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

A letter to the Planning Committee of Manchester Council, considering the Goals Soccer Zone application:

Sir,

Please register my comments as a formal objection to this proposal, and forward on to ALL members of your Planning Committee, please.

Whilst I am not against the development of a sports facility (I would normally welcome such), the location and layout are incompatible with the surrounding area. My main objections are as follows:

• Proximity to neighbouring dwellings is too close for this type of activity
• Noise & light pollution to neighbours
• Increase in demands placed upon adjacent roads will be excessive at peak times (despite the opinions of Highways Officers!)
• Detriment to the visual amenity, due to the introduction of fencing, new buildings and artificial playing surfaces (recent improvements to perimeter wall should be enjoyed by all from both sides)

There was a lot more in the letter, but don’t want to bore you!

D

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!

Yes - but let’s face reality, it’s going to be quite a while before it happens!

There are strips of land that need to be bought & sold, there is “waste” ground that is being used as a “ransom strip” by certain parties, and there is (rather importantly) a proper design to be brought to fruition. Oh yes - the developers need some prospective tenants, which include an supermarket and a hotel. I suspect they have interest from many parties in all areas, but it is “firming up” into a contractually-binding agreement that probably needs to be done next.

In the meantime I’ve been working on the following:

• Irwell River Valley Trust - working with a local company to keep an eye on flora, fauna & rivers in the locality. Not much done yet, but promoting it is next big thing.
• Planning outcomes tour - A day looking at decisions of Planning, and how the design actually turned out. I was unable to attend this due to work commitments, but have seen most of the buildings and am fairly happy that we’re doing a reasonable job, as far as we can with the laws as they are.
• Parking Issues in Prestwich - discussing with Riddell TPS & Council Officers on how we progress the muddle in the loading bays around the Longfield. We have a resolution, and a press release will be out very shortly. It basically means that it is owned by HMG under lease from the Council, so they have a right to protect the loading bays from people who park there when not unloading.
• LibDem Council Group - a meeting to discuss how Full Council went, what we’re all up to individually, and what we do next to spoil the Labour-Tory love-in that seems to be prevalent at the moment. The usual scenario is that we propose something innovative, Labour & Tories both wish they’d had the brains to do it, so “amend” it slightly, then they vote together to overrule our original motion. They fail to see that WE are the ones making things happen - it’s great!
• Tonight is Area Partnership. Doubtless there will be some whingeing about the Longfield regeneration program from parts of the public that I’ll have to deal with, otherwise a fairly mundane affair I expect.
• I’ve commissioned a picture (bought by my mum & dad) for my 40th birthday (in June) by well-known local artist Peter Roughan. He’s done a pencil mock-up, and will now be getting on with the real thing. It’s not expensive, and it’s something he really enjoys, so we both win!
• Dealing with local police on a criminal matter to which I was a witness. Can’t say more for now!
• Housing Issues Advisory Group - dealing with performance management of Six Town Housing & the Council’s Strategic Housing Unit. More good figures from my neighbour - well done Sam!
• Sorting planning issues in St Mary’s for local residents & the Council.
• Went to a “Terrorism Awareness” course run by GMP, both as a Councillor & in connection with my full-time job.
• Went to see how a decent Housing Association elsewhere deals with housing management issues - Six Town Housing seem to have a long way to go!
• Played 5-a-side twice a week recently.
• Refereed adult football - a 4-3 classic!
• Read the notes to minutes of lots of meetings, and made comments to appropriate persons to interject on issues I have concerns, but which I’m not directly responsible for.
• Dealt with lots of “grumbles” from residents, usually about bins, rats, dog dirt etc.
• Got to a meeting late (of which I was Chair!) due to full-time work commitments all about Highways and how we manage them. It raised more questions than it answered, and I’ve emailed lots of follow-up questions as a result.
• Attended Full Council and brought a motion on sport, hosting an olympic nation and getting a mini-olympics for the kids, to get the “lasting legacy” that Labour said they’d give us as a reslt of the 2012 Olympics.
• Held down a full time job, got another brilliant job, had a bit of home life, played some sport, saw the family, and lots more besides! Want something doing? Give it a busy person!

