Star date: 20th April 2018

NUMBER OF COUNCILLORS COULD BE CULLED IN REVIEW OF WARDS

The number of Salford councillors could be cut in a sweeping review of the city by the Local Government Boundary Commission for England..."The review will re-draw ward boundaries across the city as well as deciding how many councillors should be elected to the council in total" said a spokesperson for the Commission.

Salford currently has three councillors per ward but, with new wards possibly emerging as the city grows, this might be cut to two per ward.

Full details here…

Star date: 19th April 2018

AS £5.5MILLION AVOIDED BY DEVELOPERS SALFORD MAYOR SAYS IT'S A 'MYTH'!

In the latest issue of Salford Council's propaganda mag, Life in Salford, Salford City Mayor, Paul Dennett, has denounced the "myth" that "developers don't contribute money to the city. It's simply not true" he says.

Yes, they do contribute some money but they also avoid millions of pounds in payments and provision of affordable housing. Indeed, Salford Star analysis shows that developers avoided almost £5.5million in payments last year, as the Mayor only tells half the truth.

Full details here...

Star date: 18th April 2018

STOP AND SCRAP UNIVERSAL CREDIT WITH NO EVICTIONS STATE GROUPS

Today, in St Peter's Square Manchester, around half a dozen campaign groups took part in a Disabled People Against the Cuts national day of action calling for Universal Credit to be stopped and scrapped.

Chalk slogans covered the square, speeches were made condemning the affect of the discredited benefit and a giant letter was handed into Manchester City Council calling for 'No evictions' as a result of Universal Credit payment delays.

Full details here...

Star date: 18th April 2018

FIGHT FOR THE FIVE CAMPAIGNERS HEAD TO WESTMINSTER

A coach load of Save Our Nursery campaigners will be heading to Parliament next Wednesday 25th April for a meeting with MPs in the Palace of Westminster and to urge the Government to be flexible over its new funding formula.

It is also hoped that Labour Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn, will pressure Theresa May to respond at Prime Minister's Question Time on the same day.

Full details here...

Star date: 17th April 2018

ASSISTANT DIRECTORS TO GET HUGE PAY RISES

Cash-strapped Salford City Council is to give huge pay rises to senior officers after a 'job evaluation exercise' moved them well up the pay scale. It follows the resignation of the Director of Finance and Corporate Business, and spreading the majority of his salary amongst other re-titled roles.

The Salford Star believes the officers are in line to share around £54,000 between them.

Full details here...

Star date: 16th April 2018

HOMELESS IN SALFORD CAN STILL REGISTER TO VOTE AS PROTEST HITS MANCHESTER

Today the Salford Unemployed and Community Resource Centre is urging homeless people to get in touch in order to register to vote as it's the last day to do so tomorrow.

Meanwhile, yesterday a food kitchen and sound system happened in Piccadilly Gardens as a party protest against homelessness... "I have spoken to Andy Burnham and I don't think he is going to accomplish his mission to stop homelessness by 2020" said organiser Emma Mohareb.

Full details here...

Star date: 15th April 2018

WHO WILL FUND WORKING CLASS THEATRE?

A new play aiming to be staged in Salford, at the Kings Arms in June, is set to open up issues affecting the working class, "to encourage those that may have once felt lost, silenced or isolated, to speak up and be heard knowing that someone is listening".

The play, Oct.O.Pus, has a diverse cast that includes Coronation Street's Melissa Johns, but is crowdfunding for £1,000 to pay for props, costumes, set etc, as no-one funds proper working class theatre these days.

Full details here...

Star date: 15th April 2018

REFLECTING ON POWELL

In The Shadow of Enoch Powell: Race, Class and Resistance
Saturday 12th May 2pm
Old Fire Station, The Crescent. Free

Fifty years on from Enoch Powell's infamous 'rivers of blood' speech, Shirin Hirsch, Research Fellow in History at the University of Wolverhampton will deliver this year's Frow Lecture, reflecting on its impact and how to tackle racism in the present day.

Full details here.... 

Star date: 15th April 2018

ECCLES CENTRE TO BENEFIT FROM SKINNER FUNDRAISER

Dennis Skinner and Friends
Friday 20th April from 6:30pm
Moston Miners Community Arts Centre £20

Dennis Skinner, MP and 'Beast of Bolsover', appears for a live Q and A this week at a fundraiser for the Eccles based Salford Unemployed and Community Resource Centre. There's also a showing of his film and live acts. Interestingly, Skinner began his political career as editor of a paper questioning the local council.

Full details here...

Star date: 14th April 2018 

130 ACTS IN BANK HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR

Sounds From The Other City
Sunday 6th May 3pm onwards £25
Various venues in and around Chapel St
 
Back for its 14th year, Sounds From The Other City this year promises over 130 performers purveying the very best in new music, art and exciting happenings in venues all around Chapel Street. Ian Leslie mulls the stunning array of talent that will explode on May 6th as part of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Full details here...

