community

Ditch your rubbish day!

The Royce Court Residents Group mentioned that it would be a good idea to have a skip to clear out all their old rubbish. Dutifully, I arranged to have a skip delivered with City South Manchester and a couple of days later a huge walk in container arrived in Royce Court car park for the residents to throw away and clean out their old rubbish.

A group residents were busy wheeling rubbish in and out of the building and soon the whole block was a hive of activity. I did my share and got stuck in, helping discard unwanted items from ironing boards to bedsteads and dining room chairs to sideboards!

We soon had the skip full to the brim and it was a good opportunity to meet all the other residents in the block. A very productive event and another day is planned in the near future.

Mission accomplished and thanks to everyone involved!

Learned friends

It's back to the Law once again and continuing to notch up mandatory subject areas (and some electives) towards the final LL.B degree in Law - Bachelor of Laws [Legum Baccalaureus]

Four year's of studying the Law has passed already, with three of these at degree level, soon to be a qualified solicitor or barrister (whichever route I choose in September). I'm proud to have excellent passes in; Tort Law, Contract Law, Legal Research, Jurisprudence, Law reform, Criminal Law, European Union Law, State systems, Constitutional Law. By the end of May, Land Law, Criminology, Family Law and Apps Research can all be added to the list, with more to come.

I'd recommend reading the Law to anyone!

Voter-ID in Didsbury West

Today there was a great turnout of Labour members at the Voter-ID training and practical event held at Manchester Bridge Club on Palatine Road in West Didsbury.

The event ran from 9.30am until mid afternoon and we participated in gaining experience in the new Voter ID scripts. An introduction was given by Lucy Powell, prospective Parliamentary Candidate, which was followed by an informal briefing from Noel Hutchinson from Labour North West. The amount of Labour Councillors, prospective candidates and activists was inspiring to see and a large group photo was taken on the steps outside.

Practical work was completed in small teams and we were allocated the Mersey crescent estate which backs onto the river Mersey, adjacent to Princess Parkway. Our Labour candidate for the Didsbury West by-election is David Ellison, who is a local ressdient and long standing Didsbury West campaigner. The positive work was excellent which will make a difference at the polls as well as providing campaigners with more experience in the new scripts.

The by-election is on the 29th January and I will be going back to West Didsbury to support David and increase our Labour vote.

Christmas festivities

A successful Senior People's Festive Party was held at the Zion Centre, Hulme for over 40 residents of the Shawgreen area. This has become an annual event organised by just a handful of us who are volunteers from Shawgreen Tenants and Residents Association.

A traditional turkey lunch with all the trimmings was provided and a super serving of Xmas pudding which went down very well indeed. Afterwards I called the raffle and we gave away a couple of prizes which had been donated for the event. Everyone had a great time and of course wanted to book for 2009! Afterwards we delivered meals and small gifts to those who were unable to attend due to illness or being housebound.

The following Wednesday morning I delivered selection boxes to the children on the Shawgreen estate, with Cllr. Nigel Murphy, Cal Harvey and David Heirons, which was great fun to do and I think we made their day!

Some children asked if they were “free” and couldn't believe they didn't have to pay for them! This is alway affords a good chance to get around our estate and speak with both parents and children.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Community Awards 2008

Last night I attended the Manchester City Council Community Awards for 2008 at the Town Hall.

Arriving at the Town Hall you couldn't help but notice the colourful outdoor Christmas market with its twinkling lights and stalls full of festive goodies. The great big light up father Christmas fixed to the front of the Town Hall building looked great too!

A champagne reception was held on the second floor, just across the way from the magnificent Great Hall. There were lots of friends both from the Council and Community alike - all ready for an evening of celebration, to honour those in Manchester who have made a substantial contribution to their communities.

According to the Lord Mayor, Mavis Smitherman, everyone who had been nominated for a Community Award was considered to have made a big difference to where they live or work, and the finalists were the absolute cream of Manchester.

Hulme people and friends Cal and David were both up for awards and they won runner up prizes of an engraved star and cheques for £50 each. It was a super night and the food was excellent too and we were all given a gift by Santa as well!

Wonderful, and well done to everyone especially those who won prizes in more than one category.

Vote Yes for Greater Manchester!

Late afternoon/early evening today was spent at the Call Centre for the Yes Campaign, reminding people that they need to vote and also assessing the support in Greater Manchester.

The Labour Party supports the YES Campaign and I personally called over 200 or so people.  The response more or less even and therefore I urge all YES voters to make their choice and get the ballot papers back immediately.

A good team of people were gathered in Quay Street and I believe that the YES Campaign will achieve our goals and we will achieve the TiF Proposals.

More info here

Yes Campaign!

Last night I went to show my support for the YES Campaign which is in support of the bid to Improve Public Transport in Manchester. [photo taken at Shudehill bus station].

I want to see change and put an end to the pollution and frustration that comes with ever-higher levels of congestion.

The government has agreed a £3 billion fund to transform Manchester's transport system over the next five years. When the work is at least 80% completed, in 2013, a limited, peak-time only congestion charge will be introduced to help pay for it. We only get to make this investment if we vote YES and introduce the congestion charge.