And so we looked at Prestwich once more…

And what we saw was a little disappointing. Dirt, grime, but the same flags from China, just not looking so elegant. The water feature was not as good as the one in China, and our shopping centre needed the lights on permanently - it was so dark!

So we once again resolved to improve things, whatever it took. Despite Tesco helping to delay the proposal by 6 months, we knew P/w NEEDED revival.

Vic D’Albert commissioned a Festival to brighten us up; Rick Baum & I campaigned on cleaning the centre; I continued as Chair of the TCR; we all continued on the push to make it better. We Love Prestwich, and want everyone else to “Love Prestwich”.

Here we see some designs I snapped on a trip to China. What do you think of them? Would you like to live somewhere like this?

Look at the pictures of old Beijing with new Beijing, starkly contrasted on either side if the “Bund”. Do the old buildings look more solid, more imposing, if a little less tall?

Is the bin a bit  of smart but simple design? Is the waterfall more in line with what we should have got in Prestwich?

These thoughts were whizzing though my head when I was travelling around - even thousands of miles away I was obsessed with how good we could make my home town look!

You’d think so, if you saw the neglect that the Council allows to go on in this town! We are a “Gateway” to the Borough, and should be lavished with care & commitment, instead the Council allows the place to go to ruin. Just look at some of the evidence I found last night on a 30-min drive around:

So this is what the Tories give you for a 4.9% Council Tax rise - imagine what you’ll get from them next year when they give away a 0% Council Tax to try to bribe the electorate at the polls!

I have reported these issues to the Council for immediate reparation. I suggest you do the same if you see such neglect, or call me and I’ll bark at them ask for their assistance!

Incidentally, when you call, make sure you get a job/complaint reference number and the name/time of the person you spoke to, some issues to get lost!

Donal

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!

I’ve had a few busy weeks with work, Council meetings, wrapping up some council matters before the end of the Council Year, and also going on hols to Cyprus - very nice!

On my return I attended a Conservation Area meeting last night, discussing the next actions for St Mary’s Flower Park; Prestwich Clough; Shrewsbury Rd/Eagles Nest Wood; Shrewsbury House protection from vandals. On my return home I noted water on the road outside Shrewsbury House, and thought it’d had a visit from the fire brigade. I went to investigate this morning, and sure enough, a fire has been lit in it, and a huge hole in the wall has been made. This now makes the whole building very dangerous, and extremely susceptible to further arson and/or collapse. Typical, a fire in the week I’m not there!

That was drafted last week - my computer died and I’ve been out ever since!

It’s now 30/4 and tonight is EET Scrutiny. I will be presenting our sub-group report on “Highways”, where we’ll recomend the council adopts:

• A new policy on pavement replacement
• Trials of 20mph zones
• Local Transport Asset Management Program (ie value of our roads)
• speed restriction stuff in rural areas (especially following the horrible crash in Affetside last weekend)

The other sub-groups are presenting their reports, and there is stuff missed off the last meeting (tourism, waste management) together with the big one - the policy on Street Light switch-off.

The report is “insubstantial” to say the least - it should be fun watching them try to get this through!!!

Watch out for the flyers we’re delivering on the Clough Day, and the fantastic Prestwich Festival (you never got that from Labour Councillors in Prestwich, did you?!?) that is coming during May/June. Make sure you attend some events, next year there’ll be even more going on!

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

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

Highways Sub-Committee - we discussed the following:

Rural Issues - how to improve dangerous highways, silly drivers etc. in Ainsworth, Hawkshaw & Affetside. Some points seemed wrong, but most were reasonable & well argued by members of the public that we met on our tour, the previous Friday afternoon. Our Highways engineers are to consider possible options & give these to us at next meeting.

Pavement Replacement Policy - We agreed in principle the arguments for replacing flags with tarmac in future. Conservation areas will get special consideration. I am to get the final drafts of the proposals from officers and put these forward to full EET Scrutiny Commission at next meeting for approval to go to Exec. (where it will then become policy if agreed).

