Over 3000 voters disappear from Hulme’s Electoral Roll

Government changes to the voter registration process have resulted in 39,787 people disappearing from Manchester’s electoral roll in the last 12 months.

In Hulme, comparing figures from March 2014 and March 2015, the number of voters in Hulme has dropped by 3442, a decrease of 26%.

The change to the registration system has disproportionately affected young people, students, private renters and people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

A closer look at the figures revealed that although the average fall in voter numbers is 13% in 4 of the 5 districts of Hulme, in the 5^th area which has a high student population, that fall is 73%.

Deyika Nzeribe, the Green Party Local Election candidate for Hulme said “With the deadline for registration being this Monday April 20^th, its essential people pay attention and take action or they will miss their chance to vote for a change in government, local and national.

If you don’t like politicians but want to vote, go to the independent ‘Vote for Policies’ website, make your own mind up.”

There are 10% less people on Manchester’s electoral register than this time last year, which could radically alter the outcome of the election. In the Manchester local elections in 2014, The Green Party came 2^nd with 12.7% of the vote, whilst the Lib Dems came 3rd with 11.7%.

The council wards that have seen the greatest drop in registered voters are areas with high populations of students, private renters and minority ethnic voters.

The City Centre has lost 37% of its registered voters. Ardwick has lost 33%, Withington 28%, Hulme 26%, Rusholme 23% and Fallowfield 21%.

Meanwhile, more affluent areas with a higher percentage of homeowners have remained largely unchanged. Chorlton has only lost 3% of voters, whilst Didsbury East lost 2%.

You register to vote online in under 5 minutes by visiting https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote and entering your national insurance number.

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Fighting for Fairness… but Who is doing the Fighting?

The Manchester City Council Leader’s Blog is an interesting piece. Called ‘Fighting for Fairness’, it is about the recent Council Executive meeting that spent most of that meeting addressing cuts to local swimming pools and libraries.

From the title and text, you would think that it was the Council that was fighting to keep services open, NOT the 1000s of Manchester residents that signed, marched, occupied, lay down in roads and attended council meetings.

Its unlikely that any pictures will emerge of the council leader addressing crowds, loudspeaker in hand, urging them to fight cuts to local services.

And its easy to jab Labour over these issues but not so helpful.

Its more helpful to ask questions:

Why has the Levenshulme pool not been built? When campaigners fought to keep their baths open in 2011, the council were happy for people to think the pool will be open this year. What guarantee is there that other promised pools will open in 2015?

Why are local libraries under threat anyway? Why didn’t the Council plan ahead in 2011? If that seems unfair, Manchester Central Library, costing £48 million in refurbishment, is to share a new award of nearly £1million with Birmingham Library. Someone planned ahead for Central Library. Whilst it is good news, its more money for large capital projects whilst local services go to the wall.

Where is the new thinking on how to keep council services open? York Council is experimenting with creating a mutual to run its services instead of cutting services or getting volunteer’s to run libraries.

It’s a sad day when a Labour Council takes on board the Big Society model of service delivery.

There are other ways of addressing changes in local council services in Manchester.

Watch this space.

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Manchester City Council Executive Meeting: Masters of Illusion at work

At least 50 members of the public  attended the Manchester City Council Executive meeting yesterday. They were mainly campaigners and supporters of local services from Withington, Levenshulme and Miles Platting hoping to have change council minds about the closure of swimming pools and libraries in those areas.

3 speakers from the public were allowed in defence of those facilities and they spoke well, the effectiveness of the Withington campaign and work of Councillor Chris Paul  were noted.

The initial response from Council to keep the pools open were met with cheers. These quickly changed to shouts from the public area once more details were revealed.

• Only the pools were considered in this apparent change of heart.
•  The Withington pool (which had the most vigorous campaign and the most active campaigning Councillor (Paul)) would be the most likely facility to remain open. The Levenshulme and Miles Platting pools have ‘less viable business plans’.
•  All the pools to be saved from closure would have find a way to fund running costs for two years, until the new facilities are built otherwise all bets are off.

All decisions would be considered as part of the current and ongoing consultation.

Most of the campaigners left after that but strangely enough, despite the long list on the Exec agenda, the committee ended soon afterwards, without any substantive examination of any of these areas.

Despite the victory tweets and Facebook updates, presumably mainly from Labour supporters, the campaigners impromptu gathering was a more sober affair. The acknowledgement that they had a very temporary reprieve and recognition that the e Council offer could be considered a ‘divide and rule’ tactic led to a resolve that the separate local campaigns should coordinate and work together where they can.

It was good to see all the support for local services. It was good to see Green Party supporters there. It was good to see Alexandra Park put forth from the public area.

But stepping back and looking again, its clear that moving the Council, even temporarily, has only been possible with the combination of organised public pressure AND an active, willing councillor onside.

The Council seems unwilling to have any meaningful public discussion of the budget cuts its proposing for the city, even within its own forums. The council’s agenda included its Budget Strategic Response, how the newly combined Adult and Child Services department will work, the overall Neighbourhood strategy which includes parks, pools and libraries. All completely sidestepped.

The Executive meeting was a fantastic display of political illusion. Not only did the important elements on the agenda disappear, even the commitment to keep the pools open appears to be ‘close-up magic’.

Levenshulme activists were not impressed, commenting to the Withington protesters they had seen this trick before. Manchester City Council promised to keep their baths open until the new facility is built as a result of their 2011 campaign.

There are reports now that Levenshulme Labour councillors will vote against budget cuts.

We will wait and we will see.

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