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

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!

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

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.

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

Last night was the meeting of the EET Scrutiny Commission (Economy, Environment & Transport). The idea is to review proposals put forward by Officers or Exec. Members, and make improvements before sending them to Exec. for adoption as policy. Many of the proposals come from sub-groups on specific issues (Transport, Planning, Litter etc.)

A proposal came forward about tourism. We had a presentation on the methods used to calculate the impact of tourism, which many Councillors found flawed (data seemed to be “guesswork” and was derivative from other stats).

We then had a presentation about what we get as a “Slipstream” of the “Visit Manchester” brand that we pay into. This was vague & woolly, with no hard evidence of value for money whatsoever. Clearly, the City of Manchester benefits, but the type of visitors attracted to Bury are unlikely to come from Vegas, and are more likely to visit from Burnley, we suggested?

The answer from Officers was that it was “intangible”. We said that in that case, you can’t have any money from Bury until you produce “tangible” evidence! This took 2 hours with presentations & questions. Officers will return to the extra meeting on 30/4 to argue their case once more.

Other parts of the tourism issue were that:

1. We only budget for 1 staff member for tourism, and that this is scrounged from savings in other budgets. I made a stong case that if we have 5-year tourism plans, we can’t have an employee waiting from year-to-year to see if she’s still employed!
2. We have a separate budget for minor tourism matters (day trips to the Borough, effectively)
3. That the Council Member responsible for tourism be identified, and a Councillor become responsible for the full tourism remit, who then responds to the Exec. Member for EET (who is currently responsible - but the job is far too big for one person!)

These decisions were postponed to next meeting where the whole issue of tourism can be resolved in one fell swoop.

Next agenda item was “Affordable Housing”. The difference in report style was refreshing to say the least, and we all got through it quickly.

Basically, we agreed some changes to policy, although the decision appeared strangely “political” in showing support for Cllr. Gartside’s point of view (especially with one Cllr raising his hand in support very late in the day!)

We then moved onto the right of the Council to buy back houses sold by them. Again, the report was clear and I must congratulate Cllr Ian Gartside & Caroline Wolfenden for a clear & concise report. It makes a nice change! Arguments for & against were addrssed, and we agreed to recommend the proposal to Executive for adoption as policy.

The time was now 9.55pm, so rather than rush the issues of bulky waste tenders & the final reports back from sub-groups (Litter, Local Development Framework, Highways, Environment etc.) we decided to review these, together with the street light switch off issue, at the next meeting on 30/4. You may wish to come along to see if the Tories “railroad” their emergency budget gap-filler policy (switch off street lights) or whether the strong Chairman, Cllr. David Higgin, makes sure the issue is properly scrutinized. (I trust David most of the time, and I expect he’ll ensure we do a good job of scrutiny, but I bet there’s a full house of Tories present on the 30th, just in case things appear to be going awry for them!)

Time for some work that really pays the bills now!

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

And here we are - Full Council with the budget on the agenda.

The Tories will probably put a big Council tax rise on, blaming Labour’s mis-handling of the economy (but really just so they can put a small or 0% rise in next year, to buy the voters!)

Labour will offer some madness alternative that could have been much better if they’d made a serious offer.

We will be sensible and  - hmmm…no, I’ll let the papers tell you tomorrow or Thursday!

Something that’s been bugging me recently has been the green areas of the Borough (especially Prestwich) and noting how badly planned & resourced they are. When I want to get away from everything, I take a walk or bike ride or run in the Irwell Valley. We are handing a large chunk over to the Forestry Commission, and I’m not sure we’ve set targets for them to achieve, so we can measure what they deliver.

The consultation over their plans have been poor, and they’ve failed to fulfil their promises to engage with locals (perhaps they’re just Tories!!!?) I’ve asked officers for updates on cycling; bridleways & pedestrian pathways, and will report back when I get news.

Other work I’ve been up to is reporting potholes; poor pavements & dog fouling; the steps on South Row in Rainsough must be considered dangerous, but still the Tory Council fail to fix them.

The local youth will be voting shortly in their elections for Youth Parliament and there are loads of contenders, but almost all of them have one (or both) of two key themes - public transport costs & under/misrepresentation. The question is, how effectivereally IS the YP - if it’s as ineffective as a Tory Local Council, then heaven help us!

To all those Christians out there, I hope you had a pleasant shrove Tuesday. I didn’t have pancakes, but I have made a Lentern vow and will try to get my ashes tomorrow. It’ll be difficult - I have a full day of work and a full night of Council work, but maybe the Tories will ignore democracy and cut the debate short as usual?

You’ll notice I’ve finally added links to more other Cllrs (see the left column), and I’ll slowly be learning how to do other stuff soon. Keep watching to see more…

Donal

I doooonn’t belieeeeve it!

