DOES SALFORD WANT AN ELECTED MAYOR?

A very unenthusiastic consultation by Salford Council is underway concerning the future leadership of the city. One small miserable black and white leaflet, less than two minutes `discussion' at East Salford Community Committee last week and no mention at the Langworthy and Ordsall Community Committee...nothing in this month's Life In Salford `magazine', and residents phoning us up asking what the hell is going on…

You might think that the Council leaders are trying to dodge debate on whether Salford wants an elected mayor or not.

Salford Council's Own Survey Puts The City 2nd Worst Place In The North West

A Place Survey, commissioned by Salford Council, carried out by pollsters Ipsos MORI and based on answers by over two thousand Salford residents, has concluded that the city is the second worst place to live in the North West, beaten only by Oldham…

DEMOCRACY AND JOURNALISM

CHARLESTOWN BEACON OF BLAG

This week over £1million worth of fines were handed out to Bramall Construction and Richardson Projects for price fixing around the Salford Council/NDC `Beacon Centre' in Charlestown…

Here we unravel how a project that should have cost around £1.75 million ended up costing over £2.4 million, all checked and approved by Salford Council's `experts'.

Salford Council tax payers picked up the bill, of course…And ongoing costs for `30 different types of light bulbs'.

SALFORD’S WEMBLEY MARCH ON HOLD

Salford City’s FA Cup tie with Hyde United tomorrow has been postponed, after Hyde were today granted leave to appeal against a winding up order imposed earlier in the week.

Had Hyde not been granted this appeal Salford City would have gone through to the next round on a `walkover’.  We’re sure all Salford’s fans would rather our team stuff Hyde United fair and square, and would wish the Tameside team and its supporters all the best in the battle for survival.

As soon as we get further details they’ll be posted here…

IT'S SHOWTIME IN SEEDLEY AND LANGWORTHY!!!

Bands, a talent show, a bake off and loads of kids stuff is going off at Chimney Pot Park this Saturday…

Salford Council Care Worker Pleads Guilty To `Sexual Activity With A Female Child'...

PRIMARY SCHOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
– AN "ESCAPE ROUTE" AND OVER HALF A MILE WALK TO THE CHANGING ROOMS…

More brilliant planning from Salford Council's Schools Dept…

21 Salford Primary Schools To Be Shut?

Going…knowing they’re going…or gone. Salford  Council’s fab new proposal for `Every Child Matters’ is to bulldoze or merge a quarter of the primary schools in the city…based on figures that are “an art rather than a science”, according to the Council’s own Assistant Director of Resources, Mike Hall. And there’s some really weird art being created…surreal, cubist…definitely minimalist!

Incredibly, the report of the Lead Member for Children’s Services to a meeting (which was not open to the public) states that the “projected effect” of the proposals in the first five years would lead to “potential overcrowd” in Weaste, Seedley, Langworthy and Ordsall. Well it would do if you shut five schools in the area and replace them with two new ones. Derrr…

The Things They Say…IN SALFORD 

A couple of years ago the Salford Star couldn't understand the proposed closure of Charlestown Primary School and North Grecian Street School, and their merger into one new school on the Wheatersfield site in Lower Broughton. 

The Council stated that the merger was to do with falling pupil numbers. But surely, we said to Jill Baker, Salford Council's Director of Children's Services, there's going to be too few places for kids in the new school. Especially with hundreds of new houses going up right next to the school…

Here's what happened next…

ALBION GREEN PROTEST

This image is taken from an ill fated Salford City Council promo book called CAN YOU HANDLE THE TRUTH? IN SALFORD. The section is all about The Great Outdoors… "take the opportunity to pack a picnic, put on your walking boots and explore some of this green and pleasant land". 

Not near Albion Green, opposite the former Poets Streets, of course. Because Salford Council want to give developers ID/Miller Homes permission to rip up the Green and build eight houses on it.  Salford people now have until 5th October to object to the plans and protect this tiny green space…

Click here for further details…

From Friday 25th to Sunday 27th September, the superstar relics of St Therese will be at Salford Cathedral. With almost a quarter of a million Catholics in the Salford Diocese, the Cathedral is expected to be well crowded.

Unusual? Nah, Canon Tony McBride of Salford Cathedral tells Liam Starkey, it's just like having Michael Jackson's glove in town… 

SALFORD CITY WIN FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON

Mossley 0 Salford City 1

Salford City beat Mossley today to win their first league game of the season, thanks to a diving header by Rhodri Giggs in the 18th minute.

Next up is a visit to Trafford FC this week in the Unibond League Cup, followed by the big FA Cup game next Saturday 26th September at Hyde United...

Tomorrow, Saturday 19th September, the organisation Support Our Soldiers is having a stall on the Farmers Market in Eccles town centre from 9:30 am.

SALFORD `LOCAL MEDIA' CONFERENCE IGNORES SALFORD STAR!

Next Tuesday 22nd September there's a big Future of Local Media conference taking place at the Salford Innovation Forum, on Frederick Road. It stars Tony Blair's former communications advisor, William Perrin, in a debate featuring "local community media".

