Questions of interest (to me, anyway!) asked, followed by their proposed answers: 

Question from Mr A Wentworth   

Why is the Executive Council Member responsible for Health and Well-being, making no public attempts to extol the Health and Well-being benefits plus savings to the NHS, the Longfield Suite provides to the residents of Bury. 

R 

It is widely acknowledged that all our Civic Venues provide a range of activities which foster health and well being, but we cannot ignore the financial realities of using taxpayer’s money to subsidise these venues to the tune of £600,000 a year.  We have to look at what alternatives are available that would retain the strong links with local communities but not require large ongoing unfunded subsidies. 

The Task and Finish Group is currently undertaking a wide-ranging consultation to enable a full range of views as possible to be gathered as part of its work.  The wide range of dance activity, and the benefits of that to the individuals who visit the Civic Venues, is already understood by the Task and Finish Group, and this will be considered as part of its work. 

Q         Could the Leader inform me:- 

i)                    What teething problems were encountered in changing the refuse collection rounds?ii)                  Have they been resolved?iii)                How much money do you anticipate saving in a financial year?iv)               How many fewer staff are involved in collecting?v)                 How much money has been spent so far on agency staff? 

A 

         You will all have received the answer that was provided in response to Cllr Smith’s very similar question at the last Council meeting. 

Due to the weather conditions and the need to suspend both residual and recyclate collections in recent weeks, it is not possible to isolate issues solely to the changes in the collection rounds.  Therefore, I cannot provide an answer in respect of the cost of agency staff that can be compared on a like for like basis. 

Q         A series of recommendations for the improved efficiency and use of Civic Halls was made in a Best Value Review in 2007. The Leader is on record as saying that he could not act on these recommendations due to the balanced Council which existed at the time. What are his exact reasons for coming to this view? 

A         As I recall it was clear from the outcome from Scrutiny’s deliberations that more work was to be done on the whole future of Civic Venues.  How could any Member reach any decision in the absence of a clear strategy for Civic Venues?  It was Cllr Connolly as Chair of the scrutiny panel who ordered a further review. 

Under this administration that review has been completed.  I am sure Cllr D’Albert and his Lib Dem colleagues will agree that we cannot continue to ask Council Tax payers to pump in - year on year over £600,000 in subsidies. 

Q         Can the Leader explain what additional and/or emergency provision will be provided for the repairs to the roads of this Borough, following the damage caused by two consecutive snow-bound winters? 

A.        To date we have received no additional/emergency financial provision to repair damage to the Councils highways after the recent adverse weather. As we identify the extent of the problem from a financial perspective, consideration may have to be given to reprioritising areas of spend to address the matter.      Remediation work has begun by a specialised team. 

Q         Can the Leader explain to the governors, staff & pupils of Butterstile Primary School their policy in relation to clearing snow around this school, to enable the continuing education of the children, and whether or not said policy was enacted and effective? 

A         The access roads to this school are not on the priority gritting routes although the adjacent roads,

, both are. 

There are over 70 schools within the Borough.  To include all of these on gritting routes would require a significant increase in resource.  It is not within the policy to grit around schools although we are considering options to provide grit bins to all schools for them to have the opportunity to undertake some gritting themselves. 

Q         What lessons have been learned so far from the Council’s           response to the recent severe winter weather? 

A         As you are aware the Current Winter has been the worst for some 30 years and as such has presented problems for the Winter Gritting Services.  The Economy, Environment and Transport Scrutiny Commission has requested a report to their March meeting detailing actions taken and possible improvements to the current Winter Maintenance Operational Plan.  The Scrutiny Commission may make recommendations on how to deal with weather conditions similar to this in the future but we must not lose sight of the fact there is not a limitless budget for winter maintenance and setting priorities must be an integral part of the decision making process.  I would however commend the staff who have been out undertaking the services in extremely difficult and hazardous conditions. 

Q         Can the Leader advice specifically how many personnel from which departments were involved in clearing snow from which areas on which days. It is the view of many of my constituents that it would appear from the results in Prestwich that the response to specific issues as they arose, for instance around the Longfield Centre, was inadequate.  

A         During the severe weather, many employees from across Highways, Parks and Cleansing were unable to carry out their normal duties. 

They were switched to snow clearance duties on footways, shopping precincts, footways adjacent to health and emergency service facilities, cemeteries and the like, in accordance with areas identified in the Winter Maintenance Plan. 

