation event about this at Manchester Town Hall on Tues 8th December; there are 2 sessions (afternoon and evening) which are already booking up and anyone interested is encouraged to contact planningstrategy@manchester.gov.uk

Disgust at Grave Desecration
On behalf of the Green Party I would like to express my total disgust at the desecration of Muslim graves at Southern Cemetry, which has happened for the third time in only a few weeks. It is clearly part of a growing pattern of racist attacks on Muslim people, which has worsened following the shameful election of the BNP to the European Parliament, and the increasing demonisation of Muslims in the media and elsewhere.
It was good to see the breadth of support for the vigil today across the political and religious spectra, and also the amount of attention from local media to the event.
These racists must be stopped.

Events coming up:
Unicorn Gocery - Meet the Producers - Wed 2nd December, 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm at Unicorn
Stories and samples from 12 of the growers, bakers, brewers and other producers, plus one of the overseas projects supported by the shop. Tickets in advance £2 - redeemable against purchases on the night (also includes mulled wine and nibbles).

Community Action Evening against Trafford Mega-Tesco: Thurs 3rd December, 6-9pm at Gorse Hill Church Chester Road

The campaign is holding a Community Action Evening (Drop In) next Thursday evening when people can come along and write a letter to the council. There will be some key points ready to slot into your letter if you need them.

They hope to be able to have internet access as well, so people could send their letter/email on the night.

Weekly Update

Events this week:

Weds 25th: ITV's people's Millions - Vote Longford Park A scheme to transform part of Longford Park is one of two schemes shortlisted for a £50,000 Lottery award - and it needs your vote on Wednesday 25 November to secure the funding.
The scheme will feature on Granada TV's evening news programme on Wednesday 25 November. It includes a redesigned rose garden and restored water garden - all with green technology and led by young people; see FoLP.
Voting phone lines will open at 9am on this day and close at midnight. The number to ring will be published at 9am on the following website:-
The Greening of Longford Park"
Calls on a BT landline cost 10p and you are allowed to vote a maximum of ten times.
PLEASE show your support and encourage people you know to support this bid.

Thurs 26th: Core Strategy Consultation As part of the City Council's 'Local Development Framework (LDF)' City Planners will be holding informal drop-in sessions in your local area to help explain the draft Core Strategy document and answer any questions you may have. The session for Chorlton is on this day, at Chorlton Library (Meeting Room A)
5.00pm – 7.00pm.
This all sounds very dry and obscure, and has hardly been publicised by our beloved Council, but it will influence planning in the City for the next 20 years, and is therefore extremely important. For more information or to pre-register to take part in a discussion event at Manchester Town Hall on the 8th December,
Call: 0161 234 4579
e-mail: planningstrategy@manchester.gov.uk
Visit: www.manchester.gov.uk

Campaign Update - Stretford Mega Tesco

The plans for this are now online Reference is 74393/FULL/2009 - scroll to the bottom of the page and click on View Documents and Plans. There are actually 120 documents listed (Transport Assessment runs to 243 pages)- but not all will relate directly to the supermarket. Campaigners are currently digesting the figures but the overall size seems to be even larger than they were told during the consultation. Target decision date is 10th March 2010.

Weekly Campaign Update

Chorlton Meadows campaign - Planning Meeting deferred
The date for the Planning meeting to consider the football pitches application has been put back to 17th December; this is to allow more time for responses from the public (see earlier posts for more information on this campaign). Further to that Planning meeting a site visit is planned for the morning of 14th January 2010, with a decision to be made that afternoon.

Trafford Mega Tesco - the Plans have been submitted!
The plans have been submitted, but aren't available for public scrutiny at the moment. According to the accompanying press release, it appears that the size of the Tesco store has been reduced somewhat from the earlier figure of 147,000 sq. ft., to 100,00 sq. ft. It seems that Stretford Leisure Centre has avoided the chop but the Police Station and Trafford College look set for closure/relocation.

Officially, there are 3 weeks within which to analyse the plans and lodge objections. Hopefully, due to the sheer scale of the development, there will be some sort of extension to this.

The campaign against the MegaTesco working group are meeting on Tues 17th Nov. 7.30pm at Gorse Hill Church on Chester Road, and welcome new people to get involved.

