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

06.17.09

Planners at Bury Council have given approval for state of the art new facilities at Prestwich Arts College, marking the end of a long campaign for improvements to the successful local school.

The Council’s Planning Control Committee voted on Tuesday 16th June to grant planning permission for a new dining room and arts auditorium for the school, which was threatened with closure back in 2005. Commenting on the news, local Lib Dem Councillor Tim Pickstone said “This is great news, not just for the school but for the whole community. Prestwich Arts College is the only high school in Bury without a dining room, and this news is long overdue. We’ve been lobbying the Council for years, and I’m glad they’ve finally seen sense and given Prestwich young people what they need.

Commenting on the new arts auditorium, Cllr Pickstone, who is also a governor of the school, said “This will be a first class facility for a top quality school. But more than that, it will be used as a community facility, bringing better arts provision for the whole of Prestwich. I’m delighted it’s been given the go-ahead.”

The new facilities will be built in the near future. Cllr Pickstone said “We need to listen to the concerns of local residents on Heys Road, Glebelands Road and other nearby streets to ensure that the plans do not adversely affect local residents. When we get the process right, Prestwich Arts College and the whole area will have splendid new facilities.

Recently I’ve been out doing some questionnaires with local residents, to find out the issues and to address them within my powers.

Problems people regularly refer to me include drunks, mad drivers on dangerous roads, a need for more dropped pavements for mobility scooters, and better local transport links.

I’ll be raising these issues with the Council, and trying to address them as quickly as possible.

This morning I went to a “leaver’s mass” at St Monica’s, one of the schools I’m a Governor at. It was a lovely service, and there were lots of parents present, but the most striking thing to me was the appearance of the kids. Some were really scruffy (the effects of too much footy in a school uniform?) and some of the girls were perma-tan orange, with almost white hair. It seemed a far cry from when I left, but that was in 1985, when none of these kids had been born!!!

It reminded me that back then Mr McSweeney (the then Head) demanded really precise elements of school dress, such as top buttons & ties done up, clean shoes and dark socks, but now there is less emphasis upon the image and more upon the internal.

Whilst we got good results back then, the results now seem far better, and the kids can walk around with ties down and shirt tails hanging out, and the girls have skirts above their knees. The point is, first impressions don’t always count, because most of the kids there today were perfectly polite and attentive. So whilst it’s nice to see kids “properly dressed” for school, and it presents a good image to the outside world, we need to remember that they are kids going through experimental stages in their life, and it’s what is on the inside that REALLY counts!

 I must keep reminding myself of that, and stop bein a stuffy old fart!!!

Well done kids - and good luck in the future.

D

So swine flu is here, but is it the big one or are we likely to see a full-on more virulent strain in the autumn, similar to the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic?

I’m happy that we are prepared, but concerned that many do not take it seriously. However, the adverts on the telly of someone sneezing in a lift were too disgusting to watch whilst enjoying my tea last night! Why do they put them on at such times?!?! If it’s not that it’s nappies!

Fortunately I don’t watch much TV, but I think a lot of the population probably watch far too much, with tellies in every room and always on in the background. Is it leading to the UK being a visual state, rather than one whose primary strength was the written word? Will we lose a generation of literate people? I think the text revolution, spellcheckers and TV drama, together with newscasters with speech impediments could be leading us down that route quicker than we can imagine.

I also wonder whether teachers reduce marks for spelling or grammar these days? My wife & I have similar standards of education, and laugh/lament when friends write badly. We were taught that spelling was important - it gave the reader a confidence that you had a reasonable education, and could therefore explain the concept of your topic with ease. When one sees basic spelling errors (rather than obvious typing errors) it demeans the quality of an argument, as you are less likely to respect the author. Maybe I’m just getting old and silly, but it is something I’ve always been aware of.

I was reading the Observer yesterday (didn’t get time to read it on Sunday!) and was reading an article about a headteacher who encourages boys to play more physically than girls at his school. The intention is to wear them out physically, as they have a higher physical energy threshold, and this may make them concentrate better in class. I certainly note that boys’ boredom threshold is lower in class, on the odd occasion I go into one of the schools I’m a Governor at. It makes sense - when I was a lad we certainly ran around much more than the girls, but our academic achievements were not significantly less - was it because of this?

