MINUTES from Friends of Levenshulme Meeting, Bluebell, 3rd February 2008



The Return of Richard Leese


Following on from the December 8th meeting, the idea of inviting Sir Richard Leese back to Levenshulme was discussed. It was decided that we’d draft a letter to Leese inviting him, asking for updates on the completion of the LDF (Local Development Framework), since Levenshulme is supposedly a priority, as well as asking whether he’s followed up on the “bombsites” (which at the 3rd November meeting he said the council could “possibly do something about”).

It was agreed that this time we should invite not just Richard Leese, but the council officers responsible to this specific area to be on the platform. This should ensure that all questions can be answered, even very local ones. It was also suggested that we should supply written questions in advance, as well as take questions from the floor, to avoid the I’ll-get-back-to-you-when-I’ve-looked-into-it syndrome. These can be drafted once we have a response from his office.

It was acknowledged that we are cutting it a bit fine before the local election period starts. Also Richard Leese is on the platform at a police and crime meeting at Gorton Mount on the 22nd February, which we should bear in mind. General agreement was that we should suggest March and see what he says. We can then take it from there.


ACTIONS:

► Karen is planning to look into who are the best council officers to invite and report back.
► Conor has kindly agreed to draft the letter to Leese.

Levenshulme Hustings

In order to foster some more political engagement in Levenshulme, and to hold candidates publicly accountable for their party’s policies, it was agreed that we should organise a hustings for some time in the second half of April (see update below). Since the actual community is divided by a stupidly-drawn ward boundary, the candidates for both Levenshulme Ward and Gorton South Ward should be invited. It was felt that if the BNP stood a candidate, we should simply not invite them, rather than give a platform to fascists.

It was thought that a Saturday afternoon would be the best time. Several venues were suggested including Levenshulme High School, Alma Park School, St. Peter’s Church and the Arcadia Sports Centre. We can look into this once we have a fixed date.

(Update: I have spoken directly to the Electoral Commission; there are no restrictions on when candidates can appear publicly in the run up to the 1st May. Neither are there any legal difficulties with excluding BNP candidates from invitation. There are some regulations around expenses, but we can worry about that when we start producing flyers etc. The final list of candidates standing will come out no later than 8th April, so we can invite them on that day.)


ACTIONS: ► I’ve started to produce some publicity. There’ll be more stuff to do nearer the time.

Easter Sunday Event

It was agreed that we should organise an event for Easter Sunday. The proposal is a kind of Easter egg hunt protest march with a bring & buy sale at the end. This will be great for kids, and adults and is very likely to be covered, not just by the SMR and Channel M, but by the MEN too.

Attendees will be given a postcard showing some of Levenshulme’s problem sites. The event will start at the site of the old community centre on Chapel Street and visit the 5 or 6 problem sites depicted. At each site, visitors will have their postcard stamped. Once they have a full card, they can return to the Chapel Street site and collect an Easter egg. The plan is for a bring & buy sale with cakes etc… to be waiting on the Chapel Street site when they return.

There was a discussion on how this should be funded. The idea of charging a formal membership fee was regarded as too prescriptive, although we should make it clear that anyone attending meetings is welcome to contribute whatever they can spare. We’ll continue to collect with buckets on our weekend stalls. There was also discussion of getting some funding for the Easter event from small businesses. It was made clear that we’re talking about approaching only small independent local businesses. It was agreed to avoid seeking funding from business people with a large property portfolio, since that portfolio means that their interests are not the same as those of ordinary residents.

ACTIONS

► Charlotte has spoken to a contact at the University who can do 5000 cards for £100.00. I’ll try to get a quote too.
► I need to speak to Jamie (FoL’s usual graphics man) about designing the postcards.
► We will need two people with stamps at each spot, that’s about 12 people. We need volunteers for this, please.
► A formal letter should be drafted to local small businesses asking for funding. Anyone willing to do this?
► Femi is prepared to take this request for funding around some of his colleagues’ shops.
► We should have stalls on at least the first three weekends in March to advertise the Easter event. Again volunteers are needed to man these stalls.

Publicity

We agreed that the Easter event would be best advertised by regular visually-appealing Saturday stalls on Stockport Road, as well as by door-to-door leafleting in the areas serviced by Residents’ Associations and advertising through the normal press channels. The importance of posters in windows was mentioned, and we will host posters on the website and suggest these be printed off and displayed in the update email from now on. We’ll also suggest that those on the email list print the update and pass it to interested neighbours without email access. Paper copies of the updates will still be put in South Levenshulme Post Office as normal.

Other Business

It was pointed out that £285,000 is being invested in East Levenshulme Cricket Club. Although it was acknowledged that this is private money provided through a section 106 agreement, not direct Council investment.

£42,000 is being invested in overhauling the Multi-Use Games Area on Greenbank, with a further £105000 due to be spend on Greenbank in addition.

The deadline for responding to the LDF consultation has been extended and is now February 25th. It was mentioned that FoL should make a format response to this plan.

ACTIONS

► Conor has expressed interest in drawing up an FoL response to the LDF.
► Charlotte plans to open a bank account for us.





(Taken down by Stuart)