Donal OHanlon

This week has been fairly quiet, as I was working away & had to miss the PLAP meeting on Tuesday.
Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the day-to-day grind of local politics, as most of it is involved in getting minor changes & improvements, that take up loads of time to do.
There is very little on the “large” scale that appears to make a big difference to people’s lives, but local Cllrs. need to keep in mind that the continual process of change does give a political slant to the work that we do. We just need to remember that we do things in a “Liberal” and “Democratic” way, whilst the other two parties are autocratic, and think that they know best.
A good example is the way we ask the public to get involved in issues, unlike Labour & the Tories:

• We welcome input, such as the comments book in the library for changes to the “Retreat” water feature that I insisted upon last year
• The letter in this week’s “Guide” asks for input from the public, rahter than us beleiving we know best on the Regeneration of Prestwich
• That’s why we as a national party asked for a full “In or Out” referendum on Europe, rather than the minor tinkering that Labour are happy with, to weasel out of fulfilling their election promises (again!)

Other work: 

I promised to do some follow-up work on a school Governor’s issue, but the information wasn’t available from the school, so I’ll have to push that one onto next weeks’ workload.

I’ve been talking to residents about planning permission for businesses in residential houses, and the potential sprawl & change of use, and the problems this will bring. This will probably go to Committee - should be fun!

I got some good news about the garages on Shrewsbury Rd that we’ve been campaigning about. Kids were hanging about, setting fires and causing a general nuisance, and I can confirm that following our campaign, the Council asked the owners to tidy the site, and they’ve now bricked them up. I even got an email from a local resident thanking me in case it was us who had ensured this was done - of course it was us - Labour & Tories don’t actually get things done!!!

I went to Spring Conference in Liverpool on Fri/Sat. I did some training & attended a debate or two, but was pretty disappointed in general with the venue (the acoustics & heating) of the new waterfront conference hall in Liverpool, although it looks great!

I was also disappointed by the conference in general. Political parties tend to attract some strange people, and they all come out of the woodwork for big events like this, especially for a new Leader’s inaugral speeches. As such, I met a few people that many would consider “weird”, and also a lot of people who seemed to be single-issue activists.

It baffled and amused me that we had stalls for Christians; Humanists; CAMRA (drinkers) and the like, but there was not even a faint whiff of sports activities that get people working as teams! Anyone who’s ever bee on a training course knows that physical exercise, combined with teamwork, combined with brain activity is a sure-fire way to get people to enjoy the learning activities they are actually there for?! There was nobody even promoting “Sport England” or anything like it. So much for the Olympics bringing sport to the regions - and this is Europe’s “capital of culture”!!!!

I’m not even bothering with the last day of conference, Nick Clegg’s speech on Friday night was enough for me, thanks!

Ah well, I’m going to make some bacon butties now, then wash cars, visit family & maybe take a walk in the Clough or Heaton Park whilst the weather holds out. Then I’ll go leafleting and get back to the coal-face that is a Councillor’s regular toil! Have a nice day y’all!!!

Donal