Streetscape presentation by officers about the pros & cons of reducing street furniture when making new highways or revising existing ones. To be done effectively it costs a lot, and the jury is still out on how effective it is, both in engineering/accident terms, and aesthetically. No proposal was suggested - I have asked officers to explain if we as a Council are going to adopt this formula in future - awaiting an answer.

Croft Lane - we discussed the pre- and post-surveys that should have been undertaken. The funding was not provided by the Council to do the pre-study (Tories said “no” even in a Tory ward - things must be bad!), so what’s the point of a post-alteration study? Officers are to come back with a justification, costings, and benefit analysis for next meeting. And so it drags on…..

20mph Zones - The Officers still have not come up with suggested zones for study. This despite the issue being raised at every meeting since September!!! LibDems have suggested some options, and Officers will report back prior to next meeting with their opinions, a plan and anything else necessary to get on with it!

Local Transport Plans - The Officers mentioned at previous meeting about central Govt dropping some important BVPI’s (Best Value Performance Indicators) from the regional plans. We asked what these were 2 meetings ago, but still don’t have answers - Officers are to get back to us with that too.

Winter Maintenance - Officers explained that winter doesn’t finish for them until April, so the report won’t be ready in this Council year. I have therefore asked them to provide the previous year’s report, so we can analyse the positive & negative matters, and what Council did differently in 2008/9 as a result.

Other matters raised -

I noted the road width was insufficient outsied Metro Cafe at Blackford Bridge northbound, and asked that this be investigated (it changed when they repainted the lines 2-3 years ago).

We asked for a report about gritting to be ready prior to next meeting.

I asked about the road width & parking matters at top of Rectory Lane, when was work to commence? Officers will get back to me.

I asked about mini-roundabouts (sense, choice of location, block paving cut-outs etc.) and told officers about poor state of Heywood Rd/Rectory Lane one. They’ll investigate & repair if appropriate.

The meeting started at 5pm and ended at 7pm. The Officer taking minutes had a stinking cold & sat next to me, but did a sterling job and didn’t pass the cold onto me - yeah!

It sounds like I’m having a whinge about Officers in the way I describe things above, and whilst I am a bit, I also recognise the really good work they do with bugger-all resources. When they do well I praise them personally & to their bosses. When they do badly I whinge & sometimes publicly push for more resources. Hopefully, none are reading this but are busy on the reports for next meeting - if you are reading this - get back to work!

So now you know why I don’t report the details of every meeting!!!

Donal

What does?

1. Hairs in my food
2. My cat catching squirrels all the time
3. The Tories in Bury being such control-freaks that they’ve even rearranged the mayoral ceremony so we/Labour don’t vote down their agenda tomorrow
4. The amount of self-interest & egotism in ALL politics and most politicians
5. The amount we spend on “defence” in Iraq, but we don’t have enough for proper flood defence at home
6. The fact that most things in the UK get ignored first time; done wrong second time; and re-done almost correctly at the third attempt!
7. Most people’s ignorance of their own governance arrangements & democratic forums

Distant Lands:

 I am appalled at the situation in China, and also the recent cyclone damage in Burma. The difference of attitude of the news agencies to such similar terrible natural events, and the relationship of the respective governments is surely no coincidence?

We/the US don’t like Burma’s “junta” - so they must be handling things badly. China is a very powerful nation, due to hold the Olympics this year, and they appear to be doing everything possible to save lives. Hmmmmm!

Local Stuff: 

On a local note, the planning “Local Development Framework” is now at stage 2. Bury Council are setting out their plans for development for the forthcoming few years, so your views are important - READ IT & COMMENT ON IT NOW! I will!!!

There is significant change to local parkland going on at the moment. Did you see the proposals from the Forestry Commission for Irwell Valley? It was on display at the local Clough Day - why weren’t you there? It was brilliant! Come along next year and show that WE ALL LOVE PRESTWICH!

