Burnham says public will have to pay more for policing & transport!

Trendy Ancoats - Location for £300m housing fund money

Around seventy people turned  out last Thursday night to the 'Question Time - #AskAndy GM' event at the Clarendon College, in Ashton-under-Lyne.  The event was chaired by Hannah Miller, a political reporter from Granada TV. 

The Mayor of Greater Manchester, was there to answer questions from the public. The first question was about public transport in Greater Manchester.  The Mayor has stated his intention to reorganise public transport in Greater Manchester and to make bus travel cheaper, regular, and more convenient, with fewer operators and fares.

Burnham pointed out that there was a an urgent need to change the way buses work in Greater Manchester. There had been 32 million fewer journey's over the last decade and he said that the current bus system was holding us back in Greater Manchester. He told the audience: "We need a London style system...but this can't be provided publicly...as the Act (Bus Services Act 2017) rules this out...We've got to get people using buses."

Although he said it would take the next three to five years to get the bus system that was wanted in Greater Manchester, he also said "I can't use the powers without funding... unless we invest we can't have a London style system...we don't get the subsidy London get." 

When asked by Hannah Miller if it was going to cost people in Greater Manchester more money, he said it would.  Burnham had initially pledged that the free bus passes for 16 to 18-year old's would be self-financing -funded by local education colleges, sponsorship, and the bus companies themselves. Now,  a £9 Mayoral precept, is to be added to council tax bills to pay for the reorganisation of the regions bus network and the free bus passes for young people. Every household in Greater Manchester already pay around £10 for the Mayor and his office. The extra money raised would total between £12m and £13m, all of which, would go on bus services.

A speaker from the floor queried whether people would realistically cease using cars in preference to public transport in Greater Manchester, given that it was inordinately expensive and often inconvenient.  He said he'd recently travelled one-and-a-half miles by bus which had cost him £2.50. Over the Christmas period there had been no buses after 6.00 pm on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New Years Eve, and an hourly service on Boxing Day.  He compared this with Transport for London (TfL), that had a standard single fare of £1.50 for every journey and ran a full bus services over the Christmas period.  He said as someone who relied on public transport, he'd had three options over the Christmas period - stop in, rely on Shanks's pony or pay an arm an a leg for a taxi.  He said this wasn't good enough and what was needed with public transport in Greater Manchester, was a radical shake up. 

Burnham replied that London had quality buses compared with Greater Manchester and that it was often cheaper for a group of people to use an Uber taxi, than a get a bus in Greater Manchester. He said that the standard single fare in London of £1.50 applied to all bus journey's even when you changed buses within the hour - "There are gradual improvements taking place", he added. 

What the Mayor omitted to mention is that everyone who resides in Greater London is also entitled to a free bus pass when they reach 60. This also applies if you live in Scotland, Wales or Norther Ireland. Before 2010, residents in Greater Manchester were also entitled to a free bus at 60, but the age was increased incrementally, in line with the state pension age. Some people living in greater Manchester will now have to wait until they are 66-years old to get a free bus pass. Although the Mayor wants to give 16 - 18-year old's a free bus pass, he says that reinstating free bus passes for people aged 60, would not be affordable.

Andy Burnham told the audience that young people are his priority for investment as in his opinion, they have "shouldered the cuts." He said that many children living in the region, have said they feel they have no future when they are asked "Do you have hope for the future?" He pointed out that mental health issues among children are increasing and that a free bus pass would allow young people to access jobs and training. 

A questioner asked about homelessness and if the Mayor did a walkabout in areas other than Manchester. He replied that he had been to Bolton and was confident that figures out next week on rough sleeping, would see a fall in rough sleeping across Greater Manchester. He referred to the 'Bed Every Night Scheme' and said that 901 people had been through the scheme since it was launched last November and 285 had moved to a fixed address from the scheme. He also referred to the 'Night Stop' service that offered a young person a room. The Mayor said that it cost £11,000 to put someone in a bed every night whereas, it cost £20,000 to keep them homeless. 

One speaker referred to a scheme in Croydon where homeowners were being encouraged to offer a room to the homeless. Another speaker, said no one was approaching supermarkets for food that could be donated to food banks that had been designated for landfill. 

In response to a question about the cuts in police numbers, Burnham said: 

"I struggle to understand cuts in police numbers since 2010. The Government isn't increasing our central government grant (80%), of money comes from this. they want us to rely on raising council tax to fund services. I want the Greater Manchester public to pay £24 for policing in greater Manchester."

Ian Hopkins a police officer, told the audience that the police don't investigate street crime anymore because of a lack of officers (the scroats will be pleased to hear this), "We're seeking to recruit 500 special constables, specials are a vital part of policing." He said there was a problem with fireworks in Tameside and that he wanted the sales of fireworks banned to reduce anti-social behaviour. He thought that fireworks should only be sold for licensed events. The Mayor responded by saying that if youths are prosecuted for anti-social behaviour, they should lose their free bus pass as it was a contract with the young and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (G.M.C.A). 

Many residents of Greater Manchester may well wonder why they should have to pay more for policing when you hardly ever see a copper nowadays. Residents in Dukinfield, where there has been a recent spike in house burglaries have complained that the police have failed to investigate many burglaries and thefts in the area. It may well be that the police have other priorities now, such as investigating what is now called "hate crime" or telling pub landlords to take down Cuban flags with images of the revolutionary, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara on them, as happened at one pub in Hyde. The victims of crime, these days, are just given a crime number so they can claim on their insurance.

Andy Burnham told the audience that there had been a radical rewrite of the 'Spatial Framework' and that GMCA had listened to the public. The greenbelt take in Tameside had come down drastically by around 80% - "We've made a switch back to brownfield", he said. When asked how many homes would be affordable homes, the audience were told by Paul, the Mayor's housing expert, that 50,000 would be affordable and 30,000 would be social housing. He pointed out that 92,000 homes had been lost since 1980 due to the right-to-buy legislation and that a lot of council homes that were bought, finished up in the private sector.

Andy Burnham, said that £300 million of the 'housing fund' given to the GMCA by Chancellor George Osborne, had been spent on providing housing in Manchester City Centre. It will be clear to anybody who takes a tram journey through trendy Ancoats, in Manchester, where all the money went. The area is now a sprawling mass of high rise flats and mill conversions occupied typically, by 18 to 30-year old in-migrant Yuppies and Hipster's. Unfortunately, most of the benefits of this regeneration failed to spill over into the surrounding areas of Manchester, which are considered to be, some of the poorest parts of the country.