239 - Contract Issues

This morning I was contacted by Speedwell, asking my to correct the information on the blog with the following details :

“The contract which we had with DCC for the 239 expired in March 2010. At that point we met with them and stated that we could not continue with the previous rate of subsidy as it had not been increased in real terms for over five years. DCC stated that they were unable to increase the subsidy, so we then registered the journeys which we felt we could operate commercially.

At no point have Speedwell agreed to a further contract for the 239 beyond March 2010 - we were invited to extend the contract to 2013, but declined to do so for the reasons above. If anyone at DCC is telling you that there is a contract still in force they are misleading you. I would invite them to produce any document signed by us which proves otherwise.”

However when I queried the above details with the County Council they advised the following : 

"The contract did not expire in March 2010, they instead advise that the contract commenced on 23^rd March 2008 and was scheduled to end on 31^st March 2013.

They are unsure as to why Speedwell is advising that there was an offer to extend the contract, because as it was not due to expire until 31^st March 2013 there was no need to extend the contract."

Now I don’t want to comment on who is right or otherwise, I’ll leave that to readers of the blog to decide.

However one possible way of avoiding issues like this in the future could be to follow the example of the GMPTE who publish details of tenders issued for bus services, and as an example the May edition available by clicking here details near the bottom of page 4 details for parts of the 341 service.

Summer Holiday Activities

In case you’ve not heard it’s the start of the summer holidays today, and as well as the activities going on in Glossop, there is also a full range of activities taking place at the Gamesley Sport and Community Centre on Melandra Castle Road.

This week’s activities are as follows :

Mon 26^th July – Sports coaching 1pm till 4pm and Street Dancing 1pm till 4pm

Wed 28^th July – Bouncy Castle 2pm till 4pm

Friday 30^th July – Music Sessions – 1pm till 4pm and 6pm till 9pm * pre booking is required

For further information or to book a place please call 01457 869145

Copy of the leaflet detailing the programme are available from a variety of local venue, and on the High Peak Community Housing website at www.hpch.co.uk

The HPCH website, also has leaflets detailing the programs running in other area's of Glossopdale and the rest of the High Peak.

Peak Active Sports (PAS) are also running a full range of activities up at St Margaret’s School, further details are available at www.pas.uk.com or by phoning Mark 07814 390740 or Steve 07989 830890.

Bin Changes Reminder

Just a quick reminder that this week is the second week of the new bin collection arrangements, meaning that on Monday night (26th July) you will need to put out your black bin (if you live on Gamesley that is).

For further information or to confirm your collection arrangements (if you are not on Gamesley) please goto www.highpeak.gov.uk and put you're address in the my property box on the top right hand side.

Bus Service Changes

Don't forget that the changes to the 239 and the official end to the 392 take effect from tomorrow (Monday 26th July).

I say official end to the 392, because all there are various reports that no journeys have been seen on this service for the last few weeks, it was supposed to have still being running until the end of Saturday.

Details for the 239 are as per the post below (click here for more information), and once again despite other rumors going round, the main reason behind these changes is not due to the county council making cuts to the subsidy. the main reason is due to Speedwell wanting more subsidy for the service even though the contract they had agreed with the county for the service still had another few years to run.

Area Forums Review

Tonight saw the first meeting of a task and finish group which will review the council setup for Area Forums, along with a few other bits that are related to what the area forums cover including the ‘going local’ and ‘community’ grants funds.

The reason for the review follows on from a paper that went through the select committee process with little opportunity for consideration or comment earlier in the year that effectively abolished the existing area forum setup and replaced them with one meeting per year.

The group will get a chance to review this decision in a sense, by having a look at what the proposals are for what the one meeting of the area forum will cover, we will also get a chance to have a look what else can be done with them.

When the first started the area forums were intended to involve the public more in decision making by providing an opportunity for some decisions to be taken at a local level with the public involved, however they soon ended up as a talking shop with little purpose, with the most recent Glossopdale one seeing 30+ people in attendance but only 2/3 were actual members of the public, the rest were an assortment of councillor’s, officers, police , and various other public sector folk.