This should be a fairly quiet time as a Cllr, but casework keeps coming (especially as a result of canvassing) and there are big decisions to be made:

• What Scrutiny Commissions to be on next year
• What other Council groups to be involved with
• Group decisions on how “politically vocal” to be next year

 These are behind-closed-doors discussions, so ’nuff said for now - more to follow soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on the following:

• Securing the gates to St Mary’s park & requesting an internal barrier to prevent dogs/kids going straight onto the main road, following the alterations to the lights outside the gates (top of St Annes Rd)
• Enquiring about the double yellow lines on Bury New Rd outside said park
• Reporting asbestos fly tipping (how mad can people be?!?!) - with thanks to the public for that
• Thanking our helpers individually, for stakeboards & posters, delivering leaflets etc.
• Chasing up the closure of Prestwich cash office - who/why/where/when was the decision made?
• Considering road improvement schemes for 2008/9
• Chasing up outstanding work (e.g. the partially painted M60 J17 roundabout)

On the subject of that roundabout - some numpties still can’t follow the coloured lines, so I’ve asked for much better signage coming south from Whitefield.

Also been doing loads of my own stuff:

• Sorting cars out (tax/insurance/servicing etc.)
• Gardening/weeding
• Seeing family/friends
• My will & funeral arrangements (Really! - No wonder I’m a bit grumpy at the moment!)
• Refereeing
• Playing football & going to the gym
• Walking the Pennine hills, whilst my wife & her friends did the same route on horseback
• Oh yes, and a full time job, too!!!!

The St Mary’s Focus Team heard back form a local resident last night who was very pleased to discover that a missing bollard had been replaced, after intervention from our election candidate Mary D’Albert.

We heard last week that the bollard had been removed from the edge of Prestwich Clough during recent fencing works, and the people involved had not replaced it. This had led to illegal motorbiking activity in the area, because the bollard which had been installed to stop it had now been removed. Mary and the team got onto it and now the bollard is back.

During canvassing last night, we picked up a bit more casework too, so this morning our election candidate Mary has been chasing that up as well. One elderly lady was concerned that she wouldn’t be able to manage bringing her blue bin down her drive way, so we have asked that a refuse collector assists her with this, similar to the arrangement already in place for her grey bin. The lady was delighted to see local Lib Dems again, because we got the street light outside her house fixed a few weeks ago after a call to the team.

We have also heard from the Friends of St Mary’s Park, who contacted the team to talk about plans for a flower bed in the park. The group is one of a number of small community interest groups that Mary D’Albert and the team regularly attend and try to help. The Friends of the park have the plants, but not the time to plant them, so we are trying to work with the Council to get the flower bed planted by the time of the next Prestwich Clough Day, which will be in a few weeks. Lots of local people were delighted to hear that the future of this excellent community event has been secured for at least the next two years thanks to a grant of over £2,000 from the Lib Dem controlled Prestwich Local Area Partnership.

Prestwich Lib Dems will be back out on the campaign trail tonight, and we look forward to meeting more local people. If you see us, do stop and say hello, and let us know if we can help with anything.

Getting into the groove of this free thinking stuff now!

In days of yore, and on programs like “Last of the Summer Wine” you always see residents sweeping gutters outside t’house. What about Neighbourhood Watch groups organising occasional sweep-ups for an hour on a particular day? (rather than the TRA mass clean-ups we occasionally help with).

What about blood donors coming to council premises to do lunch-time collections from staff (will I be accused of squeezing the life-blood from our employees?!?)

I’ve been speaking to the Fire Brigade about talks on Fire Safety to the business community, given their recently revised (and confusing) strategy on commercial/industrial  fire alarms that connect to central stations. Hope to have that one up & running shortly…

What about a specific software system for managing health & safety within the Council? one that will highlight outstanding actions, so that work like un-finished pavements etc. get addressed without being left half-dug forever (yes - I’ve reported the one at the bottom of Sandy Lane!)

What about prizes for staff who provide innovations that save the Council money? We could base the prize by categories of amount saved per annum. We could include local schools or community groups in competitions, or widen it to the whole Borough?

How about insisting that all new building developments are not accepted without travel planning provision in place, for example with segregation of pedestrians & cycle routes away from roads, as you often see  in western Europe?