Unfortunately it is not possible to provide the detail request by Councillor Garner.  More attention was applied to allocating the teams to key areas and managing service requests than to logging numbers, locations and times. 

So basically, they are not willing to admit that they put everyone into

Q         Could the leader tell us the approximate time for street lights to be repaired after being reported as not working? Is there any preference given to lights on A roads / streets or lights in our local parks? Does the Council’s performance meet government targets for the speed of street light repairs and how do we compare to other Authorities? 

A         There are two different standards for repair of street lights dependant upon whether it is within the Councils control or it is an electricity supply fault.  The former was in the past a national indicator but is now a local one.  The average time for us to repair a fault that is our responsibility last year was 4.82 Days.  Currently this year we are averaging 4.23 Days.  The target in the Street Lighting Code of Practice is 5 days for most types of routine faults.  The electricity is supplied by United Utilities who have a target of 15 working days to repair a supply fault.  However this is not statutory and whilst doing their best, street lighting is a lower priority than house and business faults that need repairing.  Last year they averaged 15.86 days to fix an outage and this year they are averaging 10.03 Days. 

So it appears it has nothing to do with Mr Grosskopf of Sedgley, and a lot to do with the efficiency of our Engineers and Streetcare Inspectors!!! (Oh, and Local Councillors alerting the Council to problems as they pass by whilst delivering their Focus leaflets! 

Q         Will the Leader of the Council please explain why no action was taken to implement changes at the Borough’s Civic Suites following the production of a report by Bury MBC in October 2007 that highlighted the suites needed improvements in advertising, website capability and more modern box office facilities? 

A         As I recall it was clear from the outcome from Scrutiny’s deliberations that more work was to be done on the whole future of Civic Venues.  How could any Member reach any decision in the absence of a clear strategy for Civic Venues?  It was Councillor Connolly as Chair of the scrutiny panel who ordered a further review. 

Under this administration that review has been completed.  I am sure Councillor Shori and his Labour colleagues will agree that we cannot continue to ask Council Tax payers to pump in - year on year over £600,000 in subsidies. 

Q         As there is no direct bus route from Bury New Road Prestwich to Bury, is the council going to urge its representatives on the GMITA to lobby the bus companies to provide one? 

A         Thank you for your question. As this is an issue that the GMITA should respond to can I ask that Councillor Baum passes his concerns to Councillor Creswell who, as the Councils spokesperson, can forward the issues to the GMITA. 

I think this adequately shows Cllr. Bibby’s lack of concern for the electorate, and disproves any idea that he may have an ounce of a clue about how to improve public transport in our communities. But why would it bother him? He had his new Lexus delivered to the town hall car park during the negotiations on employee pay – how sensitive! Oh yes, and he lives in Bacup, so wouldn’t have need of public transport in Bury! 

Q         Can the Leader explain who is responsible for the purchasing and proof-testing of gritting wagons, fitted with sophisticated (& presumably expensive) satellite navigation monitoring, which failed to provide the data promised, and enabled the practice of “ghost gritting” in many areas of this Borough? 

A.        At the outset, I would strenuously contest Councillor Garner’s comment about ‘ghost gritting’.  We do not and have not used such a practice. The Department leases its gritting vehicle fleet and this year purchased satellite navigation equipment for each of the vehicles (at a total cost of £3,500). 

Unfortunately the equipment, whilst in place, is still being developed and refined to provide us with accurate feedback on the routes, locations and timing of grit runs.  Once it is up and running, we will have excellent detail and data on which to base future decisions. 

On occasion some of the priority routes were not accessible even to a gritting vehicle either due to the conditions or because of congestion.  It is also important to note that the spreading of grit does not always provide an instant result in improving conditions.  Grit is only effective in certain conditions and changes in temperatures of only a few degrees can render recently spread grit as ineffective. 

So we bought something that doesn’t work, but we’ll have it ready by the summer – very useful on a gritting wagon! This is the kind of clever strategy and operation you get with a Tory Council! And over 4% Council Tax to pay for it too! (Oh – or was that Bob Bibby’s office refurbishment you paid for? He spent nearly four times more on that than he did on the sat-nav equipment for the gritting wagons!) 