Just one problem. Nobody's bothered to invite the Salford Star, the only local print media actually based in Salford, that's now been bulldozed online. And, we would argue, the only genuine `local community media' in Salford...

Ultimatum Issued: Hazel Has Until Halloween To Stand Down Or Face A HAZEL MUST GO! Candidate…

Martin Bell, speaking at the Hazel Must Go! public meeting in Eccles, laid out the blueprint for unseating Salford MP Hazel Blears…what he called her "assisted retirement". Adding that she should "seriously welcome" a challenge for the good of democracy, Martin Bell confirmed that he wouldn't be standing in Salford himself.

"We're not looking for a New Jerusalem, we're looking for an MP with a measure of integrity and a measure of competence" he told the meeting "I think I'm suited to your kind of politics but you're going to find one of your own…"

For all the details of the meeting plus a full transcript of Martin Bell's speech and his poem click here

Star date: 17th September 2009

ST GEORGE’S PARENTS “DISGUSTED ME”

AMAZING OUTBURST BY SALFORD COUNCIL SCHOOLS HEAD…

Astonished councillors sat open mouthed during a full meeting of Salford Council yesterday as Councillor John Warmisham, Lead Member for Children’s Services, slagged off parents at the threatened St George’s School in Little Hulton…

SALFORD COUNCIL CHILDREN'S SERVICES IN TURMOIL BUT JOHN WARMISHAM REFUSES TO RESIGN…

"I'm proud to stand behind Lead Member" says John Merry, Leader of Salford City Council, as he blames the media for "negative headlines".

At a stormy Salford Council meeting yesterday opposition councillors tore into the ruling Labour Council over its record in safeguarding the city's most vulnerable children, following the suspension of Jill Baker, Director of Children's Services…

`Hey you in the Ordsall council house…We’re doing yer house up, so clear off and don’t come back…and take yer mutt with you!’

Ah yes, this letter must bring a tear to the eye of every housing officer in Salford…This is how the department used to do its business back in the day…

HALIFAX SHAYED IT

Salford City 0 AFC Halifax Town 3

There's obviously nowt better to do in Halifax than come for a night out in Salford, as hundreds and hundreds of Shaymen descended on Moor Lane on a Tuesday night to see their top of the table team take on the bottom placed Ammies…

A Salford Star Exclusive

Files go missing…Assessments "cloned"…Safeguarding plans insufficient…Action not taken to protect children and young people, according to Criminal Justice Inspection.

Salford Council's Children's Services slated again on safeguarding, as problems mount for the department headed by Jill Baker and Councillor John Warmisham…

For full story click here

SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF ALBION BATTLE FOR `ENGLAND'S GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND'…

"The NDC don't care what you want…As soon as you're not singing from their hymn sheet they don't want to know…"
Carole Woodward, former community Board member, Charlestown and Lower Kersal New Deal for Communities.

The community around the former Poets Corner streets in Charlestown has spent years creating Albion Green, a small oasis of shrubs, plants and grassy banks by the River Irwell that's really well used by local people. Now, in a plan hatched by the NDC and backed by Salford City Council, the land is being sold to developers ID and Miller Homes for £1 and the Green is going to be trashed…

Click here for full story…

SALFORD GOES TO HYDE

Following the stunning victory over Marine on Saturday Salford City now travel to Hyde United in the next, 2nd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup on 26th September...

Hyde United play in the Blue Square North, one down from the Football Conference, and a full two leagues above Salford City. Should be an incredibly hard game to win but City are on a cup run so...BRING IT ON!!! 

WE'RE GOING TO WEMB-ER-LEEEEEYYY…

Salford City 2 Marine 1

Ronnie Radford…Hereford United…Colchester Town…doff yer caps tonight for Salford City, as the Unibond 1st Division North club march on against the odds in the FA Cup. 

Salford totally stormed it against a Marine side from Merseyside that plays a full league above us. Now, after another giant killing victory, three more games and Salford City are in the FA Cup 1st round proper…

Bring it on!!!

DRAMA IN GANGSTERLAND…

The place is Paradise Heights – yet it's anything but `paradise' as gangs in Halloween masks cause riots, a kid gets murdered and a grass gets major grief in Joe O'Byrne's acclaimed drama, Rank, showing for one night only this Saturday…

JILL BAKER SUSPENDED FROM SALFORD COUNCIL

Jill Baker, Director of Salford Council's Children's Services has been formally suspended pending an investigation. This follows yet another damning report from OFSTED yesterday concerning her department's failures over the protection of vulnerable children, and the fall out from the Demi Leigh tragedy...

Click here for further details...

HOW SAFE ARE OUR KIDS?  NOT VERY SAFE ACCORDING TO OFSTED…

In its latest report, OFSTED has again directly criticised Salford Council Children's Services in relation to the most vulnerable kids in the city. 

OFSTED reported that from its inspection of cases it was still "unable to confirm…that the children concerned were safe". Yet Salford Council has had six years to sort out the safety of children who need protection, dating right back to the Victoria Climbie inquiry in 2003.