What about a Council website with a plan of the Borough, highlighting all public rights of way, bridleways, proposed developments etc. (I asked for this one a year ago!) You could put a search icon onto it, so you could plan your round route, a bit like walkjogrun.net?

Why not have Borough guides, with walks/day trips on the history & architecture of the Borough, assisted by heritage societies and highlighted to sports & social groups?

Blimey! I’m worn out now, with all this thinking….better go for a lie down!

Donal

I don’t often speculate on local environmental policy, but it’s good to wake early on a Saturday morning, and clean the cobwebs from you mind with a bit of free thinking.

Last night I was pretty healthy, by going to the gym after work, then to the theatre (forget the burger for tea because there was no time for anything else!) to see a double-bill of Alan Bennett plays at the Lowry in Salford. It made me realise that free thought can lead to creativity, and creativity can be thought-provoking, as the plays were (they were about Burgess & McLean - spies from the Cambridge spy ring in ’30s England).

So what could we do locally to improve energy conservation? I know the Council has an energy showhouse somewhere, but I’ve never seen it or heard much about it (I was invited once, but couldn’t go because of work commitments).

What about office-businesses appointing “energy watch-person” to identify simple savings in businesses in the Borough? (lights off at night; VDU screens off - not on standby; consider cost-benefit analysis of capturing sun & wind energy etc.?)

Council providing energy conservation officers as a free service to home-owners? Listing all available grants to tenants & residents associations, then moving onto homewatch groups, then individual residents? Presenting at Area Partnerships with ideas & cost-effective solutions?

Countryside Rangers reviewing all their tools (petrol & diesel machines) to check they are serviced to optimum levels, reducing waste?

The Council to set up an energy-watcher in each department, looking at transport arrangements; energy bills; changing to long-life bulbs; low energy requirement equipment; glazing & insulation in all their properties etc?

If we employed or trained staff internally on this, we should be able to reap back the financial (and feel-good) rewards in a short space of time. Even the charging of mobile phones, hand-drying equipment in toilets and curtains/blinds etc. could come into the equation!

I won’t post this mail until I’ve checked with Council Officers (other parties are likely to nick my ideas!) but it sounds like a winner to me!

I drive a lot of miles for my work, and I have an LPG-powered car to do it in. I bought the car and had it converted myself. The benefits are tremendous, and as long as it is well-maintained then it should give me a decent life-span at cost-effective motoring. This, together with ensuring service intervals are maintained, tyres are properly inflated, and using natural ventilation most of the time rather than air-con is part of my contribution to reducing my carbon footprint.

I admit there’s lots more I can do, and given a little time & some impetus I will do them. For now, however, I am reasonably content that I have made a start.

 Donal

Just been churning over in my head about what’s happened in the last few years, since we started getting rid of Labour Councillors in this area:

We consulted in depth about people’s wishes on “The Retreat”, and although we didn’t get exactly what we wanted, people were engaged, whether they had access to a computer or not.

We now have a “Developing Communities” group, working out the most effective ways to spend the little money we are given to maximise benefit to the people of Prestwich.

We have the Town Centre Regeneration Group, enhancing links between the people of Prestwich and the framework being developed to improve the area.

We really do speak to those who are interested in improving all aspects of Prestwich, and act upon the comments we hear back.

The one telling comment from last night’s Regeneration meeting (and I heard it several times from different people) was that the Councillors from Whitefield, Radcliffe & further north, really had NO IDEA how disastrous the “Radius” development would be. They thought it would be the catalyst for change, and it is just a “blot on the landscape” and has set us back, not forward.

What do people say to me about the Radius: 

The problem with the Radius is that it is totally out of keeping with the area. The problem is that the landlord can’t or won’t let the shops. The problem is that it blocks out the light to prevent greenery to grow in our town centre. The problem is that it perpetuates the “wind tunnel effect” (between the Library & the shops) that is so scary to the elderly. The problem is that it provides a free skate park for the kids, which annoys the hell out of the residents in the flats above. The problem is that it sits at the centre of a piece of land that needs regeneration, and any residents in the flats above can look forward to 5 years of building work & dust & dirt going on around their homes. The problem is that there are too few parking spaces. The problem is that the flats were mostly sold to the “buy to let” market, so there’s no permanent residents and no stability or neighbourliness.

