MINUTES from Friends of Levenshulme Meeting, Levenshulme Library, 14th June 2008

Present: Nasreen Choudhary, Jamie Summers, Mohammed Anwar Usman, Pat Walsh, Tracy Jesty, Ellen Meredith, Sue McPherson, Charlotte Smith, M Wolstencroft, J Bettoni, Mr and Mrs Bunker, Frank Bamber, Malcolm Cowan, Carla Walsh, B. Walmsley, Stuart Calton, Audrey Sluyter, Barbara Mellor, Bill Langshaw, Jennifer Vickers, Kay Hodgkinson, John Hodgkinson, J Trail, D Trail, Nicky Jenkins, Freda Linnecor, Jule Reid, Candy Leonard, Nancy Smith, Julie Smith, Nancy Davenport, Dave Ball.

Apologies: Dick Brown, Sharon Glendon, Cllr John Commons, Cllr Keith Whitmore, Cllr Charles Glover.


Closure of Barlow Road (Greenbank) Post Office

The Post Office on Byron Parade / Barlow Road has been earmarked for closure by Royal Mail. Public “Consultation” is due to end on the 21st July, and should the closure go ahead, it would be closed in September. It was pointed out that Post Offices are community hubs, and that many people reply on the services they provide. It was mentioned that they provide people not just post facilities but banking facilities, car tax facilities etc… The catchment area for the Post Office takes in a large residential area where a considerable number of elderly people live. The walk to North Levenshulme Post Office, the next one along, is not reasonable for people with kids, the elderly or the disabled. It was said too that North Levy Office is frequently shut.

A number of actions are planned to fight the closure:

A petition has already been put together by the Postmaster, and is being signed in various shops and in the Post Office itself. We will need to take to the streets with this petition, and will organise this after the other actions have been sorted.

It was decided that we stage a protest outside the PO itself, at 11:00am on Saturday the 21st June. People will be asked to make and bring placards saying what they use the Post Office for and we will form an enormous queue from the Post Office and down the road. We will hand out leaflets asking resident to write down “What their Post Office means to them”.

It was decided that we should lobby outside our MP Gerald Kaufman’s surgery at Gorton Mount School on the 28th June at 10:00am. Placards again. A delegation of 6 or so will go in to seek his support in fighting the closure. We will also email Sir Gerald a short letter in advance to let him know we’re coming and to outline our concerns.

[N.B. Since the meeting, we've heard that Sir Gerald's surgery will be at Gorton Library on 28th June at 09:30am. The rest still stands]

It was decided that we should campaign on the issue at the Greenbank do on the 29th June also, perhaps with a stall. We will contact Greenbank RA about that.

We also agreed to look at the criteria for the closures (although doubt was expressed about whether they’d make any sense) on the Royal Mail website. We will also look into the possibility of the Local Authority taking over the Post Office, as has been done elsewhere. Also, we agreed we should be campaigning for MORE services in our Post Offices, and supporting them by using them, as well as against their closure.



ACTIONS:
► Stuart is sorting out a poster which advertises both events, and will get these to the PO to be picked up by residents for displaying in windows.
► Barbara has designed some leaflets to hand out to the protesting queue.
► Stuart & Pat will sort out the letter to Kaufman between them.
► Stuart will issue a press release for the queuing protest.
► Everyone in the area who wants to have a local Post Office will make placards.

Swimming Baths

The government have announced an £140,000,000 investment in free swimming. The press release from Tessa Jowell, Andy Burnham and Alan Johnson also talks about the funds being used to “Rejuvenate Pools”.

A letter has been written from Fol to be sent to the three ministers above, as well as to other notables like Richard Leese, Gerald Kaufman, Cllr Mike Amesbury, to enquire whether we could have a tiny, minute fraction of that cash to sort out our Baths, which are still on the verge of falling down.

It was pointed out that the Pools are also used for Mental Health patients, and to train the Fire Brigade, as well as for all the services we normally associate with them. It was also stated that a new filtration system had been installed recently. The facilities at Cedar Mount were mentioned and the question asked “Why can’t we have the same?”