GMITA:Cllr Richard BaumA number of people in my ward were forced to walk several miles home from

Deputy Borough Commander Pete Stevenson, who led our team, was designated as Operations Commander for the

Yes - it was a bit like “Save our Souls” at Full Council last night, but the SOS above refers to Save Our Suite! More on that later…

Full Council 3.2.10: 

Last night I attended Full Council - mostly boring stuff with the occasional glimmer of hope. The only public question was asked by Alf Wentworth about Civic Suites, the health benefits of dancing, and the importance the Longfield plays in keeping people out of hospital via it’s very frequent dances. The Executive Member for Healthier Communities (Bev Sullivan - she may be up for election this year, hint hint!) gave a fairly bland answer, and on we went (The Tories took away people’s rights to ask additional questions, and ones that hadn’t been scribed in blood and submitted four decades before the meeting!).

There were no recommendations from the Executive, and in the Leader’s statement he referred to the excellent work of the EET Highways Scrutiny Sub-Committee (chaired by yours truly) and mentioned me in despatches four or five times. This was in an attempt to blame me for the failure of his Council to cope adequately during the recent poor weather.

 So - what did my Sub Group do to deserve such praise?

We studied the 127-page “Winter Service Policy & Operational Plan”, and put it forward to the full EET Scrutiny Committee as a sound document. The policy outlines the legislation we must adhere to; a statement of intent; explains the road hierarchy; routes; priorities for keeping clear; salting & snow clearance practice; where we get our weather data from; response times; the decision-making process; performance monitoring; equipment to be used; how many grit bins we have and where; fuel stocks; what the rate of salt spread should be; includes individual route plans; information on treatment of footpaths etc.

The document is sound (given the dire financial state of the Borough announced every year since the year dot!), and we put it forward to the Full EET Committee subject to the proviso that further investigation work be done by taking it to Local LAP’s for the public to add comments about where else they wanted gritting, grit bins etc. and why. This was done in December, and as far as I can tell, absolutely nobody in Prestwich put forward any written recommendations (although I stand to be corrected if someone did - that info. dates from about 15th Jan).

The problem was that most people would say it was not put into practice. So, what specifically can we say did not occur?

Well, to do that we need to review the Operational Plan against the performance data that should have been collected. Unfortunately, the sat-nav units didn’t work, because some edgit located them in the engine bay, and it would seem that nobody checked after installation that a signal was being received! So we can’t tell where the trucks were.

So what about rate of spread - surely that data can be analysed? Again, this would appear not to be the case, as the measurement is based on the moving element of the unit, and does not check the data against the amount in the truck or hopper by weight. This means that the practice I call “Ghost Gritting” (flashing lights, lots of noise, but nothing useful coming out of it - a bit like the Tory Party in Bury who run the Council!), witnessed by so many residents of Prestwich, has no appropriate checks & balances. Thus, we can’t say how much salt was laid, we can only tell that from the fact that the bulk storage nearly ran out.

And the questions we were going to ask about the “winter service plan” (mine was about the area around Butterstile School) were not allowed to be asked because we timed-out once more (my question was eighth on the list). However, they do have to be answered in writing, so I’ll add them when I get them.

Questions that were put and got a response (although I think in NO case did an “answer” appear!) included the following:

1. What went wrong with the refuse collection service & how much cash did we save by this cock-up change?
2. Why did the “balanced council” in 2007 prevent the Leader from taking action on the Civic Suites during 2007?
3. What’s the progress at Whitefield Town Hall?
4. Are we going to get more £ for road repairs as a result of the second consecutive bad winter?
5. What’s the Council doing about gee’ing up the PCT into action about the Whitefield Health Centre?
6. If a General Election is on the same day as the Council Elections, will the count for the latter occur the following day? (we got a straight answer to this, because it is not a decision that can be taken by anyone from a political background - “yes”!)
7. Is the Bury times correct about the “out of court settlement” offer announced in the Bury Times, and why was “Trev the Union Man” informed by this method instead of via an internal email/conversation etc?

There were then 2 motions, one by us about Police Funding, and one by Labour about Employee Pay. Ours succeeded in gaining the full support of all those present (albeit with an amendment by Labour), and the Labour one failed.