Other Upcoming Chorlton Dates

Unicorn Gocery - Meet the Producers - Wed 2nd December, 7.30 pm - 9.30 pm at Unicorn
Stories and samples from 12 of the growers, bakers, brewers and other producers, plus one of the overseas projects supported by the shop. Tickets in advance £2 - redeemable against purchases on the night (also includes mulled wine and nibbles.

People Power on the Meadows!

A picnic on Chorlton meadows organised by the the Save the Meadows campaign
attracted about 250 people this afternoon. On a cool,overcast but dry afternoon, they celebrated this beautiful local amenity. Chants of 'ditch the pitch' and 'don't yield the field' were interspersed with balloons and ballgames, whilst local entrepreneurs sold home-baked food (70p for a cake and a hot chocolate drink - delicious and great value). At one point a buzzard soared high overhead - hopefully a good omen.


Picnicers were informed that 1000 letters of objection had now been received against the proposals, a remarkably high number. For my own part the more I think and know about this proposal the worse it seems. From the centre of the meadows field where the picnic took place, one gets an idea of the size of the development. The developers claim that there is insufficient capacity for footballers in South Manchester, particular for youth football. Well, on my walk down this afternoon, through Chorlton Park, I noticed that only 2 of the 5 pitches there were being used. As I commented earlier this is clearly a commercial development.

Whilst local Labour councillors have joined Lib Dems and the Green Party in opposing the development, the Council's Leisure Dept. are apparently supporting it. And whilst it is true that the Council is obliged to consider any planning application submitted to it, there is a pattern of threatened green space across the city.
Opponents of the development from further afield include Prince Charles and Mike Harding; Mike's letter of support made reference to Manchester's position at the bootom of the charts when it comes to park provision. The application is still due to be heard on 19th November; let's hope the Council does the decent thing on this occasion and boots it out of play.

Events coming up this week in Chorlton:

Weds 11th 8 pm - meeting at St Clements Church for a 'Sustainable Christmas Campaign' organised by Ali Thomas (ali.thomas@afsl.org.uk),
Local Project Mangager for Chorlton for AfSL

Fri 13th, 7.30 pm - Friends of Longford Park are having a Quiz night at the Irish Club, - tickets £6, including food. Enter a team with your friends and/or family or join in yourselves. For further information contact: 0161 2866979

Meadows deadline this week! and other updates.

The deadline for replying to the City Planning Department on the Football pitch development on the meadows is this Friday, 6th November. As there has been a change in the original proposal, even if you submitted a response before, it’s worth submitting again. Information on the City Council’s website at Planning or at the Planning Division reception in room 7017 of the Town Hall Extension between 9 am and 4.30 pm Mon to Fri. See previous blog posts for background and other information.

Picnic on the Meadows event

Next Sunday 8th November 2009 at 2pm the Campaign to Save the Meadows invite everyone to come along and picnic on the meadows! In their own words:
”Bring along your sarnies, flasks and anything else you'd like to. We plan to use the meadows for an hour to prove this "derelict land" IS USED!
Please pass this on to as many people as possible. THE MORE THE MERRIER!

Regardless of the weather this is still going ahead so bring your brollies, woolies , wellies ! :)
please bring yourselves , friends, families, dogs, kites , music , picnics ... Your presence to show how much the meadow is loved.”

The Lost Plot

Not the gunpowder plot which will be ‘celebrated’ this week, but a Permaculture allotment community based just off Nell Lane (near Southern Cemetery). Nestling amongst endless greens, brown, yellows, oranges, reds, purples and blues of all the growing are a home-made green house, a social area (with fire pit), a rescued shed (plus extension), a curvy pond and railway-sleeper herb spiral. As well as rustling around in the earth, they also have performances and gatherings and run workshops.

This will be the first of a series of mentions of green/greenish initiatives in the Chorlton area .

The Lost Plot celebrate their 4th anniversary this month and are holding a Birthday Bonfire bonanza next Sunday (8th) at 6 pm. As well as a bonfire, this will feature a Barbecue (both meat and vegetarian) and fireworks. (Hmmm I’m turning a blind eye to the carbon impact in plugging it, as it’s presumably just once a year… )

See here for more information on Permaculture in Manchesterand
Permaculture in general The Lost Plot also have a Facebook Group

MegaTesco Update:
No full submission of plans last week: recent news is that Tesco have submited some documents to Trafford’s planning department, but not the full application. It may go in this week.