This week I’ve been Chair of Highways sub-committee of the EET (Economy, Environment & Transport) Scrutiny Commission - Monday; Top Chef of a delicious chicken casserole - Tuesday; Representing people & the Council on Friends of Prestwich Forest Park - Wednesday; LibDem rep. on LDF (Local Development Framework) sub-committee of the EET (see previous!) - Thursday; A prize striker at 5-a-side - Friday.

During daytime I have been shopping before work; worked 5 x 8 hours (min) including some travel around the North West; done housekeeper things like dishwashers, bins, vacuuming & washing. Other tasks involve speaking to contractors, relatives, pay bills and consider holday options & arrangements.

I’ve probably done about 200 emails for LibDem stuff; 200 for Council stuff; about 400 for work and read replies to them all. I have raised questions resulting from meetings, having previously read the previous minutes, forthcoming agenda and detailed reports, and have been pleasant to just about everyone, apart from my lovely wife (once, for which I apologised and made nice food to make up) and once to a Council Officer who I jokingly referred to as nearly as old as me (when clearly she is young and vivacious, unlike me! I also apologised to her!)

Last weekend I went to a smashing house party, where I stayed up too late and drank too much, but at 2.30am talking to like-minded souls with similar levels of inebriation, I was quite happy. I spent Sunday regretting it - but took in the air of Heaton Park, and noticed how bare it looks now that the re-shaping has been done. At least the garden centre has re-opened, there’s not much there yet, but I hope it will be well-supported by the people of the area - it used to be really lovely!

The things that concern me at present include:

• The autocratic Tories of Bury - not content with winding up the employees, they will not allow sensible comment, let alone criticism.
• The forthcoming Council Budget - the Tories are going to screw the services we as a Council provide (or are supposed to!), just so they can appear to give a lower Council Tax increase - pathetic!
• Graffiti - What plonkers think it’s fun to scrawl illegible rubbish on every flat surface on every street? The people of the area are getting mighty annoyed!!! I heard one “artist” was covered in his own paint by a passing resident - good on yer!
• Delays to TCR (Town Centre Regeneration) of Prestwich. I wish we could just get started on it! Unfortunately our legal advice is to recalculate some figures and re-present it. Ah well!

And what gives me joy right now?

• People saying that politicians should show contrition & remorse, and actually apologise when they screw up - why wouldn’t you?
• The first buds of spring that I see
• Finishing work at 4,30 on a Friday so I can catch up with my blog!

I’ll tell you more of what I’ve been up to, with some proper detail of what it means for you in next bulletin (hopefully later tonight or tomorrow). I have some new techie stuff to learn, putting whizz-bang things on my blog, so keep tuning in.

 Donal

OK - I’ve been a bad lad in not updating my blog - sorry! Done it a lot in the last quarter, probably had something else on:

I have been up to my eyeballs in work (the stuff that pays the bills in another Labour recession) and in the evenings working as a Councillor for St Mary’s people. I have been studying, I’ve been to China, Scotland, London and France with work, and have still managed to buy a new car, change utility providers, go to the pub with friends, and do all the normal stuff that we real people do!

The year has been a rollercoaster, with Brown’s recession; Cameron’s inaction; Cleggy’s freshness (and lack of national coverage); Donal’s mad year at work; And everyone wondering what would come next?

The Council world has been a bit silly too: Tories have tried to silence any real opposition (unfair but mostly successful); Labour have continued their decline into immaterial silliness; and we’ve been better than most other years with effective ideas, proposals, and closing doors to alternatives, so that the leadership & Labour had to follow our lead.

We all defeated the Congestion Charge, now that was a kick in the thingies for Brown!

I helped out in some local elections well away from my patch, in the bargain I learnt more about canvassing and had some fun.

The people of Prestwich showed Bury Council that we were the most vociferous and intelligent people of the Borough, with the biggest contribution to a consultation for longer than anyone can recall! Brilliant!!

Thanks to the LibDems and the people of Preswich we now have a chance to shape our own future - it won’t be what everyone wants, but hopefully it will be an amalgam of what we all want.

And what do I want for 2009?

Well, watching the news today, I need to see Israel try to find a peace settlement with it’s neighbours; I want to see the disintegration of the Frist Past the Post electoral system; and I want us all to regain the neighbourliness that we enjoyed in the 70’s and before.

Enough of the tripling though - what is my list of wants and my list of “will do” for 2009? (They’re similar, so why bother having two lists!?)

1. Widen the LibDem message (from my true Liberal roots)
2. Go out more - get away from politics and enjoy real life!
3. Defeat both the opposition parties somewhere, somehow.
4. Do something distinguishing, maybe for my birthday?

