Ashton-on-Mersey School Triumphs with Les Miserables

There are school performances and there are school performances! Last night, we attended the Sale Waterside Robert Bolt theatre to watch the final night of Ashton-on-Mersey School's production of Les Miserables and it was a night not to be missed. The audience were constantly reaching for their tissues as the performers successfully and convincingly invoked every human emotion. From tears and tension to joy and laughter as we listened to Little Cosette (Niamh Dean), Jean Valjean (Calum Burke) movingly pray to God for the safety of Marius (Damon Daniels) and Msr et Mme Thenadier (Cameron Davies and Lorna Hughes) as they sang with obvious relish and enjoyment the Innkeeper's song. I felt emotionally drained after the show and for the right reasons!

What struck me about the production was the supreme talent, confidence and very strong stage presence of all the cast. Javert and Gavroche played by Joe Fairbrother and Jacob Ashcroft respectively were very good examples of this. We heard powerful singing voices from Fantine (Rachel Mayon), Enjolras (Jenny Booth) and The Bishop of Digne (Jenny Flanagan) and great tenderness in the love expressed by Marius, Cosette (Shobi Miller-Lawson) and Eponine (Lorna Smyth).

The whole cast had clearly worked hard on this production and invested a lot of personal emotion into the performances. They were a joy to watch and listen to and a credit, not only to their school and the teaching staff who have encouraged them but to young people of their generation. But there was something else going on last night as well. Not only did the performers work together as a team but a team behind the scenes supported the great stage spectacle we could see. Musicians, set-design, scene changers, lighting, make-up, costume design all came together in a very professional way.

I'll take a gamble with this next statement: I think we saw last night some actors that are destined to become household names.

The audience loved it and gave the entire cast a standing ovation. We look forward to many more excellent performances.

Vive L' Ashton-on-Mersey School!!

(or is it la? perhaps the head of French will let me know! UPDATE: I am informed that actually it is L')

Cllr John Lamb

Royal Visit to Ashton Upon Mersey - HRH The Duke of Gloucester at Ashton-on-Mersey School

Above left: The official plaque unveilled by the Duke of Gloucester.

Middle: Speeches- The Mayor and Mayoress of Trafford look on.

Above right: HRH The Duke of Gloucester meets some of the students

Today (24th March 2009) HRH The Duke of Gloucester opened the new Sixth Form College at Ashton-on-Mersey High School. The school has worked hard to see this day and pupils attending the college will benefit from some quite fabulous state of the art facilities.

Below: On the left Cllr Brian Rigby Chairman of Governors and Taran Kapur Executive Head Teacher

I was invited to and attended the official opening since a lot of young people attending the college live in my ward. I wish the students, teaching staff and governors every success as they start to teach and learn new skills in conducive surroundings.

Right: Cllr John Holden and Vicky Beer

Left: Dora Carter, a former GMC and Trafford Councillor with Don Horsefield, former Head Teacher at Ashton-on-Mersey school Above centre: Cllr Brian Rigby and me on the right

The way to empower local communities is by giving more power to town halls says Cllr John lamb

In his speech to Hale Central Conservatives today (Sunday 15th March 2009) Cllr John Lamb said:

"The government is busy publishing paper after paper, Act after Act on the future of local government. The focus is on empowering local communities, the suggestion being that as councillors we don’t listen enough to what you have to say, what your views are and what you would like to see changed. I think it is true that councillors need to think about how they engage effectively with the people they represent."

This was in response to proposals that local people should be able to veto council spending plans via a referendum and that people should be able to directly elect police commissioners.

Cllr Lamb posed the question that surely the reason for being elected as a councillor was to take decisions and be accountable for the running of local government services through the ballot box.
" The way you return power to local communities is by returning powers to the town hall! Exercise of local powers by local politicians is what will get noticed by local people and they will insist on making their views known as local spending and policy decisions hit their pockets and in a democratic system, that is the ultimate in accountability"

The full speech can be seen by following the link below:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/13291520/Hale-Central-Speech-15th-March-2009-Future-of-Local-Government

Watch this man he's going places! Damian Hinds in Ashton-Upon-Mersey

Damian Hinds was the guest speaker at the Ashton-Upon-Mersey ward annual dinner which was held at the Ashton-on-Mersey Golf Club last Thursday evening. Graham Brady MP was also a guest. (in the slightly shaky picture above is L to R: Cllr Mike Whetton, Cllr Brian Rigby MBE, Mr Graham Brady MP, Mr Damian Hinds and Cllr John Lamb)

Damian Hinds is no stranger to this part of the world. Damian’s family live in Altrincham and he was the Conservatives parliamentary candidate in Stretford and Urmston, halving Beverley Hughes majority in the 2005 general election

Damian is now the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for the constituency of East Hampshire. This is currently Michael Mate’s seat where he has a majority of some 5,500 votes.