Questions to “Joint Authorities” (police/fire/transport etc.) followed a brief report by the Councillor on the police board, but my questions again couldn’t be put because despite the Deputy Leader (Yvonne Creswell) saying she was going to be brief in answering Richard Baum’s question about the failure of the Metrolink during the bad weather, she then blabbed on about “the weather was not confined to us, it was all ‘over the country…” - as if we hadn’t noticed!?! At this point I was bored & fed-up: The football was over, there was nothing of interest being said, and we all wanted to go home. I asked the Mayor to ask Yvonne to get to the point so we could get on, and the Mayor brought proceedings to a close! (Deos that count as another win for us?)

Save Our Suite:

At a meeting this week a few changes were made to the make-up, and decisions about what to do next were made. Labour & us are in accord, and it seems we have support from Cllrs Wiseman & Redstoone from the Tories too.

The “consultation questionnaire” is out, and it is the weakest, most lily-livered piece of crud I’ve seen in ages! There are no clear questions, so how they can draw reasonable conclusions from it are beyond me - I am sure the appropriateness of this will be brought into question. MAKE SURE YOU ALL COMPLETE IT!

HEATON PARK “GOALS SOCCER” ZONE:

I have written an email to the Officer responsible for this process at Manchester Town Hall, and asked for it to be dispersed amongst the Councillors on the Planning Committee there. Some of it can be seen in a previous posting below.

I have had a discussion with St Monica’s Head Teacher about it too, and will be sending him a copy of the full email which goes into more detail. I must repeat - I am not against the facilities, I am against their particular siting (at the furthest edge away from Manchester) where almost all the negative factors will affect the people of Prestwich, and all the positive factors (discounted access etc.) will be for the people of Manchester.

‘Nuff said! D

Prestwich Local Area Partnership Meeting this week, at 6.30pm, Thursday 12th November, Heaton Park Primary School.

Prestwich Local Area Partnership will showcase Prestwich Winter Wonderland which kicks of on Sunday 22 November with a bumper Prestwich Christmas Farmers Market and Christmas Lights Switch On at The Longfield Shopping Centre with not only top Coronation Street Star Katherine Kelly (Becky) to switch on the lights.

There will be lots of family entertainment to enjoy this splendid day with top local entertainment, Dave K, a Town Cryer, Besses o’th Barn Brass Band, Pop Star Academy, Prestwich Arts College Choir, Sweeky the Clown and Santa’s Grottos of course. Prestwich Library have pulled its own cracker for the visitors at the Farmers Market to drop in with their children to enjoy Carnival of the Animals Story time and mask-making 11am-12 for children under aged 10 and under in Prestwich Children’s Library and a FREE prize draw for a big cuddly blue teddy bear. (Please contact the library to book your place), a chance for children to write your letters to Santa and post them in the post-box at the Santa Grotto, Local History Displays – with Craig Brisbane, Guitar Class & Art Society Demonstrations and a one off Computer Taster Session – ‘Shop till you Don’t Drop!’ teaching shoppers how to online shop from the comfort of your home 11-1pm. There’s even a chance to pop in and see Prestwich Hospital Exhibition. What a Cracker!

Chair of Prestwich LAP Cllr Vic D’Albert said “We put out the message to the Prestwich Community that’d we would highlight any Winter Events and in LovePrestwich Winter Wonderland What’s On Guide was born. I promise you that LovePrestwich Winter Wonderland What’s On Guide will have something for everyone for all ages and faiths so don’t miss this chance to get a sneak preview. I am delighted that we’ll will celebrate the first Prestwich Community Carol Service at St Mary’s Parish Church on Monday 21 December followed by a reception at Church Lane Community Centre. As well as Christmas we celebrate Chanukah, Fast of Tevet, Eid-Ul-Adha, Al-Hijira (Islamic New Year) and National Holcocaust Memorial Day which has particular importance to our Prestwich Community. Prestwich has had a wonderful year this year having enjoyed a wonderful LovePrestwich Festival and to finish with a LovePrestwich Winter Wonderland is the icing on the cake.”

Other reports at this months meeting will include The Local Development Framework, The Big Clean and Police Report.
To download papers click this link

Last week I kept myself busy with a Buildings Committee of Butterstile school on Monday, which should have been followed by a Corporate Risk Management meeting of the Council, but this was postponed.

Tuesday was a number of things - the afternoon opening of the Prestwich Hospital exhibition at the library (missed as it was during work time) followed by a  meeting to discuss “fairer social housing allocation” at the Elizabethan Suite in Bury. Whilst it would have been good to go, I doubt if anything I may have said would have made a great deal of difference, as there are so many “needs assessments” and central Govt. targets to meet, anything constructive would probably have been washed away in a tide of bureacracy!