Other interesting topics I read about included the possible re-emerging Balkan problems; the connection between the British & our concept of fairness, and it’s link into politics; Isreal & Gaza bombings which have gone un-reported on the TV news; family activities during a recession; and the continuing debacle of MP’s expenses. More on these to follow, I suspect…

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

So HSBC have dropped in share value again (now about 391p) and have asked for a cash injection of £12.5bn. It could be worse - AIG announced $62bn quarterly losses!

At least HSBC have closed new loans to Beneficial Bank in the US, one of the two terrible purchases they made a couple of years back.

On the local news front, no news is bad news as far as Education in Bury goes. The Tories still haven’t come up with a solution for the Derby/Riverside school debacle, and we’re in real danger of losing Bury’s whole BSF (Building Schools for the Future) funding, worth about £80m amongst all the schools!

On the national news, Vince Cable (VC) has been on telly far more than Nick Clegg (Cleggy) ever manages, and he’s only been covering for him for a few days’ paternity leave. It seems clear that the visual media prefer the smooth oldie to the prep’d yoof! As a LibDem, the answer is simply to make him party spokesperson for most things - that way we get some coverage from them.

I’ve sent some questions to the ATT (Area Tasking Team - the local liaison facility between public, police & council) which meets tomorrow. I want to know about lots of things, particularly:

• What’s being done about the scallies hanging around Nutt Lane in Simister
• What local operational activities are being raised to high profile at present
• How does the policing in Prestwich compare with that in Bury centre

 I don’t expect answers - the usual “operational secrecy” clause is likely to apply, but we can ask. If we fail to get proper answers, we may have to demand it under Freedom of Information (FOI) rules which apply to last years’ activities.

The thing that gets my goat with policing in Bury is that it’s seen as a training ground for promotion. We have guys/gals on the ground who stick with us, and Chiefs at the top who often don’t even manage 12 months before they’re off to new pastures - how can we get any continuity or reliability with that?!?

OK - now onto social matters: This govt. have (in some ways, but clearly not with ID cards; 42 days detention etc.) been ambassadors of personal freedom, unfortunately the actions they’ve taken seems to have led to rocketing divorce rates in certain types of household. A recent study looked at the correlation between Working Families Tax Credit and divorce, and found that low-earners were almost encouraged to split up to increase their incomes! Quoting directly from the BBC’s interview with the professor who conducted the study,

“Prof Francesconi says the move could be linked to extra child care support that single mothers get under the scheme. He says the credit, which was one of Gordon Brown’s flagship policies, may have an “unintended consequence” of encouraging women in poor households to divorce their husbands. ”

Not only do we have high teen-pregnancy rates, which lead to single parent households, we also financially encourage those in partnerships to split! Well done, Labour - another feather in your cap!!!

TV Matters - er well, no…it doesn’t. Who really gives a toss about the early death of a reality TV personality, living their adult life and death through the TV screen? It’s sad that a mother dies when her children are young, it’s a shame that someone who could have given something to the world failed to do so, but as far as I can tell she’s most famous for being racist on screen - wow!

How much of what you see on screen makes any difference to your life? How much is just “filler” in between the fun/sad/exciting bits of your life? The only important things I’ve seen on TV were the twin towers attacks of “9/11″ and the announcement of the death of Princess Di. Both things have changed my environment, and thus my reactions to others.

Many other things have entertained me (films, good programs, even some adverts) but few have changed my world. Try turning it off until there’s something on that you really want to watch, and see how much more full & rewarding your life becomes!

Donal

So it’s all going off now:

We have school governors at Derby saying they don’t want to be shoe-horned into a site in the centre of Radcliffe, but the Council need them to accept to get the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) bid in. That bid applies to lots of schools in the Borough, so the whole thing could go t*ts up because the Tories failed to properly discuss potential changes with Governors! How many times do this Council’s education team have to get things wrong before we start looking at their performance?