So, given such comments, what should we do with it? Knock it down again? Make the most of a bad job? Complain to the developers?

The reality is, financially & legally, it would be difficult to knock it down. We’ll have to develop things around it that try to stop it looking such an eyesore, that detract your eyes away from it. Let’s hope that  the workshop last night will help to resolve the problem that is the “Radius”! If we continue to work with the people of Prestwich in the way that Labour forgot to do for so long, then the people of Prestwich will get what they want & deserve, which in my terms is, “The best, not just ‘better’!!”

Donal

Last night  I attended the Town Centre Regeneration Meeting hosted by Urbed. Cllr Vic D’Albert (Chair of the local Area Partnership) welcomed everyone, and then David Rudlan (from Urbed, the Council’s appointed consultants) began the round-table “visioning” exercises for the people present, of whom there appeared to be about 130.

It was fantastic to see so many people so animated, active, and working together to come up with a viable future for Prestwich Town Centre!

Urbed provided a Consultant for each table, to keep us all focussed, and by ‘eck, did we need it! Our table was brilliant, made up of a real mix of ages, backgrounds and experiences. Some remembered the past fondly, some wanted us to be like a new European city, some wanted a mix, and all wanted the heritage buildings to be more focal points.

I get to have my say in this town quite a lot, so I deliberately kept in the background a bit, letting everyone else get their say. It was fascinating and heartening to see so many being so passionate about our home town, or the place we work. Brilliant!

Unfortunately, I had to leave at 7pm to go to a Tenants & Residents meeting in Rainsough, primarily about the development of the shops on Chapel Rd. The Council had undertaken a study to find out what the residents wanted the units to be used for. The survey came back strongly in favour of shops, but about half the people present on the night either wanted the shops to be bricked up, or knocked down completely!

The Chairman was left in a difficult position, as people started shouting without waiting for the Chair to invite them to speak, and then when he tried to get the meeting progressed, he was accused of being rude.

When asked about the leaflets going around, I was not given an opportunity to explain that Salford Councillor, Peter Connor, had shamefully used his position for political benefit: When Labour had 3 Councillors in St Mary’s, none of them had contacted Salford Councillors to work with them on improving Rainsough estate. Richard Baum, a newly elected LibDem in Prestwich contacted Mr Connor (should that be “con-er”?) in 2007, to find out what the position was about the shops, and whether we (Bury & Salford Councils)could jointly develop them for the residents’ benefit. Mr Connor then refused to take any more of Richard’s calls, and would not return  calls. He contacted Maggie Gibb, the last remaining Labour Councillor in Prestwich, and went on a photo shoot to show his commitment to the cause! Shame on both their heads!

Back to the TRA Meeting:

The Chair closed the meeting in some disarray, and explained that the next meeting was for the election of Officers to the TRA, and he would not be standing for re-election. This is a shame, because the TRA needs a strong character as Chair to keep control in the meetings, but hopefully they’ll elect a worthy successor.

I returned to the Urbed workshop about 8.15, just as some tables were finishing. My table were still working away, but it seemed that an impasse had occured on the “new or old” question. A mild consensus was agreed, but none of the participants seemed too happy with the final results.

After the event, a couple of the chaps from the table told me about some “Linux” software, that enables input from all sources on an “open access” platform. They explained how it could work on this project, and were interested in showing it to Council Officers to get it moving - sounds good to me! One of them already works with the Council IT bosses on telephony equipment, so it may be easier to get it trialled.

I’m all for “open Government”, and as I implied in the paper last week, I trust the people of Prestwich to come up with great ideas, and firmly welcome all input. Let’s “Go For It”, as was so famously said by that post-punk band, SLF.

Onwards and upwards….

Donal

Town Centre Regeneration (TCR) - what’s it all about?