What do you think?

Donal

A STATEMENT FROM BURY LIBERAL DEMOCRATS  

This statement follows the Full Council meeting of Wednesday, 10^th September. It also follows on from a number of informal discussions Lib Dem Councillors have had with Council staff, Union officials and Officers since the results of the review were announced.  

• Bury Liberal Democrat Council Group remain fully committed to ensuring a full, open and transparent continuation of the Job Evaluation / Equal Pay issue currently affecting Council staff.

• Bury Liberal Democrats are increasingly concerned that so many issues are outstanding, seemingly unresolved by Council Officers and the Conservative leadership. Too many questions remain about the fairness of the process. Liberal Democrats asked for a number of concessions at the Council meeting on September 10^th. Lib Dems urged the Conservatives to allow employees a personal appeal. We believe that anything other than this will be an affront to employees’ rights. We continue to urge Bury Council to reverse the decision not to allow personal appeals, with immediate effect.

• There are persistent concerns being raised about the moderation process. We expect the council leadership to fully detail how the accuracy and reliability of the moderation process was prepared, monitored and audited. If the process is to be held as a fair and transparent process then staff need to know that the moderation applied was in itself monitored and checked. Those undertaking the moderation must independent of the process, to ensure that the outcome is fair across all Departments.

• We welcome the Leader’s commitment to re-training and to make vacant posts available to suitably qualified staff. We would like to see more formal commitment to this process by Council via the introduction of a Re-grading Register, from which applicants could be approached and designated funds put aside for re-training. Such a system would ensure that the mechanisms and funding are in place to aid job training and reallocation.

• Bury Liberal Democrat Group were dismayed and disappointed that the Labour Group walked out of the Full Council meeting on 10^th September. It is our view that this (clearly planned and orchestrated) walkout was a stunt rather than a serious attempt to solve a major problem. By walking out of a debate on this issue, Labour abdicated their responsibility towards council staff as the main opposition to the leading group driving through the re-grading. Liberal Democrats will continue to provide the only serious, thoughtful opposition to the Conservatives, by ensuring that the process is handled as fairly and openly as possible.

• Labour’s walkout was a betrayal of the Council staff they claim to support. Their hot-headed actions ended debate and denied the opportunity for further questions. Labour’s absence from the meeting also meant that a debate on Radcliffe Riverside school did not take place, as the Labour Councilor due to ask the relevant question had left the meeting. The people of Radcliffe will rightly ask why Labour has let them down yet again.

• In response to a question from the Lib Dem Council Group, the leader of the Council agreed to hold a special briefing session for Council members. We welcome this initial response from the leader of the Council. We expect that the meeting should be held as soon as practicable. Representatives of the Union should be invited to attend.

• We acknowledge that this review came about due to national issues surrounding fair pay and that the Government instructed Councils to carry out a review following a job evaluation process and that review was carried out according to directives. However Bury Council is responsible to the people of Bury and its staff, and It is essential that staff are motivated to continue to provide the first class service its people expect to receive. The impact of this review on staff morale is a matter of great concern. Bury Council is in danger of losing some of its most experienced staff as a result of the way this review has been mishandled.

• Both Labour and the Conservatives must shoulder their share of the blame for the trauma now being faced by many staff. Labour were instrumental in establishing the process as directed by a Labour Government. And now with the review completed the Conservative administration are responsible for implementing the conclusions in a manner that both safeguards council finances but also council services. More important than blame though, is that the Council comes together for the good of staff moving forward. Liberal Democrats feel that all parties are duty bound to explore every avenue in searching for ways to support staff who are likely to lose thousands of pounds in pay. At the Council meeting on September 10^th Labour deserted staff whilst the Lib Dems secured concessions and more consideration from the Tories. 

• The Lib Dems in Bury recognise the hard work and dedication of Bury Council staff, and will continue to do all within our powers to support staff through this difficult period.

Bury Liberal Democrat GroupSeptember 11, 2008

Last night was the England game, they beat Croatia 4-1 in Zagreb, I heard on the news. Maybe I was unnecessarily pessimistic?!?

Last night was also Full Council, which was picketed by the Union & employees of Bury Council who are due to lose thousands of pounds after the re-evaluation process.

It started out reasonably enough, a bit of shouting which the Mayor managed to control. Then Cllr. Trevor Holt got in a serious tizzy, and was even more upset by Cllr. Yvonne Creswell who shouted “shame” at him - Trevor got seriously miffed!

Wayne Campbell then withdrew his party, and they refused to return. Total gesture politics, which achieved nothing (apart from enabling them to watch the match) whilst we actually posed some useful & serious questions of the Tories, which will hopefully work for our staff - after all, they work hard enough for us most of the time!