There are 6 things that the YES Campaign lists:

One. There will be new and better bus routes right across Greater Manchester.

Two. There will be new and extended Metrolink routes to the airport and town centres across the city.

Three. There will be more seats on trains and better, safer stations and platforms.

Four. There will be integrated, electronic ticketing allowing you to travel affordably and easily, anywhere in Greater Manchester.

Five. There will be more cycling provision, yellow school buses, park and ride schemes and if you do drive, it'll be a faster and quicker journey to work.

Six. Our air quality will improve and we'll see a cut in our greenhouse gas emissions.

Click here for more details at the super website.

VOTE YES!

18 Months to 18 Weeks with Labour!

Referendum Roadshow

Hulme Labour Team held a successful TIF Bid - Referendum Roadshow at the Zion Centre on Thursday 4th September.

Tony Lloyd MP and Cllr. Emily Lomax discussed the project with local residents.

Myself, Cal Harvey and Jeff Evans organised the event and publicity. There was an excellent response from the people of Hulme and some in depth discussion took place. Thanks to everyone involved.

A Powerpoint presentation can be downloaded direct to your PC by clicking here.

When the file downloads to your PC, you can open it in Powerpoint. Select 'Slide Show' in the top menu bar and then select 'View Show' to see the presentation.

Community Forums

Continuing our commitment to the neighbourhoods of Hulme, our branch made the decision to hold 'Community Forum' meetings prior to the monthly branch meetings.

We've successfully held a number of Community Forums to date and they have been extremely popular with residents. This has been a great opportunity for open debate and for those who attend to share their experiences with local Councillor's and members of the Hulme Labour Team.

March - St. Wilfred's
May - Shawgreen
June - Aquarius
July - Monton Street
September - St. George's

Click here to: Download TeamLabour.pdf

Thank you to everyone

A month after the local election in Hulme and we decided to put out a 'Thank You' leaflet from Emily Lomax.

This was a good opportunity for the branch to recruit some new members, so I planned a recruitment section for the back of the leaflet.

We are gaining more and more members in our ward and no doubt this is due to the continued effort and hard work being put in by our branch members.

Looking forward to the year ahead and doing some good work in the community and neighbourhoods of Hulme once again.

To download the leaflet click here: Download Emily_Lomax-THank-You.pdf

Emily Lomax wins Hulme

Wonderful news this evening is that we have won back our third seat in Hulme from the Greens. Once again Hulme is an all Labour ward and our hard work with candidate Emily Lomax has finally paid off.

We won by a 50 lead against the Greens who fielded Steve Durrant for the third year running, who failed again for the third time.

Thanks to the Hulme Labour Team and Emily Lomax, we're highly delighted at the result.

 

Emily Lomax (Labour) 961
Green Party 911
Tory 215
LibDem 190

Time to celebrate and put our feet up for a well earned few days now!

Click here to view my favourite leaflet: Download Hulme-election-special.pdf

Less than nine weeks to local elections!

"Right now, we are less than nine weeks away from important local elections in London, Wales and some English councils.

We are also working hard to prepare for the next General Election. 21 Labour seats in Parliament have a majority of less than 1000 and we have to campaign strongly on the ground now to win a fourth term in government so that we can keep delivering on Labour values and keep the Tories out of Number 10"

Almost March

Our work in Hulme continues and our branch has been more than active over the last few weeks. Voter ID has continued and our candidate Emily Lomax has been door-stepping with the Labour Team, chatting with almost everyone across the ward!

This weekend we chatted to some firm Labour supporters over in the Hopton Court/Martinscroft area, which is very encouraging for our expected gain in May. A great deal of significant work has been done in the various neighbourhoods of Hulme recently both by our Labour Councillors and the Labour Team.

We're discovering that our calls, mail and email are on the increase and with only nine weeks to the local elections we're all more than confident of gaining our Hulme seat back to Labour.

Photo: Emily, Cal and myself at NW Labour event.

The February edition of The Hulme Rose is available to read here:
Download Hulme_Rose_Feb08.pdf

Into 2008 ...

The month of January has passed by and February is here already. It’s been a busy time in the Hulme Branch Labour Party with business as usual. Voter ID has continued since last year and as always we’ve kept up our commitments to the community of Hulme.

The BLP Annual General Meeting was held on the 14th January and new branch officers were elected. I am pleased to have been elected as Chair of the Branch and look forward to working with everyone in the Branch and the Party.  Cllr. Nigel Murphy was elected as Branch Secretary, Dan Chesters as Treasurer and Win Berry as Vice Chair.

We expect to regain our seat in Hulme at the May local elections with Labour candidate Emily Lomax. Of course we’re more than confident that the Greens will not achieve a seat this year, which in effect will remove the only existing Green Councillor from the City Council. The amount of work that our party activists achieve around Hulme is excellent and we’re always available to become involved in a variety of issues when needed. A plan of community forums is arranged for the months ahead and this is a good opportunity for local residents and groups to come along and discuss their issues and concerns with us.

Look out for the next issue of The Hulme Rose, on the streets soon!