MINUTES from Friends of Levenshulme Meeting, Bluebell Inn, 9th April 2008

Present: Sharon Glendon, Dick Brown, Pete, Sara Harris, Pat Walsh, Helen, Tim McMahon, Jordon Kenison, Joe Kisolo-Ssonko, Jenni Viitanen, Malcolm Cowan, Sue McPherson, Cllr Keith Whitmore, Stuart Calton.


Hustings / Meet The Candidates

The list of Local Council candidates for May 1st has now been published here:

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=3507

It was agreed to invite all candidates standing. The invitation letter will be re-drafted to include a general idea of the hustings’ focus. It was agreed that some mention of Public Services, especially youth facilities, community centre, would be good, as well as mentioning retail and the physical environment, grouped under the Council-friendly heading of the “District Centre”. We also agreed to mention in passing the recent talk in government circles about Civic Participation.

It was suggested that as an incentive, we agree to campaign on behalf of candidates that turn up. However, this was thought to compromise FoL’s independence. Also, it was thought incentives would be unnecessary, since the Labour Party, LibDem and Left List candidates for Gorton South, were all at the meeting where the idea was raised (see minutes) and appeared to be planning to attend anyway.

The importance of tight chairing was mentioned, given the large number of people on the platform. The vast majority of the meeting should focus on open questions from the floor, directed at all or some of the candidates. Tracy has agreed to chair the Hustings. It was decided that a school would be the best bet for a venue, since they are public buildings and central to the communities they serve. The long association between schools and polling stations also makes a school the obvious choice.


ACTIONS:

► Stuart is re-jigging the letter and will send it out to all candidates ASAP.
► Stuart and Jamie will knock up a flyer to advertise the event.

UPDATE: Tracy has contacted the headteacher of Cedar Mount school who is happy to allow us to host the event at the school on Saturday the 26th April between 2pm & 4pm.

Swimming Baths

The future of Levenshulme swimming baths is still on the immediate agenda, since the roof still hasn’t been fixed (it’s still being held up with ACRO supports) and no word has come to us on any plans to fix it.

Whilst the baths are run by Serco, the City Council has responsibility for the upkeep of the building. It’s understood that Serco and MCC are currently in discussion about who is liable to fix the roof. An initial suggestion that we seek clarification on the contract, to ensure that the Council is responsible for this aspect of the building work was thought to be unnecessary. Since the Council is the elected body, it was agreed to focus our campaigning on MCC, as that campaigning will apply a knock-on pressure to Serco anyway. It was also pointed out that the Council should be held accountable for any ambiguity in the original contract when they privatised the service.

Since this is a widely-used and much-loved facility, we agreed to pull in as many Residents’ Groups as possible to sign a letter to be sent to Richard Leese, to show the breadth of feeling. The letter will also be copied to the press as an open letter, asking:

- Who’s going to fix the roof?
- When are they going to fix it?

and asking for assurance that the Baths will not just be given the minimum investment needed to prevent it from collapsing, but that a commitment to proper Council investment be made, not just to maintain it, but to improve it for the long term future.

Once drafted, we’ll send this to representatives from the RAs, as well as other community groups, for permission to add their names to the signatories.

There was mention of a swimwear-clad protest outside the building, which met with a mixed reception (in most cases, more for personal than political reasons!), but may be something to think about if the response to the letter is deemed to warrant further action…


ACTIONS:

► Stuart will draft the letter and send it around the RAs and other groups for their signatures, subject to consultation on the contents of the letter.



Bank Account / Constitution

The bank account is still in the process of being opened. The constitution is now on the website here. Since those on the mailing list were notified on March 31st, we’ve had no objections to the constitution. The basis of the constitution was agreed by a vote at an organising meeting back in December 8th 2007.

There was intense debate about the nature of FoL and the anti-privatisation part of our constitution. It was suggested that the “public money for public services” part was too narrow and limited the extent to which FoL can get involved as partners in shaping the Council’s policies.

It was pointed out that most people within FoL get involved in other organisations like the Levenshulme Community Association, and the Residents’ Associations in order to be consulted on Section 106 agreements, and to bid for lottery funding and so forth. Nobody within FoL is excluded from doing these things. However, Friends of Levenshulme is a campaigning organisation, and as such, is focused on publicly applying pressure to the Council and against their policy of public service privatisation.

As per the minutes of the December 8th meeting, the constitution is now in place for one year until an AGM on 22nd February 2009.


ACTIONS: ► The treasurer Audrey is working on getting the account opened.

The Return of Richard Leese

It was agreed to invite the Leader of the Council in late May or June.

At the last meeting, the idea of council officers attending too was suggested and generally agreed-upon. However, this idea was thought to give Sir Richard too much scope for ducking his personal responsibility as the Leader of the Council. The flipside is that unless those officers who have all the specific information at their disposal are present, there may be yet more scope to “get back to us”, rather than answer the question on the day.

There was no fixed consensus reached on this point. However, it was agreed that it would be counter-productive to send the initiation during the election period, when Town Hall will be boiling over, but that we should wait until after May 1st. So the details can be decided at the next meeting closer to the time.

Other Business

Students from Manchester University are researching and writing a document in response to the Council’s District Plan for Levenshulme. People from the FoL Retail and Development group have been working with them. Their questionnaire on currently on our homepage, please visit and complete it.

Family Planning services are being moved out of Levenshulme Health Centre and re-located to Manchester Royal Infirmary. This was generally regarded as yet another example of our services being cut and (particularly) young people in Levenshulme being ignored. We will bear it in mind as a possible campaigning issue in the future and in the meantime advertise the fact and the details of those to whom we should complain.

The idea of a joint meeting between FoL and the LCA was floated, on the topic of setting up a Parish Council.





(Taken down by Stuart)