Talking of education, how brilliant are St Monica’s? I was at a Governor’s meeting last week, and we had a really frank discussion about all sorts of issues, but the important thing was that although we disagreed, we all had our say, and consensus was reached. If only the Tories running (ruining?) Bury Council could learn from that!

Many of them were at the Mayor’s Charity ball on Saturday night in the Elizabethan Suite at the Town Hall on Saturday night. Many of the ladies were elegant, and the chaps were smart in their monkey suits. However, one Tory got so plastered that he couldn’t read the “no exit” signs on the door 6″ from his nose. To watch him stumbling sideways was hilarious, especially as I was stone cold sober as I gave up the falling-over juice for Lent.

It was interesting to see that I COULD dance without alcohol to loosen my knees! However, the concentration on my face was plain for all to see as I tried not to trip up the missus as we glided across the floor like a swan & a duck-billed platipus (my tongue was hanging out of my mouth as I concentrated, making my lips look bigger!)

I see the reds won the match yesterday, and City lost again. Watching United is like watching Arsenal of the mid-90’s for me. They negate teams, rather than entertain the crowd. I know they do some good stuff, but the majority of most games is so boring, I can’t even be bothered with them. Instead I went to the gym, had a swim outdoors, a steam, a sauna and a jacuzzi, then went to mass at the Servites (when did they stop doing evening mass at St Chad’s?!?!) I wish Salford Catholic diocease would act collectively and ensure that there was sufficient Sunday evening service (we moved to Sat evening about 20 years ago, and it is now more prevalent than Sunday, the alleged “day of rest”!)

Ok - enough about me, back to Council stuff. I see that despite the Tories rejecting our suggestion to build a £300k fund for advice & assistance for residents of this Borough from the Budget, they built a £200k fund to cover their own “Credit Cruch cock-up fund”. Now I see that repossessions in the Borough are up 7% last year, I’m sure that’ll more than double this year. Thanks, Tories!

Something else we need to be aware of is the rising crime wave. Simister is now allegedly prone to scallies who have pickpocketed, after having been previously plagued by car thieves and violent burglars. When will the police actually DO something to make people of that community to feel safer?

Things will only get worse with the Tories’ plans to turn off the street lights at night. That’s bound to make us feel safer, isn’t it?!?! If they chose to do it because it was green, or because it was considered unnecessary to light streets between 2am and 5am, then that would make sense. To turn them off because we can’t afford them is just bloody stupid! This. despite local Sedgley residents highlighting the poor lighting in their area, thanks to your local LibDem team raising the petition at Full Council last week.
Anyone remember the Tories electoral message from a couple of decades back? It went, “Will the last person to leave Britain please turn the lights off?” It looks like that’ll be Cllr Dot Gunther, the Tory Councillor responsible for Economy, Environment & Transport.
Onto good news though - what about the Prestwich Festival? How brilliant is that? It’s something that I and a couple of others have been pushing the rest of the LibDems to get behind for a while, and now Vic D’Albert has taken on the mantle and used his influence as Chair of the Area Partnership to develop the contacts. Keep your diaries clear between mid-May and mid-June, it’s going to be busy here!

Finally, I note that there is proposed to be a review of the pay & remuneration for Chief Executives of Councils. Apparently this has risen significantly above the rate of inflation recently, with no clear correlation between that and any increased job role. So why are we paying them more?

Donal

Well, I’m not saying they’re predictable but Bury Tories set next year’s Council tax at nearly 5% - just what you need in a recession!!!

“Why would they do that?”, you may ask. Because they are cynical and want to buy your votes next year when we have a General Election & Council elections, that’s why! (Any money at virtually any odds that it is set at <2% next year?!?!?)

We proposed sensible amendments, but the Tory leader actually said, AND I QUOTE, “Roads are not a priority”!!! What a numpty! So, just when Gordon Brown suggests we spend our way out of a recession (with public spending to get the construction industry back to work), and we have the worst condition roads in this Borough anyone can remember, the Tories actually said “I’m not listening to you”!!!!

