AboutMyArea interviews the Leader of Stockport Council - Councillor Dave Goddard
| Published: 20th October 2007 20:54 |
Cllr Dave Goddard
Much is said about councillors - do they work passionately hard for us or not? - read on and judge for yourself.
On the 25th September, the editors of AboutMyArea for the Cheadle and Bramhall area were given the opportunity to speak with and interview Councillor Dave Goddard, the Leader of Stockport Council, at Stockport Town Hall, whose passionate enthusiasm, commitment and pride in Stockport and vision for its future, enlightened us with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role that the Council is playing in securing an economically viable, commercially vibrant and culturally desirable town centre and borough comparable to the models of the Trafford Centre and Salford Quays and other great urban areas in the UK.
What ensued was an insightful discussion about various topics which had been initiated as a follow up on the disagreement between Stockport Council, Trafford Councils and other local authorities in Greater Manchester over the proposed TIF bid to introduce congestion charging as follows.
Congestion Charging & dramatic Subsequent changes
Councillor Goddard, a number of local MPs and local business leaders are still committed in their fight to oppose the congestion charging proposals put together by the GMPTE (Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive) and AGMA (Association of Greater Manchester Authorities). In the meantime much is being done to improve transport across the borough, and in the future there may be a Metrolink line trams through to Didsbury so that local Stockport services could link on from there. Councillor Goddard is also concerned that certain other changes will take place if the bid were to go ahead such as the Transport Bill which will remove Highways Powers away from local authorities such as Stockport. The other concern he says is "that AGMA is deemed to be a good representative model for future governance yet it will not include economic powers - these will be left to an independent set -up of non-elected representatives."
SEMMMS - Road Relief By Pass - should it be phased in or not?
As there clearly is no money - at least not the £1b needed to implement the relief road to run from the airport via Hazel Grove to Bredbury (to ease the congestion on the A6 and the subsequent overspill into the neighbouring residential areas and the A34), the phased version may be supported - one of 2 options: - one is for Hazel Grove towards Manchester Airport and the other option is to phase in Hazel Grove to Bredbury. If either phase went ahead it could be up and ready within 4 years. An idea of having a toll road has been flatly refused by the council.
Stockport Community Pride
Cllr Dave Goddard spoke about engendering community pride within the Stockport communities saying "It's all about taking pride in what you do, we have teams disposing of illegal rubbish, abandoned cars, getting the weeds up out of the pavements, sprucing up the parks, flower beds and the public spaces, teams cleaning off the graffiti, blitz cleaning and night time street cleaning in the town centre, teams maintaining storm damaged trees and improving drains". For all these services phone the Council on 0845 833 4444.
The Pot Hole Moles and the Find & Fix Team
Cllr Goddard said that "if you have a pothole in your street you have to tell the Pot Hole Moles and they may fix it on that same day! Or if the street lights are out, get in the local Find & Fix Team! "
All the above are just phase 1 and £1/2 million has already been poured in to do these things as part of £3 million which will be spent on the one year project which was launched in August and AboutMyArea in SK8 and SK7 are proud to support. The programme will also encompass putting in sports sessions for young people, restoration of the Willow Grove Cemetery, using multi-agency sweep" of areas with anti-social problems and which need community support. A total of £0.5m will be pumped into helping "incubate" and attract new, small businesses, and help them expand, including a plan focusing on a creative and cultural "business knowledge village" in Reddish.
"We want something back from the people - (the councillor says)
And - what's wrong with a little competition to have the best garden or the best presented shop on the street? What's wrong with doing litter picks involving the wider community including young people?"
A Photo Competition with the theme - What makes you proud of living and working in Stockport is to be launched. For full details see http://www.stockport.gov.uk/pride
Stockport's Mega 21st Century facelift and Town Centre Regeneration.
"Stockport is going to get a fantastic state of the art, 21st century shopping mall comparable to the Trafford Centre, situated parallel to Merseyway next to the M60 on the Bridgefield Street Retail Development as part of our £500 million vision for the transformation of the town Centre. The House of Fraser is just one of the major stores being signed up for the site. I've discussed the plans with the developers and the riverside will be transformed with cafes and bars similar to Salford Quays so people can relax and enjoy themselves down by the river whilst overlooked by the magnificent viaduct, and at the same time meander up to the old town and explore the old cobble streets, the conserved buildings and the old market. The old town will sit besides the contemporary and new town and complement each other".
The new Town Square and Redevelopment of Grand Central
- will be rebuilt with new restaurants, cafes, prestigious office buildings, hotel, multi-storey car park and "Outside the train station there will be a new public square at the entrance to the train station where I would like to see something iconic - on par with ‘the Angels of the North' in Tyneside - perhaps a giant waterfall? " There will be a new transport hub instead of the old bus station. This is £100 million project is to be completed in 2009.
To find out more go to the council website on http://www.stockport.gov.uk
Youth, Under Age Drinking and subsequent anti social behaviour.
Our final question encompassed the issues relating to YOUTH, UNDER AGE DRINKING AND ANTI SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR and what kind of council resources are there to deal with this and related problems.
Councillor Goddard promised "that resources will be targeted to deal with the issues, but he said would it not be better to find the root causes and deal with those? There are no more youth clubs as young people today are not interested in these." He went on to say that " The Cafe Unity on Finney Lane in Heald Green is a good example of the type of places needed for young people to hang out", (see Cafe Unity article here). A proposed Eden Bus Project by The Cheadle Hulme Methodist Church (see Eden Bus Project news story here) was also discussed.
The Safer Stockport Partnership has an Anti-social Hotline on 0845 833 4444 and statistics show that there has been a decline of just under 6% with 2,370 anti social behaviour incidents in Stockport. In Heald Green area the figure is down by 12% as discussed in Heald Green last Tuesday at the first ever meeting of its kind in the Stockport West area, held at the Heald Green Village Hall at Outwood Road. Amongst those attending were the Safer Stockport Partnership including Alison Leigh, Inspector Turner of the Cheadle Police, Julie Wharton for the Youth Service, Steve Hill, PC Shaw, PCSO Smith and PCSO Forster, Paul McDerment of the Parks and others. The aim was to have an open public consultation as to the way forward in Heald Green. See the related news article "Police Inspector Turner and Stockport Safer Partnership Reach Out to Residents".
State of the Area Debate
The "State of the Area Debate" was held during the monthly Cheadle Area Committee meeting, on Tuesday 2nd October -6pm to 9pm at Ladybridge Residents Club, Edenbridge Road, Cheadle Hulme where local people discussed their ideas about the future development of Cheadle. See news item "Cheadle Residents have their say".
Please notify the officer Mr Stephen Fox, of any questions you have on 0161 474 3206 or by email at Stephen.fox@stockport.gov.uk
Open Forum Debate
Before Xmas the Cheadle Area Committee will be having an Open Forum debate see editorial link here, at one of their monthly meetings - please email topics of interest to be discussed - relevant experts will be bought in, fliers will be prepared to publicise your topic. All suggestions will be considered so please email these to cllr.brian.millard@stockport.gov.uk
Finally we would like to thank the Council Leader Cllr Dave Goddard and his team for taking the time out of his extremely busy schedule which has enlightened us and for inspiring us to continue to support our local community online at www.aboutmyarea.co.uk/sk8.
What do you think?
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