Ok - I’ve been working mostly on individual casework this week - it continues to flow whether Focus leaflets get out in the snow or not.

Litter bins, brken steps, dangerous pot holes, littering, disability access, grit bins, waste collection etc.

I also managed to get some training on access to heating grants and other stuff through the Council, so if you need info. give me a call, I can point you in the right direction.

The Save Our Suite campaign is now warming up after the snow-bound 3.5 weeks in December/Jan, and there are meetings coming up of Highways Scrutiny, Full Council, a parliamentary reception to attend whilst in London, Tenants & Residents meetings and more. Looking forward to it all now!

Bury Council has finally launched their formal consultation on the future of the Longfield Suite, Radcliffe Civic Suite and other threatened Bury Community centres.

Now is the time to act, whether you have signed the petition or not, if you care about the future of our local community centres then it is crucial that you complete a consultation form.

Forms are being circulated and are available in Council buildings and the Civic suites themselves. The consultation can also be completed online here .

Don’t forget to let Bury Council know what you think, don’t forget to tell all you contacts about the consultation.

Don’t leave the future of our community centres to someone else, act now!   

“Prestwich Area Partnership deplores the recent unwarranted interference in the management of Prestwich Area Partnership and believe the unnecessary rotation of Area Partnership Managers at this time will undermine the effectiveness of the Partnership at a crucial time.We insist that any future changes be introduced only after full and proper consultation with the Area Partnership.”

This was how we expressed our dissatisfaction with the way the Tory Deputy Leader allowed the Prestwich Local Area Partnership (PLAP) Manager to be shipped to Whitefield, and her opposite number be shipped to us.

Disguised under an “Officer” decision (it had to be approved by the Dep. Leader - Yvonne Creswell) there was no reason, no justifiable cause, and no sense to the move. Both employees were against it, all the “Partners” of Bury Council were against it, all the Councillors were against it, and yet Yvonne Creswell did it because she wanted to (or was it because she wanted the Tory-controlled Whitefiled LAP to get some of the Carran O’Grady magic?)

Anyway - welcome to Rose De, the new PLAP Manager - I’m sure she’ll do a great job and work very hard.

Today is Farmer’s Market day, and terrible weather probably won’t stop the people of P/w coming to it, it may just encourage them not to hang about too long! I’ll be there later this afternoon.

Last week (w/c 11.1.10) was EET on Tuesday (more later); casework on Wednesday; Conservation Group Thursday; helping a friend with her CV on Friday. This week was Planning Tuesday, Bolton LibDem Exec Wednesday (couldn’t make it due to work); PLAP on Thursday; Footy on Fri followed by a few scoops. I missed Pizza & Politics last night, but delivered a bottle of plonk for the raffle that didn’t occur. I was at a friend’s 30th B/d bash in town. Town was rammed, with no parking, roads a nightmare & people drunk everywhere (United won 4-0; X-Factor or something on at the Arena; other stuff going on incl. roadworks!)

More catch-up later…

Nick Clegg launches youth jobs pledge

Posted January 20, 2010

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg will today use a new and social media initiative co-hosted by the UK Youth Parliament to launch the party’s youth jobs manifesto pledge.

On the day that new statistics show the number of young people unemployed for more than six months has doubled in two years, Nick Clegg will announce the party’s plans using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The proposals would ensure young people do not spend more than 90 days on Jobseekers Allowance before they get more training, education, an internship or a place on a work programme.

Today’s announcement forms the next step in the Liberal Democrats’ economic stimulus and job creation package. The plans will invest almost £900m in increasing the number of further education places, giving students financial support to return to college and creating a paid internship scheme.

Nick Clegg said:
“Young people feel cheated by this recession. Everyone knows someone who has recently left college or university with hopes of starting a career only to find they cannot even get on the lowest rung of the job ladder. We must help them now or they will be left behind in any recovery.

Our promise of more training, education, an internship or a place on a work programme will give hope to the nearly one million young people who currently can’t find a job. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter play just as important a role as TV or newspapers in young people’s lives. Politicians can’t ignore new and social media if they want to connect with the next generation of voters.”

More information on the plans below:

This plan forms part of the Liberal Democrats’ economic stimulus and job creation package. In our first year in office we will redirect over £3.6bn of spending to creating jobs and building up Britain’s infrastructure. In the following years this money will be redirected to other Lib Dem spending priorities and reducing the structural deficit.

We will invest almost £900million in creating opportunities to help young people who are unemployed gain the skills and experience to move back in to work.

The 90 day promise
Under our proposals a young person would not claim Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) for more than three months without taking up training, a job or an internship. If they did not, they would be fast-tracked onto a welfare-to-work programme such as the Flexible New Deal. At the moment a young person waits 12 months before being referred to a back to work programme which is too long.