Anyway, we can drive this throughthe Scrutiny process instead, so perhaps it was only doubling up.

Wednesday night was Town Centre Regeneration, which I Chair. I was pleasantly surprised to see a collection of shopkeepers from the Village, all keen to hear about the plans for the site. Unfortunately, all they got was high-level stuff about the process of regeneration, not the specifics of how the Council may assist them in relocation, or when the whole thing may start. Had we known they were coming, we may have been able to allay many fears early-on, unfortunately we couldn’t as the process is so complex, and time was so short, all we had time for was the business at hand, and to answer some of their immediate questions.

There was also positive movement on developing the “secondary” shopping centres of Whittaker Lane & Sedgley - more on that another time.

Thursday night was the Official preview night of the Rock development, but instead I went to Vic D’Albert’s meeting at the Longfield on the Council’s plans to demolish the Longfield Suite & spend all our money in Bury on the Elizabethan Suite. This Tory Council’s attitude to “Six Towns” is diabolical - all they care about is Ramsbottom, Tottington & central Bury, with no concern for the residents in the South. They plan to “change the use” of Radclife Civic Suite (but have proposed no ideas for what) and have the Longfield Suite demolished as part of the Town Centre Regeneration. However, as it is integral to the regeneration (Item 6 on the list of 35 action points) it is clear that the people of Prestwich demand it be retained.

Vic’s blog outlines ( http://vicdalbert.mycouncillor.org.uk/ ) what happened as a result. Basically, Vic outlined how we’d got to wheree we are now, and how the Tories have betrayed the people of Prestwich by ignoring the results of the biggest public consultation in Prestwich history.

Ivan Lewis, the local MP turned up and was very effective at stirring up the crowd. Lots of members of the public who regularly use the Longfield spoke about it’s importance; the benefit to the health of the elderly; the way it provides a dancefloor which is only second to Blackpool Tower ballroom in the whole North West; how it hosts major talent such as Flavia from “Strictly…”, and how it is our responsibility to ensure it’s continued existence.

 I spoke briefly about the Regeneration and what it means to have a community facility such as this, how even the Mayor’s Ball is held here and not at the Elizabethan Suite!

People demanded to see the facts & figures in the report that proposes closure, but of course the Council are loathe to do so, as it has “commercially sensitive data” which may be of use to competitors. The question to ask is, “Who the hell round here is in competition with the Longfield Suite?!?!?” We, as Councillors, can see the data, and we shall be analysing it VERY carefully. I have already asked for the full report & all the data analysis behind it from the Democratic Services team. I have also asked for comparative data on the use of schools facilities, as a benchmark.

Michelle Wiseman snook in at the back. She’s a sitting Tory Councillor in Whitefield, and also prospective parliamentary candidate. After I’d finished speaking, I invited her up to the front to explain the Tory’s proposals, which she abjectly failed to do. She was there “to listen”, she said. Why set out a proposal and then listen, when you have a proposal which has been devised through massive (and expensive) consultation with the public, and then ratified by the Council in the “Love Prestwich” regeneration strategy, and already agreed by the Council’s ruling Tory executive? She had NO answers!

Ivan & Vic both ran rings around her, the public asked her some tough questions, and she was terrible in response. Sorry Michelle, but you were! And if you’re that bad, just imagine how inept Bacup Bob will sound trying to defend a decision that usurps a prevoious decision he made only 3 months ago!!! Anyone who’s seen him in Full Council will know that presentation is not his strongest point, especially when he feels he’s under pressure. It should be more fun than a Punch & Judy show!!!

Vic invited her to return with the Executive of the Council, to listen to the people of Prestwich, and Bacup Bob and his crew have accepted the challenge, I hope the TV’s are there to witness this one!!! Hmmm, that gives me an idea!

After the Longfield meeting I went to the Carnival charity cheque presentation evening, where the profit from the Carnival is spread amongst the various charities of the area. AA very pleasant evening!

Friday night was a “pies & politics night” at my house, with a veritable house-full of like-minded souls discussing the credit crunch & other matters.