► Julie will speak to Cllr Mike Amesbury about the Baths.

Lobby of the Council

The next full council meeting is on the 9th July. In order to show that we’re still here and that our issues haven’t gone away, we are intending to lobby the Council, both from the public gallery and from outside of the Town Hall. The main focus will be on the state of Levenshulme Baths, but also on any of the other issues facing our area. Dependant on the reply Leese gives us to our open letter in the SMR, we may approach Cllr Glover (who represents Gorton South ward, where the baths are) to raise a question about the Baths in the Council meeting.

It was pointed out that many different people do good work from within the various scrutiny committees, and that residents can apply to attend these meetings as observers. Whilst it was agreed that this is valuable, it was felt that there needed to be media visibility and a communal DIY aspect, in order to maintain the energy needed to keep Levenshulme’s issues in the public eye.

It was pointed out that the local paper is full of various different groups trying to protect their schools, their Health Services, their green space and so on, all across Manchester. If we all lobby at the same time, we can have a greater impact, so we are throwing the lobby open to any Manchester Community group that wants to join in. We have already spoken to ex-Council tenants at the Longsight end, who are keen to be involved in the lobby, protesting against the privatisation of their homes.


ACTIONS:

► Charlotte and Jamie are working on a new banner.
► Stuart and Jamie will knock up some kind of flyer.
► Charlotte & Stuart will seek out the contact details of various other community groups in Manchester and invite them to the event.
► Stuart will issue a press release.
► We need everyone to make placards again.



Bank Account / Constitution / “Treasurer’s Report”

The bank account is open and we’ve got about £91.00.




New "GP-led Health Centre" in Levenshulme


The “New GP-led Health Centre” in Levenshulme (like those in Moston and Longsight) is being put out the tender and will likely be privately-run. So far in the North West, the "preferred provider" has been Care UK (a private contractor linked to the US-based pharmaceutical company Mercury). It was mentioned that the British Medical Association handed a petition of one million signatures to Gordon Brown recently saying that patients shouldn’t become “customers”, that these new private clinics could be the end for existing NHS faculties in local areas and that for many they may mean further to travel.

It was pointed out that the consultation process has been extremely low-key, or invisible. In fact we had to find out about the plans through the Freedom of Information Act! The public “consultation” is set to close on 26th June. The website states that no communities will be forced to have one of these new health centres.

It was agreed that we write a letter to the PCT, asking that the consultation period be extended, stating grave reservations about the plans in general, and threatening judicial review on the lack of consultation. This should be copied to all the usual suspects in the Council and relevant Parliamentary departments. It was also suggested that at some point we organise a meeting with someone from the BMA, and someone from the PCT to put each side of the case in a public meeting. That way we can have the full debate.


► Sue will draft the letter.
► Sue to speak to GPs at Dunstable Street Health Cente and assess their attitude to the plans, Tracy to do likewise at Ashcroft Surgery. With view to sounding out a larger campaign.




Return of Leese

It was agreed to invite the Leader of the Council back again. This has been put back until September, given the workload above. It was agreed that he should be questioned on the whole range of issues affecting us, since the only issue to have been fully-resolved since he came last time is the opening of the new Tesco. It was also emphasised that we need to think about the structure of the meeting.

Other Business

Jenny Vickers of Four Avenues RA is planning to set up a group that can investigate and publicise Levenshulme’s heritage. This could also involve applying for listed status for important buildings. It was suggested that they speak to elderly residents about their memories, approach schools, set up a page on the FoL website and also see if they could tax any “community money” out of Tesco.

The Levenshulme Community Association are planning to set up a public meeting, as a method of consultation on the idea of a Parish Council for Levenshulme. Since there are a lot of conflicting reports about the different pros and cons of a Parish Council, they plan to invite an expert guest who can present the issues to the public.









(Taken down by Stuart)