Paid Internships
We will support young people while they get valuable work experience by paying anyone undertaking an internship a ‘training allowance’ of £55 a week (£5 more than JSA). This will help employers who want to offer young people work experience but cannot afford to pay them. We envisage that young people will do this for up to 3 months and receipt of the allowance will be dependent on attendance.

We will work with employers in the private and public sectors to ensure that there are a wide range of opportunities available.

More foundation degree places
We will fund up to 15,000 more college-based foundation degree places over the next academic year. Foundation degrees focus on a particular job or profession and are the equivalent of two thirds of a full honours degree. They are fully flexible qualifications which allow students to study part-time or full-time to fit their lifestyle.

Financial help to go back to college
We will increase the Adult Learning Grant which is a means-tested benefit for 18-24 year olds studying their first level 2 or 3 qualifications (GCSE or A Level equivalent). We will increase the payments by £15 a week to £45 to provide young people who are eligible with a real choice between improving their skills and claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

Funding
The economic stimulus package to create a fair and balanced economy with sustainable growth is funded by redirecting government spending. This includes removing Tax Credits from higher earners (£700m), scrapping the intercept modernisation program (£150m), restricting growth in the Train to Gain budget (£375m), scrapping the Child Trust Fund (£370m), cutting the Highways Agency Major Improvements Budget (£1,080m) and the introduction of a 10% banking levy (£1,000m). In the first year of the new Parliament, the party would redirect this £3.6bn of spending to create jobs and build up Britain’s infrastructure. In the following years this money will be redirected to other Lib Dem spending priorities and reducing the structural deficit.

Let’s think about the big things this week - Haiti earthquake; Snow locally; DNA Database figures; Rubbish TV; Football, Donal & IT!

Haiti:

My heart goes out to those in Haiti who have lost their family, friends, homes, businesses and hope. The actions of governments and charities the world over is to be commended, but we have to ask why on earth it took so many days for search teams to get onto the ground, and why food, water & medical supplies still aren’t in the areas needed? We all know that the aid began arriving at the airport the following day, but it was another 2-3 days before there was even any word of professional search teams getting out into the worst-hit areas. How many people can survive under a collapsed building without food & water for 96 hours?

It is a poor reflection when the Aussie TV reporters pull a child from the rubble, and we know of no reports of international search teams doing the same. How come reporters can get onto the ground the next day, but the “helpers” can’t?

This isn’t criticism, a simple observation that many have made, and one that I put to my sister who works for a major international charity. She couldn’t answer, but I hope that those in charge try to do so to improve such responses for the future.

Local Snow:

Ok, the country was hit by heavier snow than we’ve had in 3 decades, nearly. However, the response was dismal again, as it always seems to be in Britain.

In Bury, gritters were witnessed to be “ghost gritting” before the directive from central govt. to conserve grit stocks. (Ghost gritting is the practice of sending gritting wagons out with lights flashing but not actually dropping any grit). My investigations have indicated that this may be  a widespread issue across the North West to act as a pacifying or “placebo” effect to the public.

Interestingly, despite the promises of SatNav controlled trucks to track & identify the exact location of the gritters at all times, I am now told that this didn’t work all the time because of where the aerials were located. Did nobody check this when we paid for the equipment to be fitted to the trucks?!?!

I actually enjoyed the snow, because the roads were clearer of heavy traffic, I got the chance to walk places rather than drive all the time (an issue of time & tasks to complete rather than preference), and the area looked cleaner than it has done in decades!

Further, I got to drive Jo’s mini, which was quite fun when she wasn’t with me in the car to worry! She spun it 180 degrees on Lowther Road on Friday, trying to stop on black ice as there was a 3-car pile-up in front of her. She went up the hill to stop vehicles coming round the blind bend and adding to the carnage, and when I commented how “publicly-spirited” this was of her (she stood there for an hour in the rain, stopping traffic ’til the police arrived) she corrected me by explaining that she didn’t want anybody to smash into her cute mini! Hmmm….

The point to learn for the Council is that we now have a 3-vehicle & 1 bicycle RTA on the stretch of road which narrows, which makes the stats look much worse, and hopefully requiring further road improvements to Lowther Road. It should also mean that the Council should provide more grit here, and those people nicking the road grit for their drives should be a bit more ashamed that they contributed to this carnage. (Yes, I too took grit, but it was for the dangerous parts of Lowther Close, not just personal use!)

DNA Database:

Figures obtained by the LibDems prove that for every single person removed from the police DNA database, another 250 are added. The UK Labour Govt. are still adding innocent people to a database of people, despite the European Courts ruling that the practice is illegal.