Saturday day was a LibDem conference in Widnes, which was very inspiring & uplifting, and that evening I went for a meal with my wife & some friends at Peppe’s in Whitefield. I ate so much that I only ate 2 croissants all day Sunday, until Sunday evening when we sat down to tea. I wan’t reff’ing, so managed to get through a long list of chores that I’ve been meaning to do for a while - feels great when the whole list is ticked off!

And now for some paying work…

The Tories want to close the Longfield Suite. The LibDems don’t. That’s it!

The Tories want the Elizabethan Suite to be the only decent venue this Borough has, and they want to control it. They have no representation south of the M60, so they’re scared that the venue that is most used; largest & premiere facility of the Borough; the most cost-effective one is not “in their control”! (We talk of the Longfield Suite of course!)

When did Civic facilities have to make money? It’s preferable, but not essential. After all, Bacup Bob takes money from this Authority and doesn’t even pay his Council Tax here - and he’s a complete waste of our money! What does he know about what makes a community tick? He loves the Borough so much he won’t even live here!!!

The Longfield Suite loses less money than the other Civic Suites. The Longfield is utilised more than all the other Civic Suites. The Longfield is better than the other Civic Suites. So why get rid of it? Because it’s in an area that Bacup Bob doesn’t care about!

And he’s not the only “Nasty Tory”. Ask any one of them if they’ll vote against this proposal, and I would bet a fiver not one would say “yes”. I suspect one honourable member would abstain, but with the Mayor’s casting vote, the situation remains the same! Oh, it’ll be just like the Prestwich Arts College all over again, but this time the baddies are the big fat Tories and not the weasly Labour party!

Bring it on - we love beating the useless toffs!

See the following link to SAVE OUR LONGFIELD:

www.savelongfield.com

This morning I woke with a realisation in my head! It’s all about achievements - that’s what we’re judged upon.

The meeting on Wednesday  got 3 of our motions passed, that’s an achievement for a party of 9 in a Council of 51 Councillors. We also got to ask some pertinent questions which will be useful ammunition in the forthcoming elections.

We clearly punch above our weight, and we exceed the performance of those around us.

So far, since becoming a Councillor in Prestwich, I’ve achieved a fair bit, but not nearly as much as I would like to get done. Along with my LibDem colleagues, we can lay claim to invigorating the area, and helping to establish the following:

We have the realistic regeneration prospect for Prestwich, the outline proposals are coming to Planning Committee next week. A multi-million pound development, which never saw the light of day under Labour or Tory rule in Prestwich.

We have an attitude of “take back our streets”, with anti-graffiti campaigns, and far greater partnership working with the Police.

We have a month-long Prestwich Festival, celebrating all things “local”.

We have a thriving town centre, with a working fountain and a farmers market!

We have outlying shopping centres now believing in the regeneration, and wanting a slice of the action.

We have a “can do” attitude, with people wanting to get involved in all sorts of improvement projects.

We have Tenants & rsidents Associations improving housing estates all over the area.

There is still much to do, but I woke this morning and realised that we have helped to improve the area, and some of that is down to me, and that makes me proud! Hurrah!!!

The Tories made a farce of democracy last night at Full Council. We put forward a motion on opening up democracy, having an all-party review of the Scrutiy process, and this was what was suggested at the all party “away-day” recently. Labour supported our motion, but the Tories (despite some disagreeing with their Leadership) all voted to water it down, so the Scrutiny Management Committee should review it & bring a report back to Council. This is like asking someone to make their own role redundant!!!

Then, I put forward a fairly reasonable motion about Bury getting active in the Olympics, perhaps hosting a nation, having a mini-olympics to get us in the mood, and asking central Govt what was to be our promised “lasting legacy”? This was defeated by the Tories & Labour having a “love-in” which watered it right down, so there are no promises to fulfil, no targets to try to achieve, just a vague wishy-washy hope that we can continue to provide some support to others who actually pull their finger out! I doubt any winning Olympians would want to be associated with such crass objectives - it is hardly in the aspirational spirit of the Olympics!

Vic D’Albert, our PPC put forward a motion on the surveillance powers used by the Council. Again, the Tories were aided by Labour to amend the motion so that it had not teeth, ambition or guts.

There were shed-loads of questions, almost entirely blagged off by Bibby & Co with “We’ll have to get back to you in writing about that”, and the written questions from the public were simply avoided by not being answered whatsoever! The Tory Executive simply referred to topics they wished had been asked! This is not democracy, this is pantomime time from some very poor imitation “politicians”.