This group will give an opportunity to look at what role area forums should play in the future and if we should be trying to get decision making more local, if you have any views on what the future role of area forums should be, please let me know.

239 Information

The changes to the 239 will be taking place on Monday 26th July in advance of this change, the following details are being circulated to people who have signed the list in the GRA, and copies will be available to collect from there as well. You can also download a copy by clicking here

239 Information

From Monday 26th July, the 239 Glossop to Ashton service will be reduced from the current service to only run at the times below. Please find listed below a copy of the timetable details on why this change is happening along with (on the other side) information on alternatives routes to get to Ashton Under Lyne / Tameside Hospital

For a copy of the 239 Timetable please click here

Why is this happening ?

Up until the 26th July the 239 has being run as a tendered / subsidised service, with money being provided by the County Council to support the service being run.

This financial support was provided by way of a contract with Speedwell.

Earlier this year, Speedwell approached the county council wanting more money to provide this service, on the grounds that costs had increased since the contract was set up, and that the Mercedes Varios Speedwell use on the service are coming to the end of their lives.

However due to the existing contract for the 239 service still having a number of years to run, it was not possible for the contract to be renegotiated.

Speedwell then advised that they would be reducing the service to the timetable above and withdrawing from the contract with the County Council. This means that from Monday 26th July Speedwell will not receive any form of subsidy to run the service Speedwell have however decided to run the service with a low floor bus.

Why can’t the County Council provide an alternative service ?

Due to speedwell withdrawing from the existing contract, and with effect from the 26th July running the service as a commercial service the County Council cannot put in place an alternative service or take any action against Speedwell for pulling out of the existing contract.

What other effect’s will these changes have ?

In addition to the cuts to the 239 service, the 392 Glossop Gamesley circular is also being withdrawn, meaning that for large parts of the day there will only be two buses an hour to Glossop (the 341 at 20 past the hour, and the 394 at 5 past the hour).

What alternative are there ?

To get to Ashton Under Lyne - you will at times other than when the remaining journeys are running need to either go into Glossop, or to the Plough / Shaw Lane and catch a 236 or 237.

To get to Tameside Hospital - you will at times other than when the remaining journeys are running need to either go into Glossop, or to the Plough / Shaw Lane and catch a 236 or 237, and then change at either Stalybridge or Ashton Under Lyne.

Examples :
In place of the 6.52am (from Hollins Lane) journey to Ashton Under Lyne :
Walk from Gamesley to the bus stop at the bottom of Shaw Lane (in front of Glossop Caravans)

Catch the 6.50am 236 arrive in Ashton Under Lyne at 7.19am.


In place of the 10.13am (from Hollins Lane) journey to Tameside Hospital :
From Hollins Lane catch the 10.05am 394 to Glossop

At the Market Arcade in Glossop catch the 10.23 237 towards Ashton

Get off the 237 at Armstrong’s on Penny Meadow in Ashton

Cross over the road and catch the 11.08am 350 to Tameside Hospital

Journey planners to plan alternative routes to the Hospital, Stalybridge or Ashton Under Lyne are available at : www.gmpte.com, www.travelineeastmidlands.co.uk or by phoning travel line on 0871 200 22 33

The majority of these other routes are run by different bus companies, and Speedwell weekly or daily tickets will not be valid on these services.

You can however purchase an any bus (or system one) day ticket at £4.90 before 9.30am or £4.50 which is valid on all buses within Glossopdale and Greater Manchester (weekly and month system tickets are also available goto www.systemonetravelcards.co.uk for further details

Bus Watch

Please let us have your complaints about buses that don’t turn up, or run late.

We need specific information about the time and date to try and improve our local services goto www.anthonymckeown.info or www.gamesley.org.uk and click on Buswatch or pick up a form from the GRA for further details.

