The candidates for this year's 6th May election for Salford City Mayor have been published, with the main surprise being former Labour Party councillor, Stephen Ord, standing as an Independent, and holding nowt back in his ongoing political war with current Mayor, Paul Dennett, and the Labour Party establishment.
Stephen Ord's last speech as a Labour Party councillor in 2019, alleged the 'local government scandal of the decade' over planning meetings for the old Police HQ on the Crescent. Since then the case has still not come to court.
In the same retirement speech, Ord went even further referring to the ruling Labour group as "vile bullies" and "Mafia"..."The 'Dysfunctional Labour group...left me wondering on which beam I should hang myself from", he said (for full details see previous Salford Star article click here).
Now Stephen Ord says that he has 'put his money where his mouth is' and entered the race to be Salford City Mayor...
He tells the Salford Star that both he and Dennett were new to local politics before being elected, and asks "Which one of us has turned completely on his head?" Even leaving aside the Crescent Police Station 'scandal of the decade', Stephen Ord says he couldn't vote Labour "especially with what I know about issues locally".
On Paul Dennett, alleges that "He has been captured by the establishment, and reprogrammed quicker than a Stepford Wife....
"A Mayor is supposed to be the public face of Salford. Yet, other than when he has been working on his national profile, he has been pretty invisible" he adds "Given the last twelve months of hell, he really has shirked his responsibility, and the Salford Star has shared more information. But then again, that's what happens when your eyes are on other prizes, such as his ambition to replace Andy Burnham as the GM Mayor."
On previous ruling Labour group policies he is just as scathing... "Even Doctor Dennett's 'greatest' victories such as bringing Urban Vision back 'in house' is merely reversing a decision his own Cabinet made" he says "The pay rises for low paid staff are great news too - but again his Cabinet was happy with their low pay - back when the city had twice as much income!
"And his own views on his own Cabinet are not that positive, and even less so for his back benchers" he adds "With a team this weak, this factional, this limpet like, I could never vote for him, and would struggle to vote for quite a few of Labour's candidates. The councillors that were the newest of New Labour are now allegedly as left as Corbyn. What they really are is stale, tired, idea-less. They change, chameleon like, with the political winds, but stay steadfast in protecting their own establishment."
His appraisal of the Council's regeneration efforts are equally as scathing... "John Merry demolished thousands of homes because they were just too affordable for his
middle class pretensions" he decides "And yet he caused that housing crisis when he transferred a number of empty council housing tower blocks for Salford University student use, and created the mass vacancies in the terraced areas near there. Yet he is now the person in charge of solving the affordability crisis for our poorest and lowest paid members of society?
"Even now, hundreds of homes have been demolished in the last year" he says "They are addicted to demolition and rebuild. It isn't very green to waste such essential resources. It is wasteful of vast sums of public money. More importantly, it is highly destructive of community. I have been the victim of a Compulsory Purchase Order in a similar regeneration programme. They are too often the first tool used, when they should be the last tool used. You can repeat this for school places, where his demolition programme took us from an excess of places, to a shortage in record time..."
He explains that, while sitting on the Council's planning panel, there were "challenges to get any Section 106 contributions, and the inability to refuse so much rubbish, the slums of the future in many cases".
While taking aim at the current and past failings of the Council, looking to the future, Stephen Ord says that he will a 'Brexit Mayor for a Brexit city', using his eight years experience as a local councillor, and will instigate to "a head to toe review of everything we do. There will be no sacred cows. The Council's finances are a basket case - hard decisions have been fudged yet again due to the delayed elections, the only time 'No Cuts' budgets are presented these days."
He explains that he will look at as many different avenues to build as many energy efficient homes as possible, of all tenures, while sorting out the post-COVID high streets with faster change of use planning policies.
"We will have to be innovative with how we build back" Ord explains "For a start, the Council can spend money. The roads have fallen apart in the last few years, they are now in their worst condition in a decade. Increasing spending on repairs in economically difficult years gets money into workers pockets, to be spent in local shops.
"In many cases supposed savings are just deferred repairs - it costs more to do in the future - but doing it now will create work for our economy" he adds "But spending has got to be focused and value for money. Just look at our cycle lane investment. In many areas it just seems to be to restrict car use, they are so rarely cleaned and maintained that no cyclists, or at best very few, use them."
He would also end the proposals to build on Chat Moss..."Destroying peat is an
important driver of climate change. Digging it over and adding an aggregate to stabilise it for building is one way to release vast amounts of CO2. Wherever it is possible we should be flooding and restoring peat lands so they can start locking up CO2 again. The biodiversity and carbon storage of sites should be just as important as other considerations."
Stephen Ord concludes that he couldn't vote Labour, would never vote Tory, and now, like many others, is "politically homeless". Which is why he is standing as the Independent candidate for Salford City Mayor.
The full list of Salford City Mayor Candidates...
Stuart Cremins Republic Party
Paul Dennett Labour Party
Stephen Ord Independent
Wendy Olsen Green Party
Jake Overend Liberal Democrats
Arnie Saunders Conservative Party.
For full details on each candidate check their Facebook pages...
Ord4Salford - click here
Stuart Cremins for Salford Mayor click here
Wendy Olsen - click here
The others don't appear to have a specialised Facebook page for this election.
The Salford Star does not endorse any candidate in this election.
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