My report to council

Posted By: Alan Taylor
Date Posted: 17/10/2008

Thank you Mr Mayor for the opportunity to report to the Council the latest developments on various matters relating to the Leader of the Council


During the Summer there have been two important issues in Greater Manchester, which have been an important focus of attention for all the 10 Council Leaders.

The first was the decision to hold a referendum on the Transport Innovation Fund and associated proposals for congestion charging. Council will remember that earlier in the year the Government announced that Greater Manchester’s bid for £1,400,000,000 of Government money, as a contribution to a total package of investment on public transport worth over £3,000,000,000 has been approved. The bid was not just fully approved but, for technical reasons, they allocated more money than we asked for.

All along there have been some important tests suggested by the former Leader of Stockport Council, Brian Millard and myself, and agreed by AGMA, which must be satisfied before any such investment scheme can go ahead. Two of these relate to the need for the package - investment and associated congestion charging - to be supported by the public and by business in Greater Manchester.

To satisfy the first of these, AGMA has agreed - and the Cabinet has since endorsed this decision - to hold a postal referendum throughout the 10 districts. This will start in November and conclude on 11 December 2008. Sir Neil McIntosh has been appointed as a wholly independent Returning Officer for the referendum. The Returning Officer will obtain advice and then consult on the question to be set for the Referendum and the documents to accompany ballot papers, prior to a decision on these matters by the AGMA Executive Board on 31 October 2008.

There will be a further process of publicity to ensure that all people entitled to vote in the referendum have access to full information about the TIF proposals and the congestion charge. It is vitally important that such information is factual and unbiased and so legal advice will be sought on all the publicity to ensure it complies with the law and the relevant codes of practice.



Business opinion will be tested by a poll carried out by Ipsos Mori. A representative sample of 1000 Greater Manchester businesses will be polled, asking the same question as that to be included in the referendum.

I have written to Sir Howard Bernstein reminding him that we supported the bid in its initial stages, making particular reference to the East Lancs Railway and Metrolink stop on Kingsway. An extension of Metrolink down to Rochdale Town Centre is in itself a huge step forward, but will mean little to the people of Middleton, Heywood and the Pennines. It is important that the people of the entire Borough of Rochdale can see that we will get more from the TIF bid that this. In order to secure full support of people throughout Rochdale Borough and to enable me to support the next stage of the TIF bid, I have asked for reassurance in the October report to the AGMA Executive that

1) There will be a Kingsway Metrolink stop. I say this in the knowledge that the Kingsway partnership is able to provide up to £1.4million towards the cost of this stop.
2) The provision, utilizing the East Lancs railway, of a commuter line from Heywood, through Castleton, to Manchester Victoria Station. I am grateful for the initiation of a study of this as part of the TIF feasibility programme. It is clearly vital from our point of view that this East Lancs corridor transportation option actually passes through Heywood Railway Station. Officers of the Council will be working to demonstrate how additional transportation linkages can provide greater patronage for this line.

Following the decision at our last Council meeting, the new constitution for AGMA was formally signed at the end of August and so we are now operating on the basis of the new arrangements. These arrangements will involve several elected Members from Rochdale - not just myself as a member of the Executive Board but Councillors Brophy-Lee, Kerslake and Swift, who will sit on the Commissions for Housing and Planning, Health and Improvement and Efficiency respectively and Councillors Evans and Rush as Members of the Scrutiny Panel.

During the Summer we had to decide to rerun the selection process for the private sector development partner for Rochdale Town Centre East, following the legal challenge by a disappointed unsuccessful bidder. Just a few words of explanation about that.

In selecting our partner, the Council was legally required to use a relatively new selection process, put in pace by the European Commission, called “Competitive Dialogue.” So far there are few examples of this new mandatory process having been used to completion when selecting Town and City Centre developers. At all stages in the selection process we followed to the letter all existing guidance on the process and we took and followed legal advice from experts in the subject. At the end of our process our advisors congratulated the Council for the thorough and fair way in which the process was conducted. The decisions to appoint Wilson Bowden as the partner were unanimous - both at the Town Centre Committee meeting and at the subsequent Scrutiny Committee.

But then one of the two unsuccessful bidders decided to start a legal challenge against our decision. In doing so, they were assisted by a decision by the European Court of Justice, on a case involving a Greek contract, which was not announced until our selection process had ended. A similar case, involving the London Borough of Newham was decided during the Summer. These cases in effect retrospectively change the process we were required to follow. Rather than spending lots of time and money fighting the legal challenge against us, we decided to agree to rerun the selection process. On that basis the legal challenge against us was withdrawn, each side bearing their own costs.

The re-running of the selection of a development partner is unlikely to delay the development. The site to be developed is currently mostly occupied by the Bus Station and the Municipal Offices. The two multi-million pound projects to replace those buildings will be completed in late 2011, by which time a developer will have been chosen and signed-up. And despite the current economic problems caused by the “credit crunch” potential developers are confirming their continued interest in the project.

Since the last Council meeting we have had numerous examples of success in delivering on the Council’s priorities. Many of these are outlined in reports by my Cabinet colleagues. I’ll just highlight a few from each priority:

On Every Child Matters our schools had another great year with results at Key Stage 2, GCSE and A levels all improve, a great credit to the students their families and their teachers. A preferred bidder has been chosen for the St Anne’s Academy in Middleton, the latest step forward in our massive investment programme in secondary education.

On Jobs the first two factories have opened on Kingsway and our annual jobs fair was attended by a record number - over 2000 people in a single day.

On Health Rochdale became the Feel Good capital for a day when thousands of people attended a festival on the Butts. The first LIFT Centre opened in Rochdale and we have secured all the finances for the Health Connections Centre in Heywood.

On Community Safety the Borough is to receive over £750,000 to help with a Government drive to tackle youth crime - an area where we have already done well over recent years with dramatic reductions in the numbers of first time entrants to the criminal justice system and overall crime down over 25% in the three years to end of March 2008.

On the Cleaner, Greener Environment we now have 5 Green Flag Parks (a few years ago we had none) - in Littleborough, Milnrow, Heywood and two in Rochdale.

Finally two “thank yous.” Members will know that Margaret Carney will be leaving us at the end of the year to take up the post of Chief Executive of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council. I am sure all Councillors will share my mixed feelings at this news. Margaret will be a great loss to the Council - having made a tremendous impact on the organization and benefiting the Borough in just over 4 short years. But Rochdale’s loss will definitely be Sefton’s gain. Margaret clearly has all the ability and experience to be a great success as a Chief Executive. I am sure we all wish her well.

Thank you also to my Deputy, Councillor Irene Davidson for her help and support to me during my period of illness over the last few months. Thanks also for the support and best wishes I have received from Members, Officers and partners during this period.

Councillor Alan Taylor
Leader of the Council
2 October 2008