Future Changes

As soon as we here of any further / future changes, we will publicise the details by newsletter to all people that signed up at the GRA Office. Information will also be displayed on the changes at blog.anthonymckeown.info or www.gamesley.org.uk. You can also sign up to a weekly newsletter by email from Anthony’s blog on local issues, by visiting the blog or by sending an email with subscribe as the title to newsletter@blog.anthonymckeown.info

Bowel Cancer Awareness

Most councillor’s receive every week for most week’s of the year a magazine called ‘First’ from the Local Government Association that aims to keep us up to date on issues around local government.

It also as with most publications contains a letters page, and in this weeks release, there was a letter from Lynn Faulds Wood, (a former presenter of Watchdog) the founder of a charity called ‘Lynn's Bowel Cancer Campaign’.

The letter was aiming to raise awareness of Bowel Cancer via a campaign that the charity ran earlier this month using MP’s to promote faster diagnosis of bowel cancer to save the lives of many of their constituents.

The letter encourages councillor’s to encourage people in our wards to use the NHS bowel cancer screening kits, which the letter advises are currently being sent out to people aged 60 and above, and in poorer areas of which there are a few in the High Peak, uptake is low – and especially low among men.

If you're within the target age group and have being offered the test, please have the test because whilst Bowel Cancer is the second commonest cancer which kills people in the UK, causing more deaths every year than breast and cervical cancer put together, it is one of the most curable cancers you can get if it is caught early enough.

If you would like more information on the campaign please goto : www.bowelcancer.tv or email info@ bowelcancer.tv

Vote for me - Total Politics Blog Poll

It’s that time of year again, it’s time for the annual total politics blog poll, and whilst I don’t expect to come anywhere near the top, it’s nice to appear on the list, so if you enjoy reading this blog please vote for it !

To vote, you need to send an email to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com following the rules below.

1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and ranks them from 1 (your favourite) to 10 (your tenth favourite).
2. Your votes must be ranked from 1 to 10. Any votes which do not have rankings will not be counted.
3. You MUST include at least FIVE blogs in your list, but please list ten if you can. If you include fewer than five, your vote will not count.
4. Email your vote to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
5. Only vote once.
6. Only blogs based in the UK, run by UK residents or based on UK politics are eligible. No blog will be excluded from voting.
7. Anonymous votes left in the comments will not count. You must give a name
8. All votes must be received by midnight on 31 July 2010. Any votes received after that date will not count.
For further details on the poll, go to : http://www.totalpolitics.com/magazine_detail.php?id=963

Now as per the rules I’m not including who I’ll be voting for, but for some suggestions try the Labour or from the dark side blog list’s on the right hand side, and please vote for me !

Beware Bin Day Changes !

From this Monday (19th July) refuse and recycling collections are being reorganised by the council.

This means that the day our ‘bins’ are collected will change.

For us on Gamesley this mean instead of our ‘bins’ being collected on a Thursday, they will now be collected on a Tuesday starting with the green bin and recycling from this Tuesday (20th July).

The time your bin is collected may also change, so to ensure you bin / recycling is collected the advice from the council is to put your bin / boxes out the night before collection (so Monday night for us) to ensure they get collected.

The reasoning behind the changes, is to make the collection service more efficient and reduce the carbon emissions that the bin collections make.

The changes are effecting the majority of the High Peak, and if your date is changing you should have had a leaflet through your door one side of which will look like this :

The other side is a calendar with the dates your different types of bins will be collected.

If you’ve not had a leaflet or you have misplaced the leaflet, you can double check or get details on when your ‘bins’ will now be collected by going to the council website : www.highpeak.gov.uk and entering your address in the my property section on the top right hand side.

You can also phone on 0845 129 4870 or 01298 28423 or check with your local councillor, as we’ve all had details on the changes.

Roy Oldham

My condolences to the family of Cllr Roy Oldham, ward councillor for Longendale and former leader of Tameside Council who passed away this morning.

Roy who was 76, was leader of Tameside Council for 30 years until this year, a councillor on Tameside Council from its creation in 1974, and a councillor on the Longdendale Urban District Council from 1965 until 1974.