On the up side, I got home from the meeting to watch the England game on ITV.

On Sunday I spent an hour guarding a hole on Lowther Rd, to prevent other cars & drivers doing what I nearly did - drive into a crater!

I guided people around the hole, which was about 1′ across on the surface, and 6′ x 4′ x 7′ deep underneath. I called the emergency Council number, who sent a crew out to put guard rails & signs around it, and then on Monday a couple of steel plates were put over it too.

The outside looks inoccuous, but below is a vacuous void of danger - a bit like the Labour and Conservative parties, upon whom we’ve entrusted the running of this Councl for so many years!

After years of pressing for improvements to the Bury New Rd/Scholes Lane/Hilton Lane junction, the council have accepted the arguments put forward by LibDem Councillors that improvements are needed, and this junction is a priority. Hoorah!!!

What they have yet to say is how long it will take them to find the dosh to pay for it! Booooh!

What about the latest MP scandals? Duck pond islands; porn films for husbands ; Moat & Tennis court cleaning; “Flipping” designation of homes to maximise allowances; claiming for non-existant mortgages - all these have been reported in papers lately, and yet much more is still to come, apparently.

Councillors get very little in comparison - phone bills paid, a fuel allowance for some trips - I’m not sure what else?

Nick Clegg’s ideas of electoral reform are the only ones that make sense so far. Cameron’s plans of an election without reform simply amount to replacing one bunch of (allegedly) disreputable scum with another lot, so what’s the point? Oh, I know, it’s because Tories are trustworthy and don’t fiddle thier expenses, live in castles and country piles with moats etc. ….Hmmmmm……..

D

All work and no play makes Jack a very boring lad. At the moment, I feel like Jack!

The workload at my daytime job is piling up, and I’m the only one who can clear it. This hasn’t been helped this week by 2 Council meetings during daytime, and an annual trip to the Fire, Security & Health and Safety Expo in Birmingham. At least for the latter I managed to double it up with a work meeting with colleagues on a special project, as well as accidentally bumping into my sister, which was a pleasant surprise!

Better to have too much work than not enough, in these hard times, though!

However, this hasn’t stopped me reading my Council papers for the meetings where they arrived. Unfortunately, the electronic copies for today’s meeting came out yesterday (when I was in Birmingham), and last night I was catching up on the work missed as a result of attendin a daytime Council meeting on Monday, so I could not read them. The paper copies of the notes arrived mid morning today, for a meeting I attended at 2pm! How am I supposed to do a proper job of Scrutinising and holding the Leadership to account when this happens?

I raised this at Full Council today, and got the support of virtually every Councillor in the Chamber. The blame lies squarely with the Tories, who are not managing things in the Council Offices properly, and although they only get papers to us on the day of the meeting, we have to get questions to them on the topics we haven’t seen four working days before the meeting!!!

I abstained on matters I could not have read, and advised that next time it happens, I will demand that the item be withdrawn and referred to the next meeting.

I trust all you Labour and reasonable Tories will support this action? (Yes, I know you’re the ones reading my blog!!!)

Sadder news:

I have to report that Brian Daniel, a senior Council Officer and someone whom I worked well with, and was fond of, has died today. He was a very clever and soflty spoken man, and will be very much missed by many, especially my LibDem colleagues & I. He was only mid-50’s I think.

A friend has mentioned that his brother was knocked off his bike recently and suffered spinal injuries - I’m praying for him, along with a friend who suffered a heart attack on Monday. Both are only mid-40’s and have a heck of a lot of living still to do. I don’t know the condition of either at the moment, but hope to find out more tonight.

If you’re religious, please say a prayer for them, please.

Street Questionnaires:

If you’re wondering about responses on case work, please bear with me for a few days - when this busy period subsides I will get back to you all. I have called some of you already, but we’re analysing the collective data, and it will help us to target the resources we have.

D

Today was the ceremony for “Freedom of the Borough” for several local personalities. Zoe Robinson - the gold medal Bocchia Olympian; Danny Boyle - Director of “Slumdog Millionnaire” and “Trainspotting”; and the individuals who make up the pop group Elbow were all given “Freedom of the Borough” status.

The ceremony was shorter than the speeches from the three political parties, but the speeches were all good & did credit to the Borough too.

