MMU Birley Fields development

I was recently asked for some comments by The Mule magazine and I rattled off an email, from which they have quoted me.

Here's my email in full:
MMU claimed to have put out 13,000 questionnaires, from which they received 835 replies. They further claim that 80% were "in favour" of the proposals, but the question was set in such a way that other possible uses of the land were not considered. In other words, the whole survey was biased. It was designed to get statistics that suggested support for the plan, such as such-and-such a percent said they'd like to do basket weaving courses, for instance. Sure, a small number of young people will go to MMU, and they would have been able to pop on the bus to Didsbury, no problem, had the campus simply been extended there. But simply by plonking a spanking new campus in the middle of this doesn't necessarily make higher education the slightest bit more accessible for most children in Hulme.

Also, still on the topic of consulation, we note that MMU conducted their questionnaire in Hulme AND Moss Side. In reality, those most affected only live in the area near to Birley Fields, so why bother consulting anyone in Moss Side? Why not ask the people of Whalley Range, while you're at it? Clearly they included the 18,000 residents of Moss Side purely to bolster the numbers, which still remain pathetically low. Who's going to say no to a campus on someone else's doorstep?

So our priority right now is to push up our numbers on a consultation that offers proper choices - for instance people are asked directly how much green space they'd like to remain. Some people I've surveyed have actually ticked the "very little" option, saying that they don't really like trees and that! No kidding. But that's fair enough. So far, 75% of respondents have stated a preference for more than half or all of Birley Fields to remain as green space.

Once we've finished the consulation then we need to try to mobilise the local community, which will be difficult as a widespread view is that it's a done deal. People realise that the Council and MMU have their plans, a lot of money is going to be made by various groups of "stakeholders" (a Thatcherite construction that appears to entirely exclude local residents), not least the developers who will get hold of the Grade II listed building that they'll be leaving behind in Didsbury. Where there are developers making money there are councillors nearby, you can be sure of that.

I don't know if the recent job losses are linked to this project. That's quite a lot of admin jobs to be axed in one go. Managers of large corporations like MMU tend to be pretty ruthless, concentrating rewards higher and higher up their food chain and always looking to make those at the bottom, whether it's admin or lecturers, to worker harder for less, one way or another. This project is going to cost £120 million, so of course they'll scrimp a squeeze wherever they can.

Meanwhile, it's important for the local community to get their act together. This development will be great for MMU but it'll be a disaster for Hulme, taking it way past tipping point in terms of student numbers. On the site of the Arch Bar a big new student block is being built. It would be too simplistic to go into an anti-student rant, and indeed I'm an ex-student myself. In fact I did my degree at MMU (or the "Poly" as it was then) so I'm by no means anti-MMU per se. But I know first-hand that once an area has a student majority it loses its heart and soul.

Birley Fields is the last bit of green space in this area and it's worth saving. I just hope enough people have enough fight in them.

This is the MMU PR spinfest.

This is the URL of the online survey that we are conducting - please fill one in if you've not done so already.

Birley Fields campaign film

Here is a short film that was made back in 2006 when we had a garden party on Birley Fields. Rather a naff (unscripted) introduction by me, but it's quite a nice film.

All this green space is under threat from the development, which is bulldozer-heavy but local-benefit-light.

http://snipurl.com/rn31a [vids_myspace_com]

£18,000 for a "part time" job?! Is that a joke?

After having written my first blog, introducing myself to the blogosphere and the good citizens of Hulme, I invited a close friend to have a read of it to give me feedback. This was someone whose opinions I value and who cares about me. Firstly, she asked me if I'd consulted anyone else before writing it? "Er, no..." Had I shown it to anyone else first? "Not really," I said. "Why?" Did anyone else read it? "Yes, some people had read it and said they liked it," I said. Oh that's all right then, she said.

I knew she had spotted something she didn't like, but it was like pulling teeth to get her to say what it was. Eventually, she came out with it... "That bit where you joke about being a councillor - £18,000 for a part-time job - I don't think it's something you should joke about..."

"But that wasn't a joke!" I said. "That's what you get paid for being a councillor. And yes, it's a part-time job. I was being entirely factual..."

It got me thinking that maybe other people might think I was joking. But no, this is the truth. The wage is £18,000 for the lowest rung of the elected Council hierarchy. Ah, but now I've tried to find the source of this information and failed, and it seems I got it wrong. If you look here:
http://snipurl.com/rfy3g then we can actually see that the basic wage appears to be £15,618.71 (although for some reason Emily Lomax appears to have received only £14,398.71 in 2008-09).

And as for the "part-time" bit - this is also the truth: if councillors don't have one of the higher positions ("additional responsibilities"), the post is considered part time and they are expected to work for a living in the outside world. For instance, if I and when I am elected a councillor then I shall continue to work as a lecturer at the Manchester College, which has a duty by law to allow me to reduce my hours in order to take up the elected position.

This begs the question - is being a councillor really a "part-time" job? As my close friend pointed out, it's the sort of job that would be never-ending, so long as you take it seriously and do it properly, of course (unlike two out of the three representatives that we have in Hulme). There must be a million and one things that one could be chasing up every minute of the day - housing problems, Council incompetence, residents' grievances, etc. etc.