TCR is a sub-committee of the Local Area Partnership (formerly Area Board) that tries to help the regeneration of Prestwich. I’m the Chair, and other Prestwich Councillors, Council Officers & interested third parties (businesses; residents etc.) are co-opted in to provide specialist knowledge & support.

We held a meeting on Wednesday at the Library, where Urbed (the consultants we’ve engaged to undertake a professional study of Prestwich’s “wants & needs”) presented their preliminary findings. It was very good, and promises to be a sound springboard for positive future change.

A group of Prestwich residents, many with relevant professional experience, also presented their vision of what Prestwich should aspire to, and this mostly concurs with the Urbed study. As a result, representatives of the group have been co-opted onto the TCR, to use their professional experience to ensure Urbed get the right questions asked.

After the presentations, a Q&A session was held, where Urbed & the residents’ group were quizzed on specific points, especially relating to the conflict of Bury New Road (BNR) traffic & pedestrians; delivery of plans into real development; how Bury Old Road can help shape the vision for the Town Centre and alleviate the problems of BNR; the outcome if a recession occurs; and the inter-relationship Prestwich will have with the promised “Irwell Valley Urban Park”.

Excellent questions, and some good answers, although it’s fair to say that the study is ongoing, and thus not all the answers have been developed into achievable plans yet.

The next steps are:

• A presentation to Prestwich Local Area Partnership on 3/4/08 (come along & see it!)
• A “Visioning” workshop to interested representatives of specific groups at the Logfield centre on 13/3/08
• A link through the Bury Council website to the Urbed website, keeping us all up-to-date on the work Urbed are doing (I’ll probably put a link from this one too, when I know how)
• Postcards to nearby neighbours of the Town Centre, asking for their views

So, whilst we don’t have a fantastic town centre just yet, the first steps in making change happen have been taken! (And don’t forget, this all happened when LibDems got elected in Prestwich, but for the decade before when we had a Labour-controlled Area Board, all we got was a broken water feature!!) Hmmm……

Prior to the meeting, we held meetings with Traffic/Engineering Officers from the Council, regarding Highfield Road & Whittaker Lane parking arrangements. I’m glad to announce that as a result, a study will be commissioned to review a “Residents Only” parking scheme on Highfield Rd (the initial stages of which will not take long, but the implentation of which could take much longer!); and that Officers are studying the possibility of a “Private Management Agreement” for a car park behind the Chemists, as well as supplying additional parking signs & marked bays.

So a very progressive couple of meetings, but blimey, it took us a long time and an awful lot of meetings to get to this point!!!

Next job is to draft a couple of important letters on specific issues, and deliver gazillions of leaflets (both personally & to our distributors) over the weekend. Anybody want to deliver some for us?

Cheers,

Donal

Okay,

I have a list of things to achieve by the end of today, so I’ve got to get started early.

Shed has been delivered & erected already this morning (by 8.15am)

Contractor coming to work on the house this morning. (Meeting with Town Centre Re-generation Consultants dependant upon this)

List of complaints to get into the Council, on behalf of Constituents:

•  
  • Fly tipping - 2 areas
  • Planning enforcement matter to chase up
  • Road improvements
  • Overhanging trees problems
  • Bus routes requiring gritting

Oh yes, I also have the small matter of some normal work (8 hours) to pay for the roof over my head and the vast heating bills, due to the increase in energy prices and the cold weather! Happy days!

A local resident contacted Lib Dem Councillors earlier this week to report that some litter had been in Carr Clough since bonfire night. Despite his frequent attempts to get the Council to take action, they had done nothing, so he came to local Lib Dem Councillors to see if they could help tackle the mess.

After calls were made to the Council’s Environmental Services Department by the St Mary’s Lib Dem Focus Team, the litter has now been removed.

It is a shame that local residents can’t get the Council to act to clean up this type of mess. Local Lib Dems will carry on working to try to get the Council to react quicker and more efficiently to local concerns like this, and find it unacceptable that residents’ concerns are so frequently ignored without Councillors getting involved. But  we are more than happy to assist and to try and get these types of litter problems cleaned up across the ward.