The Ladies were all out in hats (well, the Tory ladies plus some ex-Councillors, wives & Lady Mayoresses), and I thought I’d do a poll of whose hat was the mosst glamorous. I will try to set up a link to poll it, with pictures of the Ladies, so you can give your opinion.

As you may know I’m not techie in the slightest, so will take a little while to do it, but I’m sure with help from my friends I can achieve it. If it works, I’ll apply the same logic to other things (worst graffiti; nicest street or tree; worst condition road etc.) and we can then feed back the data to officers for prioritising improvements! Brilliant!!!

 Keep logging on, I will keep the polls open for 1 week, and announce the winner at the end. I may even give out a prize (from my own funds - not like an MP!!!). Fingers crossed that I can get it to work!!

Donal

Tonight was Full Council. There were 2 big issues tonight:

1. Wayne Campbell was resigning as a Councillor (after 25 years) and as Leader of the Labour Group on the Council (to pursue a job working with six Town Housing, which means he’s not allowed to be a Councillor)
2. Labour put forward a motion to withdraw the decision to move Derby High School from it’s current location to the former East Lancs Paper Mill site, in Radcliffe, basically instead of continuing with the idea of a separate school for Radcliffe (Radcliffe Riverside).

 I’m no sycophant, but it will be a bit of a shame to see the back of Cllr. Campbell, who is pretty honest and forthright, and who puts a solid socialist image forward (instead of New Labour, which is a clearly flawed policy, now). This will mean a bye-election in Radcliffe on 4th June, just when the European elections are.

On the other point, Labour were clearly looking to score political points in East Ward (where residents send their kids to the local Derby School, and who’ll now have to drive them to Radcliffe or send them on a bus) and also in Radcliffe where they’ll try to imply that Radcliffe people will lose out by getting this school (instead of R. Riverside!)

Cllr. Connolly (Lab) put forward a position rather weakly, but Cllr Byrne (also Lab.) put forward a much better argument about the flawed process that led to the decision (all about “Added Value” not being included in the decision, and how Officers ineptitude and conniving had affected the decision). The problem with John Byrne is that he talks too quickly, and clearly hates anyone who’s not of the same opinion as him. As a result, he may have the best speech in the world, but people are unlikely to be swayed by him, even if they could understand what he said!

The flip side of the coin was our own Cllr., Wilf Davison. Wilf speaks eloquently, with long pauses, intelligent arguments and a good grasp of the wider picture. He spoke brilliantly about the “strategy”, the political machinations of Tory and Labour (Tories plan to get the two Labour MP’s for Bury fighting amongst themselves) and our position as honestly trying to secure a long-term future for a decent school in Radcliffe, which this opportunity presents. The most important thing that he pointed out, was that we are unlikely to see this become reality if we delay any further (as Bury is probably in the Govt’s second phase for Building Schools for the Future (BSF)) especially if the Tories get in at the next General Election.

One other point Wilf mentioned was that if Derby High is demolished, what are the Tories plans for the land? Bib Bobby, the Council Leader, pretended he had no plans as yet. The point is, if it’s not a facility that directly benefits the people of East Bury Ward, then they may turn against Tories for taking away their school, and putting bugger all decent in it’s place.

Oh, some policies were put forward about buying new vehicles for the Council: I suggested we get the Mayor a new limo, as the old Volvo he’s in now looks crap compared with other Mayor’s Jaguars, and it’s not supporting British industry in any way. The leader said the Volvo was lovely, but if we had any British Industry left they’d include that in their decision making next time.

Finally, a policy came up about changing the responsibilities of the Leader & of the Exec HR Member, about their involvement & responsibility for Health & Safety. Everybody assumed it would get passed, but being the pedant I am sometimes, I pointed out that nowhere in the new “roles” does it state a desire or responsibility to reduce the exposure to “Risk” faced by staff/residents/visitors/Cllrs. (This was after it took a while for the Mayor to spot me in my luminous pink shirt as I stood up!). Bob Bibby didn’t understand my argument, but was told by the Council’s Chief Exec that such had been delegated to him.

I could’ve pushed the point that ultimate responsibility cannot be delegated, but the finer points of the interpretation of the H&S at Work Act, 1974 and the subsequent “Management” legislation was probably beyond the care of most Cllrs or public at that time of the night. Everyone voted the changes through, but I rebelled by abstaining!!!!

Nighty night!

D