Add to this the outrageous numbers on “stop & search”, and the new “whole-body x-ray” at airports, and it really does feel like we are living in a totalitarian police state. Even the local Council gets in on the act, it was reported that Bury has 104 people entitled to enter homes without a warrant, 3 times the number of nearby Trafford, who are a larger Council! We have bin tagging, more CCTV per head of population than anywhere else in the western world, and yet we still don’t feel safe - could it be that the Government is twisting our thoughts towards fear, so we don’t start looking at how bad they really are?

Rubbish TV:

The poor weather probably meant that I stayed in more than I normally would, and I bought a TV (only the second in our house!) so probably watched a bit more over the last month than I previously had. It was dire!

Reality & D-list celebrity dancing, singing, skating and slobbing comprises most prime-time shows. Add to this innane cop, ambulance, and town-centre binge-watching, and it’s no wonder we don’t seem to mind the CCTV cameras!

Why don’t more people just turn it off, and either listen to a talk radio show whilst doing something useful, or take a hobby to prevent the crass getting into their heads?

Football:

I’ve played and reffed very little recently - it keep getting called off. However, I plan to do quite a bit more to work up my fitness for the elections, and also to give my energy levels a boost, as they’ve been sapped by over-indulgence in all things bad over Christmas!

City are doing well, United are stuttering, Liverpool are abysmal, and Arsenal & Chelsea play the nicest flowing footy in the Premiership at present (unfortunately!). I wonder what further acquisitions Mancini will make this month? A couple of clever midfielders and a spare defender or two wouldn’t go amiss. We’re too close to the cup derby match to make a difference now, but I hope he continues to strengthen the squad.

Bury are doing well, I hope to be able to get to a couple of games shortly, but it’s another thing in my wish list, where time is the biggest problem!

Donal & IT:

OK - never got those pics downloaded (see last blog). I loaded the camera s/ware, and connected the camera, but the pc doesn’t even see the camera, no idea why! I’ve tried different cables and stuff, perhaps it’s because previously I loaded pics via my smart printer. Maybe have to go for a new printer (last one went back to my previous employers when I left).

I’m also getting to grips with my new work Blackberry. It’s ok, but when I get a message that a meeting’s cancelled, I won’t believe it in future!!!

Much of the casework I now get is via email or phone, very few letters. It’s much nicer to get them, but I understand how much easier it is to deal with something instantly.

Enough for now, I’ve got household chores, post, and emails to the Council to write!

Snow:

Bloomin’ everywhere again today! 6-7″ (more than 30cm in new money) fell last night. Another 2-3″ fell today, and once more I was snowed in at home, along with many others (in their homes, not at mine!!!).

I was up early and went to dig out the drive/road for the fourth time of recent weeks. I soon realised how futile that would be on my own, so went back inside and got out my old ski clothes. Jo & I walked up to Prestwich (giving me a chance to get some great photos - see below I hope), but the meeting was postponed whilst the other party battled the weather. I nipped up to my mum’s whilst we waited, had a brew, and gave everyone a laugh as I strode around unashamedly in my long-johns (I got them 20+ years ago for my eldest sister’s wedding, and they still fit!). No photos of that, you’ll be glad to know!

We then went back to the village, had our meeting, and walked home via the bakery to get some barms for lunch. I got back in about 11ish, then sat down to log onto work computer, but my Blackberry kept bleeping so I didn’t get logged on for ages -the wonders of technology!

I must say Prestwich looked lovely before it went slushy, and although I tried to help a couple of cars, I did wonder how essential most of the journeys actually were. I saw all sorts of cars - the funniest was a Merc sports trying to go up a hill - that didn’t really deserve any assistance! Lots of smug 4×4 drivers tootling about, but then think about it, virtually everone else got a snow day and they had to cover! And all year round they pay bigger fuel bills! (I still wanted one today when I saw my neighbour buzzing here & there in his marvellous British-made one, though!)

Gritting:

Look, we’ve had the worst snow for nearly 30 years  -what do you expect? Bury has 5 gritting wagons, driven by the bin-lorry drivers. Would you rather they crashed £100k bin-waggons or gritted the major routes?

The grit-wagons are high-tech and the amount of grit put down depends on speed, depth of snow, forecasted snow, temperature and loads of other factors. I’ve read the policy (which is under review now - pass your comments to me) and it seems sensible enough. We simply don’t have the people, trucks or money to grit all the hills, slopes and pavements that we all (yes, me included!) would like to see gritted. Blame Labour & the Tories for it - we haven’t ruled this Country in a lifetime, so it must be them who starve Local Councils of the cash to provide a decent service! Oh, so that means you should also vote for us in the forthcoming General & Local elections, which all 3 major plus some minor parties have already started campaigning on.

See next post for photos - I have to re-boot the computer to get the software running properly.

Oh, HAPPY NEW YEAR! And I hope it’s happy, healthy and prosperous for you and me!

D