Now the Salford Star is calling for the resignation of Jill Baker, the Director of Salford's Children's Services, and, as the accountable Lead Member for Children's Services, Councillor John Warmisham…

SALFORD'S CHILDREN'S SERVICES CRITICISED YET AGAIN

OFSTED has slated Salford Council yet again, after an unannounced inspection last August sampled the "impact on minimising the incidence of child abuse and neglect".

Hundreds Turn Out For St George's As Deputy Head Calls Closure "Civic Vandalism"

Tonight hundreds of people attended two open meetings with the Schools Adjudicator at St George's. Parents, teachers, pupils and people from the local community spoke eloquently in support of the RC High School in Little Hulton that Salford Council is determined to close…

Calling everyone in Salford!!!
LAST CHANCE TO SUPPORT ST GEORGE'S…
Tonight 6pm and 8pm – everyone welcome – just turn up and tell the Adjudicator what you think
St George's School, Parsonage Drive, Little Hulton M28 3SH

VIVA ST GEORGE'S!!!

It's crunch day for St George's as the Schools Adjudicator comes to Salford to try and sort out the mess that has left Salford Council attempting to close a successful, popular, over achieving school…and `lose' 300 pupils.

Click here for the full lurid story…

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!

In an unprecedented situation, Jill Baker, the Director of Salford Council's Children's Services who has been under fire since the scandal of the Demi Leigh Mahon murder, is not in work during the first week of the new Salford school year.

Has she been sacked? Has she resigned? Or is she still on `summer holiday'?

Over 130 People Get Council Tax Court Orders For Less Than A Tenner!

Do you owe Salford Council less than a tenner on your Council Tax?  Watch out there’s a court liability order on its way…

RE-TRACING SALFORD   
Chapel Street Gallery, United Reform Church (near Salford Arms pub)
Sat 12th September 12-4pm

As Salford gets trashed by bulldozers, the long awaited re-opening of Lawrence Cassidy's top exhibition of street signs, family photos and maps happens for one day only next Saturday as part of Heritage Open Day…

SALFORD STAR HERITAGE WEEK

It's National Heritage Week and so all this week Salford Star will be paying homage to what's left of Salford's heritage…

We'll be looking at Higher Broughton, Lower Broughton, Charlestown, Lower Kersal, Ordsall and more in your soaraway sizzling Salford Star Heritage Week…

But we start with this ace footage of Salford star, Tony Wilson reporting from  from Kersal Flats… "Housing and land is a vital issue issue for Britain in 1974" he says "all the way to the bulging pockets of the speculators."

Aaaaah, the more things change the more they stay the same….

VIDEO FUN IN GHOST TOWN

There's an ace new video just been released promoting Media CityUK…

VIDEO FUN IN GHOST TOWN

There’s an ace new video just been released promoting Media CityUK…

£££££££s In The Park

When Chris de Burgh steps out at Buile Hill Park a week on Saturday (12th September) for the BBC Proms In The Park perhaps he should be singing The Council In Red, as I can reveal that this year’s Proms event is set to lose Salford Council over £140,000…

£££££££s In The Park

When Chris de Burgh steps out at Buile Hill Park a week on Saturday (12th September) for the BBC Proms In The Park perhaps he should be singing The Council In Red, as I can reveal that this year's Proms event is set to lose Salford Council over £140,000…

BRONTE COURT COMPANY SENDS CHEK BOUNCING

Halls Furnishings Ltd, the company that supplied the furniture and soft furnishings for Chek Whyte's Bronte Court project in Salford, has successfully filed for the `Secret Millionaire's' bankruptcy.

The company, owed £33,000 by Whyte, was the first in the queue with the bankruptcy order which was verified last Friday. "It was a purely business matter and nothing personal" says Ben Hall, Director of Halls Furnishings.

Further details to follow...

WALKDEN SCHOOL'S SEALED WITH A HISS...

Today Salford Council's Planning Panel is set to pass plans for a new `state of the art' replacement for Walkden High, as part of its Building Schools For The Future programme. But the `state of the art' school will be right next to the East Lancs, the most polluted road in Salford.

Which isn't very clever as the city has high levels of childhood asthma and bronchitis, and a Lancet report states that children between the ages of 9 and 18 are most susceptible to lung damage from traffic fumes than at any other time of their lives.

The Council even "acknowledges the impact of poor air quality resulting from the proximity of the site to the A580" and the "noise pollution". The `state of the art' solution?

DON'T OPEN THE WINDOWS!!!

Salford City upset all the odds at the weekend by stuffing former FA Cup giant killing legends, Skelmersdale United, in the opening round of this year's march to Wembley. 

Having been stuffed ourselves 3-1 by Skem in the league only four days earlier, the Ammies came back to Moor Lane and took a 3-2 revenge, with goals by Rhodri Giggs, Ian Fitzpatrick and ace debutant Patrice Mondon-Kondon.  Now Salford City travel to Unibond Prem team, Marine in the FA Cup 1st Qualifying Round...

The FA Cup's turning tangerine...And we'll see Man United in the 3rd Round!!!