The Tory leader ranted like a child needing his dummy, their finance chap (who’s quite affable but almost squeals with pleasure when he gets into a slanging match, gave a “State of the Union” style address (comparing Bury to the Weimar Republic?!?!) and then their Tory colleagues picked holes in opposition amendments about whether people referred to grey, blue or brown bins!!!

They were silly before, now they are dangerously round-the-twist!

The Tories plan effectively sees worse cash amounts or services for lots of Council services, for a 5% rise in Council Tax. What we get for all that dosh are refurbished bogs in Bury & Radcliffe, and two apprentices being taken on by the Council on wages of £10k each! Whoop-de-bloomin’-do!!!

Worst of all, and most cynically, they said they were putting money aside for the people of Bury in the Credit Crunch, and so our proposal to put £300k into a pot for this was not necessary. When we asked about the specifics of their scheme, it turns out that it’s a fund to protect them if their calculations are wrong, not to help real people!!!

Clearly, the Tories are making policy decisions (turning off street lights; reducing youth service funding by £200k; reducing swimming pool opening hours etc.) not because they are good things to do, and thus are sensible and have gained consensus through the democratic Scrutiny process, but because they couldn’t run a whelk stall!

Yes, the Labour Govt. aren’t going to give a decent cash settlement to a Council run by Tories, but they didn’t give it to us when Labour ran the Council, so that was no surprise!

Mark my words - this Borough will see crime rise, local services evaporate, will have a demoralised staff due to recent pay cuts, and will see our gems (the Planning service, the parks etc.) become worse as a result of this crass budget by the Tories.

What did I do?

I asked about Transport savings for youth, about increased representation for youth in the Borough, about “outreach” services for the youth being retained under a charity provider, and Bob Bibby (Tory leader) floundered, tried to re-interpret his own words of 5 minutes before, culminating by finally admitting that he was “not listening“!

He did however promise, “No cuts in service provision” between now and 2012. Perhaps we can remind him of that next year?

I also questioned the Tories on their promises of improved Social Housing - I’d just been to a meeting which showed the following improvements:

• £ lost from vacant dwellings is going up
• Urgent repairs completed within Govt. timescales is plummeting
• Average time to complete non-urgent repairs is at 30 days, when Govt. guidelines suggest 12 days is reasonable!

This is the kind of good news you can expect to hear from a Tory-controlled Borough. Get used to it, or get rid of the Tories!!

Donal

People speak in wierd tongues these days!

Everybody cuts it down to the bone because to say the full terminology is too laborious, and they expect the audience to always understand. I try to explain any TLA’s (Three Letter Acronyms) at first, then expect readers to pick it up for the next reference to it.

My employers do it, the Council Officers, other politicians, government departments etc. and it is rude to the public who try to find out about this surreal world local politicians live in! However, life is too short to explain everything, so I’ll do it once in myblog post and that’s it for now.

TRA - Tenants & Residents Association

EET - Economy, Environment & Transport Scrutiny committee of the Council

LDF - Local Development Framework - a new planning policy & system that is going through the process of study at present

TCR - Town Centre Regeneration - a sub-committee of the PLAP (see next!) which scrutinises & suggests improvements for the regeneration of Prestwich (formerly DSWG - don’t ask!)

PLAP - Prestwich Local Area Partnership - a 6-weekly public meeting where local Councillors & “partner organisations” of the Council report back to the local electorate (formerly known as “Area Board”)

HIAG - Housing Issues Advisory Group - a meeting of Councillors & concerned residents who scrutinise the performance of our ALMO (see next) Social (formerly Council) Housing provider, Six Towns Housing (a.k.a. 6TH)

ALMO - Arms Length Management Organisation - a system where a “not for profit” third party provide services on behalf of the Council, normally for services that used to be provided by the Council.

FPFP - Friends of Prestwich Forest Park - a group of Councllors, officers & concerned residents & groupd who are all involved in the improvement of the “Forest Park” area (roughly the Irwell Valley part of P/w plus the cloughs etc.)

So now you know!

Donal