Whoever decides to stand for Council needs to be aware that
a) the wage is not great, but at the same time for a part-time job it is actually more than what a lot of people have to live on (I have spent many years struggling on 12k or less);
b) the actual job is very demanding IF YOU DO IT PROPERLY and can easily eat up your entire life.

I say all this to make it clear that councillors are probably not in it for the money, although many of them are careerists who hope that it will be but a stepping-stone to bigger and better things (I'm sure that most MPs, for instance, have made their way up via their local councils).

I am also aware that being in a tiny minority (e.g., one in 96, if one happens to be the only Green councillor) makes the job even more difficult and demanding. Here is an excellent article by Vanessa Hall about her experience as the lone Green from 2003-08: From the Inside (in the excellent Mule).

Neither myself nor Steve Durrant are under any illusions about the difficult task ahead...

Who the hell is Nigel Woodcock?

Well, I've lived in and around Hulme for more than 25 years now, having moved here from the South of England in the early 1980s when I came to study humanities & social science at MMU (or Manchester Polytechnic as it was known then). I obtained my BA (Hons) degree in 1986 and then in the late 1990s I studied for a PhD in American politics & sociology, which I finally obtained in 2003 after a long slog.

I've lived in Hornchurch Court since1992 and I've been the Secretary of our residents' association since it first started up more than five years ago. Many people locally know me as someone who is always quick with a joke but who takes politics and life seriously. I am lucky in having a job that I love, which is teaching Politics and Sociology A-levels at the Shena Simon campus in the city centre.

I share with many others a great dismay at the abandonment of principles by New Labour, having canvassed for the Labour Party back in the 1980s - when it was still a socialist party! It is regrettable that Labour has been hijacked by neoliberals and I can't work out why ANYONE would still want to vote for them. Except of course for three dreadful words: "The Tory Party". This lot will make new Labour look like... well, OLD LABOUR, I guess, given their total lack of principles. They will say anything, promise nothing and deliver even less. Under our lousy electoral system (first-past-the-post, or FPTP) every election is a two-horse race between the Big Two - so in this respect I can understand why people vote Labour out of sheer desperation.

So reforming the electoral system is a key issue - we need to ditch FPTP ASAP which is why I'm backing calls for a referendum on introducing some form of PR - see http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/ and sign up for free. I've just joined this week.

In the recent past I've been involved in the Save Birley Fields campaign, which is now entering its final phase, so it seems. I also attend the Leaseholders' Panel which liaises with City South Manchester or leaseholders' issues. I bought my flat in Hornchurch Court several years ago once it was evident that the whole block was about to be privatised. This has since taken place - a classic bit of neoliberalism as the whole of Hulme's council housing stock was handed over to a corporate entity at a bargain basement price in order to hide public debt from the public accounts. This was a shameful episode which should have been fought against by Labour not carried out by them!

I am a busy, hard-working lecturer and it would be a big change for me to become a local councillor (a "part-time" post that pays £18,000 per annum), but I'd like to think that I'd do a bloody good job. Certainly, I'd do a better job than the Labour party wannabes that we have currently representing us. Although I regard Mary Murphy as a cut above the other two, they generally have zero prospect of influencing the "Labour machine" which runs Manchester like a fiefdom.

I am the Environment Rep for the UCU lecturers' union at Manchester College. Sadly one of the first things I will be doing this year will be to go on strike as we are trying to save the union from being crushed by a particularly ruthless management. I take no pleasure from conflicts such as this, but at the same time I am willing to stand up to bullies and what I like to call "F-GAS" (the Forces of Greed and Selfishness).

In Hulme and elsewhere we desperately need Green Party representatives who can really advance a Green agenda where it counts - in council chambers, in Parliament, within local groups and public forums. Hulme is the only place in Manchester which has previously elected a Green candidate to office, and last year we were just 50 votes short after Labour really pulled out the stops and maximised their postal votes. We only need 25 of these voters to switch to us and we can overturn this result in 2010. Electing a Green again in Hulme will send out a clear message to the major parties that we demand a new approach to politics, before it's too late for us all.

If I am not going to be that candidate then I'll be delighted to throw my full energy behind Steve Durrant's campaign, as I have done in the past.

Many people will know me from the Hulme Residents Online Group (HROG), where I'm a frequent contributor (if you've not already joined then please do so). Through this forum, for instance, some Hulme residents are attempting to coordinate opposition to MMU's plans to destroy the last vestiges of open green space that helps to keep us sane. I am convinced that the primary motivation behind these plans is greed. The uni will be vacating some marvellous listed buildings in Didsbury when they move to the Birley Fields campus, and these buildings will be sold to developers to be converted into private accommodation and fat, juicy profits. Just as we have recently seen in Blackpool with a Tory Council, here in Manchester we have an entrenched Labour hierarchy that has developed cosy relations with developers. The result is the same - the steady erosion of green space. The residents lose out every time.

Please attend the Hulme Alliance meeting on Monday 7th September at the Claremont Centre, which I'll also be attending. We need to get this ball rolling...

thanks for reading. Regards and best wishes, Nigel.