Whilst there may be some who haven’t agreed with Roy and some of the policies he has followed over the years, no one can have doubted his commitment to the people of Tameside and in particular the people of the Longendale area which he represented for over 40 years.

Melandra Castle Pub - Latest News

Local residents may have noticed the scaffolding that has recently being erected around the currently empty Melandra Castle Public House.

After a check with the owners of the pub (Enterprise Inns), the scaffolding will be there for the remainder of this week (weather permitting) while works are completed to fix a leaking roof.

In addition a variety of other works will be taking place to the inside of the pub over the course of the next few weeks.

The Pub is currently still being marketed, and Enterprise Inns are currently speaking to interested parties.

At current I don't have any details on if or when the pub will reopen, but if you were interested in taking on the pub you can find out more details at : http://www.enterpriseinns.com/Pages/Properties/024855.aspx

Happy fifth birthday !

This last week saw the fifth anniversary of this blog, which was first started in 2005.

As a reminder whilst not all the topics covered may be interesting, I do hope that readers of the blog will find the contents useful and if you have suggestion for topics or issues that should be covered please let me know.

Also just in case it's not always 100% clear, all views expressed on the blog, are only the views of myself and should not unless expressly stated be considered the views of any of the bodies I am involved with.

Heritage at Risk – Wren Nest and the High Peak

Last Wednesday (7/7/10) saw the release by English Heritage of this year’s heritage at risk report.

The report which is produced by English Heritage covers a variety of aspect including listed buildings, ancient monuments, battlefields, ship wrecks and even certain parks and gardens.

Across the East Midlands there has being a reduction of the number of buildings on the register since 2006, and it will be interesting to see, once the full impact of the decisions being taken by the new Condem coalition government will slow that reduction in buildings being taken off the at risk register.

Locally within the High Peak, there are now four buildings on the register, as opposed to the three that made the list last year.

The three buildings that made last years list are the Crescent in Buxton, Stodhart Tunnel in Chapel en le Frith and Torr Vale Mills in New Mills. Overall there has being little change in the situation during the last year for the Crescent and Torr Vale Mils, but Stodhart Tunnel is now upgraded from a priority C to a B, due to continued damage to the tunnel from water and trees on the site.

Image via Wikipedia

The new entry for the High Peak is the trans shipment warehouse in Whaley Bridge, that when first built in 1832 was used to trans ship goods from the Peak Forest Canal to the Cromford and High Peak Railway, it’s listed a priority C building with the roof badly needing repairs.

The final entry of note for the area is an interesting one around the state of the Wren Nest Conservation Area, which the report lists as at risk and ‘deteriorating‘.

I comment that this is interesting because in the recent workshop that I attended looking at the vision for Glossop, the majority of the groups in the first session didn’t necessarily view the Wren Nest area as being part of Victorian Glossop (in a sense) with it featuring Tesco’s and the various newish stores and it would be interesting to see if the proposals that come back from the two workshops session on the future vision for Glossop, take account of this concern from English Heritage on the need to ‘save’ the Wren Nest Conservation area.

Further details and a copy of the at risk report are available from the English Heritage website at : http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/

Moving on up !

Well I think that’s the case (or at least sideways in any event !) for Gamesley Beat Bobby Paula Doyle who after a number of years as part of the Gamesley and Charlesworth Safer Neighbourhood Team is moving on to a new role as coordinator for antisocial behaviour and persons susceptible to harm in the area of the Glossop, Hadfield, Gamesley, New Mills and surrounding areas.

Paula has being an integral part of a whole variety of schemes which have run across the Gamesley and Charlesworth area all with the intention of tackling crime and related issues in the area, and was recognised for her success in that work in the area in 2005 when she was awarded with the Chief Constable's Cup.

She moves onto the new role on the 19th July, her successor within the team has not yet being appointed, and I’m sure if you see her over the course of the next week or so, you’ll want to join me in passing on your best wishes for the future and thanks for the work done within the area during the last few years.