Star date: 14th April 2018

'EXPECT THE SURREAL...EXPECT THE THEATRICAL...MAYBE EVEN EXPECT THE COMEDIC...'

A Field of Hand Painted Grass
Friday 27th April
Caustic Coastal £2.73

It's billed as 'a live comedy show' by Rory Mullen and Ric Stringer but expect much more; and much less. The reviews have been astounding... "He's not that funny tbh" says some punter in the Salford Arms..."I wish he'd stop saying he's an artist" adds an angered local curator. Expect the ridiculous.

Full details here...

Star date: 14th April 2018

BURLESQUE, LIVE MUSIC, COMEDY, SIDESHOWS AND MORE

The Secret Circus
Friday 20th April 7:30pm
Old Pint Pot £10/£15

Expect comedy pirates, sideshows, live music, a bit of the unknown and lots of burlesque, as The Secret Circus hits the Old Pint Pot this week with an Under The Sea theme, complete with 'whipping, mermaids, fish and fun'..."Just so long as we respect each other and come from a space of love, anything goes" says the Circus' Chanel Samson.

Full details here...

Star date: 14th April 2018

Fake News
Wednesday 18th April – Saturday 28th
Kings Arms

JOURNALISM GOES FERAL AT THE KINGS ARMS

Pre-Trump and set in the late Eighties, Fake News is a funny play about the lengths a journalist goes to for that sensationalist story which will celebrate his name. It's a killer, as Ian Leslie discovers.

Full details here...

Star date: 13th April 2018

THREE INJUSTICE PROTESTS THIS WEEKEND

There's three protests this weekend, beginning tonight with a rally in Piccadilly Gardens at 5:30pm organised by the Stop The War Coalition against any military strike in Syria. It's followed tomorrow, Saturday, by a protest against 'Israel's massacres in Gaza!' which runs noon until 3pm, also in Piccadilly Gardens...

...And on Sunday, from 4pm, starting in Piccadilly Gardens, there's Manchester's March for the Homeless with DJs and sound systems.

Full details here...

Star date: 12th April 2018

COUNTRYSIDE PROPERTIES SUBMITS PLANNING FOR ALMOST 300 APARTMENTS IN LOWER BROUGHTON BUT NONE AFFORDABLE

As Countryside Properties applies for planning permission for 299 'market rent' apartments in Lower Broughton, the company has again admitted that it was "the key aspiration of the Development Agreement [with Salford City Council] to significantly reduce the proportion of affordable housing".

Figures for the massive regeneration of Lower Broughton show that only 17% of houses and only 20% of flats in the scheme have been 'affordable'. It's a shocking indictment of Salford Council housing policy, as the affordable housing crisis grows.

Full details here...

Star date: 11th April 2018

COMMUNITY COMMITTEE MEETING TO DISCUSS CONTROVERSIAL DEVELOPMENT

Over 1,500 people have now signed a petition urging Salford City Council not to allow houses to be built in Buile Hill Park, which, it states, would be a "travesty".

Now Weaste and Claremont Community Committee is set to discuss the issue at its next meeting on May 22nd, as the issue rages on.

Full details here...

Star date: 10th April 2018

SALFORD EDUCATION OUTCOMES SLIDE AS TEACHING UNION SLAMS GOVERNMENT

In a report not made public, Salford councillors have been made aware of sliding outcomes of education in the city, with 53% of pupils achieving Grade C/Level 4 in GCSEs, compared to a national average of 63.3%. A new school improvement officer is due to start work to try and rectify the problem.

However, before anyone blames teachers, read the speech made today by Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, who said that "the job of teaching has become undoable..."

Full details here...

Star date: 9th April 2018

NO HUGE SURPRISES IN LOCAL ELECTION FIGHTS

The candidates have now been announced for the local election to Salford City Council which takes place on Thursday May 3rd. There are no great surprises.

The LibDems are still trying to make a comeback, standing alongside the Tories and Labour in all twenty seats. Meanwhile, the Greens are standing 18 candidates, UKIP rises from the dead with 12 candidates, TUSC have two and there are three Independents plus a Social Democrat and an English Democrat.

Full details here...

Star date: 8th April 2018

BOYCOTT DOGS4US HOLDS PROTEST FOR LUCY'S LAW

Boycott Dogs4Us protesters held a demonstration outside the Salford branch of Dogs4Us today to support the campaign for Lucy's Law, which would ban the sale of puppies in pet shops and through third party dealers.

The Dogs4Us branch, on Agecroft Road, is half demolished as it has planning permission to change its use to a builder's yard but is still currently trading.

Full details here...

Star date: 8th April 2018 

MYTICISM, MAGIC AND PSYCHO TECHNO ART ON OLDFIELD ROAD

Beacons: Signs
Until 21st April Thursdays and Saturdays 1pm-5pm
Caustic Coastal, Oldfield Road

The third instalment of the ace Beacons art shows happens at Caustic Coastal on Oldfield Road until 21st April, and features other-worldly structures, transmissions and artefacts by five top artists. Well recommended...if you open your third eye.

Full details here...