Damian has almost 20 years’ political campaigning experience. He is former chairman of Bow Group and gained a first class honours degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford, and was president of the Oxford Union debating society whilst there. His business career since has been mostly in the hotel and leisure industries.

Introducing Damian, Councillor John Lamb said “During the 2005 GE campaign in Stretford & Urmston, I was Damian’s Election Agent and it became clear to me as it did to many who also worked in that campaign that Damian was destined for the House of Commons. He worked hard, impressed the people he met with his intelligent and considered views, displayed instant warmth for his fellow human beings and following the campaign we all wished him luck in finding a safer seat to contest.

You can imagine our delight when we heard that he had been selected for East Hampshire. Here in this part of the world we would have been delighted to see Damian selected for a NW seat but we are very content that soon a very decent man will enter the commons and begin his contribution to the governance of our great nation.”

Damian Hinds pictured at the Ashton-Upon-Mersey ward annual dinner with some of our guests from Stretford and Urmston.

Trafford Council Tax Rise in Context

Nobody will have welcomed the recently announced rise of some 5% in Trafford's Council Tax (4.94% for Trafford services taking it to 5.14% after Police and Fire precepts). Above inflation rises are always hard to explain away and justify to those who have no choice but to pay up. This task is made even more difficult during an economic recession bordering on depression the likes of which most people have not experienced in their lifetime.

Conservative controlled councils always strive to keep the increases as low as possible in the believe that hard earned money is best kept by the individual to spend rather than the state.

However, it is important that the local context in Trafford is understood. Nearly 70% of what Trafford spends annually is financed directly from central government in Whitehall. Trafford has argued for decades that the formula used to calculate how much Trafford receives from the government is unfair because by comparison with other local authorities it is one of the lowest. Across Greater Manchester the average government support per head of population is £716. For Trafford this figure is £471 and in neighbouring Manchester it is about £1,050.

If we look at support for schools we see a similar trend. The government schools funding per pupil across Greater Manchester is £4,223. For Trafford this figure is £3,992 and again in Manchester this figure is about £4,750.

Add to this unfair funding position the growth in demand for services in Trafford then it becomes easier to see how little room there is for manoeuvre. As the aged population of Trafford grows and demand for adult social care increases then the Council has to provide this service. In fact Trafford as part of this years council tax increase has invested an additional £4.5m (8.8%) in adult social care services and an additional £2.9m (9.6%) into children's social care.

Conservative controlled Trafford should never become complacent about the effect of above inflation rate council tax rises, on those who have no choice about paying them but the context in which these decisions are taken needs to be taken into account.

Wythenshawe Hospital (UHSM) and the Territorial Army (TA)

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the unveiling of Wythenshawe Hospital's new logo. Wythenshawe recently became a Foundation Trust hospital and I am one of its 'appointed' Governors. The new more formal name for the hospital is University Hospital of South Manchester or UHSM. The unveiling was impressively carried out by members of the TA as they absailed down the side of one of the buildings and in so doing revealed the new 'green double heart' logo.

Just as impressive though was the presentation we received afterwards. It was about the work of hospital staff in their TA roles. Staff from the hospital serve in Afghanistan and Iraq providing medical support to not only our armed forces but to anyone who presents at the field hospital.

There is currently television coverage of the excellent work that NHS staff do in these theatres of war but I felt very proud that local people from our local hospital are also playing their part.

The link below is to the MEN coverage of the work of the UHSM / TA volunteers. Worth a read!

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/business/s/1095675_medics_leading_from_the_front

Raising The Standard Spring 2009

Raising the Standard Spring 09 (1)

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