Altrincham and Sale West: Schools, hospitals and booze
Altrincham and Sale West is a constituency of contrasts situated between the M60 Greater Manchester ring road enclosing the Labour heartlands beyond, and the M56 running south into the affluent Conservative Cheshire countryside.
The last two elections have seen this previously safe Tory seat narrowly stave off the determined efforts of New Labour, who continue to snap at the heels of sitting Conservative MP, Graham Brady, who had a 2,941 majority in 2001.
The third option in this curious seat is the Liberal Democrats who have held a steady 6,000 votes in the last two elections, although the village of Timperley returned Liberal Democrats in all three of its council seats at last June’s local election.
Liberal Democrat candidate Ian Chappell is buoyant about his chances of becoming MP, despite the party polling less than one third of the votes of 2001’s Conservative and Labour candidates.
Insisting the North West was once a Lib Dem hotbed, Chappell points to the 28 per cent swing in the 2004 local elections, saying that for this election: “We need a 12 per cent swing to unseat the last Tory MP in Greater Manchester.”
The Iraq war and the profile of the Prime Minister are big issues for both Chappell and Brady.
Chappell admits that he had met some people on the doorstep who supported the war but was adamant that he had, “not heard one person be supportive of Tony Blair.”
Brady goes further and accuses the Prime Minister: “of being profoundly and deliberately dishonest. The way in which the intelligence material was misrepresented by the Government is unforgivable.”
But Labour candidate John Stockton says that Iraq has not been the concern on the doorstep. And he warns dissatisfied Labour voters that voting Lib Dem is a “wasted vote” which would see them waking up with a Tory MP.
Instead, Stockton focuses on the constituency record of Brady. He claims that since Brady became Michael Howard’s private secretary and then Shadow Minister for Europe there has been an approachability problem.
Stockton says: “I do not think [Brady] has brought a great deal. I will be much more open and approachable and more in tune with what people are thinking.”
Brady himself is more than happy to talk about his record in parliament. Over the last eight years he claims to have helped 2,500 constituents, in addition to campaigning on behalf of the area’s school selection policy and saving Altrincham General Hospital.
Brady successfully fought against the proposed 1998 and 1999 ward closures and claims they were “a precursor to the total closure of the hospital”.
“The proposal for the closures had been kept secret until local elections were out of the way.
“Quite explicitly the Labour councillor who had been made chairman of the trust had actually told the clinicians at the hospital they were not to talk about the plan until after those elections.”
Stockton though scoffs at Brady’s claim, saying the only time the hospital was ever under threat was during John Major’s premiership. Then, there “was a possibility of reduced funding for the NHS meaning the local hospital was going to be under some sort of danger.”
He claims Brady has run a campaign of scare stories that the hospital is going to close irrespective of Labour funding, which “has never been the case and he has been a little disingenuous.”
Chappell is dismissive of the row and accuses Stockton and Brady of bringing out this “political football once in a while to kick around.”
What he is concerned about on health is the numbers of NHS dentists.
Chappell says the area is seriously lacking dentists, and since 1997 the number of registered NHS dentists has fallen by a third. He adds that around one third of children are not registered with an NHS dentist in Altrincham and Sale West today. This deters children from going to the dentist, which is “really bad in terms of future health with prevention being better than cure,” he adds.
This local campaign is very much being fought on public services, with education joining health at the top of the candidates’ lists. It is an issue close to all of the candidates’ hearts: Stockton is a secondary school head of department with over 20 years’ experience, Chappell is a school governor, and Brady served for a time as Shadow Schools Minister.
Altrincham and Sale West is a rare example of an area that already meets the target of 50 per cent participation at university and the issue of tuition fees is never far away.
Brady positively beams when he states the Conservatives are opposed to and will abolish the fees should they get in power. He says: “I am delighted about that. I worked very hard to make sure that was our policy when I was on the Shadow Education team.”
For a constituency with so many pupils going on to further education, it was the doorstep issue in 2001, he adds, with his constituents exactly the sort of people to be hardest hit by their introduction – something Brady considers to be akin to double taxation.
Chappell also laments the introduction of fees, pointing to the “horrendous situation” that currently most pupils leave university with debt of around £10,000, a figure that could rise to £25,000 if top up fees are introduced.
Dismissing the possibility of bursaries for those from poorer backgrounds, Chappell looks to the neighbouring constituency of Wythenshawe and Sale East where just 17 per cent of pupils go into higher education.
He insists that the introduction of fees will only serve to discourage those pupils from poorer backgrounds when such high figures of debt are bandied around and “which is going to get a lot worse.”
But it is precisely the introduction of a 50 per cent higher education take up rate, and the investment that this requires, that will keep Britain a 21st century economy according to Stockton. He argues that with 50 per cent going to university it is reasonable for the recipient of that education to pay something back.
Stockton claims the only alternative to fees is general taxation (dismissing the Liberal Democrat’s proposal of paying for fees out of a rise in income tax for the highest earners as “not hypothecated to higher education”), which will “hit the poorest in society, not the most successful.”
Like many towns around Britain the Government’s plans to relax the licensing laws have caused some disquiet.
Brady is strongly opposed, saying that “24 hour licensing is inappropriate in Altrincham”. He accepts there may be a time and a place for longer hours in the big urban centres such as nearby Manchester, but he concludes emphatically that Altrincham town centre is “too lively already”.
Labour’s Stockton endorses the party line that it will help tackle binge drinking, but does include his own caveat of seeing the system reviewed in six or 12 months’ time to gauge “exactly how effective the system has been” and to consult with the police as to whether they think alcohol related crime is down as a result.
Meanwhile Chappell accepts there is pressure at closing times in the town, which can lead to flash points.
Indeed he states that Altrincham town centre late on Friday or Saturday night is “not a nice place to walk,” but insists any such alteration to the local licensing times will have to be scrutinised closely by the police to satisfy any concerns.
Altrincham and Sale West is indeed a curious constituency and one with three very confident candidates all believing they can win.
Brady considers the “Blair factor” damaging to Stockton’s challenge, as does Chappell, who is hoping to make big inroads into the Labour vote. But Stockton knows that any perceived weakness in the Tory campaign could see him take vote