For those of you who left, we have now got the Tories to confirm the auditing procedure of the “moderation”, and will have a political party meeting to thrash out all the possibilities we can think of. Now that is serious work, and will hopefully achieve something for our staff.

Hi,

I got out of the habit of updating my blog after the elections - only just back in the groove now. So here’s what I’ve been doing:

Tue 27/5: Economy, Environment & Transport (EET) Scrutiny Commission with my colleague Ann Garner. Work is diverse, so we took 2 sub-groups each - I got Transport/Highways plus Local Development Framework.

Wed 4/6: LibDem Cllr meeting about the Urbed proposals, to determine our “group views” on proposals for Town Centre Regeneration.

Fri 6/6: Meeting with the Town Centre Manager, Carran O’Grady, about the forthcoming TCR (Town Centre Regeneration) sub-committee of the PLAP (Prestwich Local Area Partnership). We worked through the previous minutes, plus the agenda, and had discussions about relevant town centre matters over a brew & a biscuit (I Chair the TCR).

Mon 9/6: My birthday, and for the first time in ages I was not abroad, and not at work! I took a day off, and went to town with my dad, to get him a new suit. We got a nice one in Slaters, and then he took me for lunch to Mr Thomas’s Chop House on Cross St (try their corned beef hash - it’s great!). On the way there, I managed to show my support for the LibDem “Save Our Post Offices” campaign at Spring Gardens post office (well-timed & prepared, I’m sure you’ll agree!)

Tue 10/6: Did some casework, particularly about vibrations on Sandy Lane.

Thu 12/6: Case work, this time with Mary D’Albert in late afternoon, then I chaired the TCR meeting at Prestwich Arts College. The main topics were the Roads Repair funds (how we allocate repairs to roads in Prestwich) followed by a presentation & discussion on Urbed’s proposals for Town Centre regeneration. This was lively & informative, with lots of different opinions being aired. Pleae continue to send us/Urbed your views, they are still consulting! More on this later….

 Sat 14/6: Went on hols to Croatia for a week with wifey. A great relaxing break, with lots of footy (supporting Croatia of course), a few bevvies, and some interesting site-seeing (One day we hired a car and went to see the Walled city of Dubrovnik - a UNESCO world heritage site in Croatia; Mostar’s Bridge of Songs - a UNESCO world heritage site in Bosnia/Hercegovina; and Medjugorje in Bosnia - a site where the Virgin Mary was witnessed by some children in 1981, and now a place of pilgrimage for Catholics from all over the world). It was also our 10th wedding anniversary whilst we were there, and we had a beautiful romantic meal watching the sunset and listening to a musician, then went to watch the end of the Croatia match! (See wife - I do mention you!)

Mon 23/6: Back into the thick of it with the first sub-group meeting (Highways/Traffic) of the EET, which I was appointed Chair. We discussed the previous work program, and set a decent program of study for the forthcoming year.

Tue 24/6: Casework & email responses, mostly, plus pre-reading proposals & notes for Full Council the next day.

Wed 25/6: Despite the Germany v Turkey game I still went to Full Council. The most important issues for me were the erosion of Councillors & Public questioning of Executive members (proposed by the Tories, and a shameful way to treat Councillors & those who elected us to serve them) plus the questions I had for other Councillors on cleaning of our Town Centres and the work of the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority(GMPTA). The answer to the first was “It’s gone to Scrutiny” and the latter will be sent in writing because the meeting timed-out, mostly due to the bickering between Bob (I’m the Leader now!) Bibby and Mike (I can shout louder than you) Connolly. However, I’ve seen the answer to the latter, and it doesn’t refer to the points I raised whatsoever, so shall be asking Cllr Yvonne Creswell (Deputy Tory Leader) to answer it again properly!

Thu 26/6: Writing my blog; casework update; Six Town Housing Open Day & Euro semi-final with a Chinese meal & bottle of vino, whilst ‘er outdoors is crown green bowling in the pouring rain!

Remember, Bury Councillors do this on a part time basis, I still have a full-time career and other hobbies plus a home life to hold down! You will therefore forgive my tardiness in updating my blog, as I also have to fit in the following:

Occasional meals out with wife (see - mentioned her twice in one blog!); 5-a-side football (1-2 times p/w); Going to the gym (nearly as frequently!); Walking; Driving my classic car (for fun/to shows etc.); Delivering Focus leaflets (incessantly); Keeping up-to-date on National Politics; Local political party stuff; Career development with various courses; Various overnight stays around the UK/Europe/the world to see my clients; Jolly boys jaunts; Occasional pint on a Friday night; Seeing family & friends; shopping & eating.

Not all Cllrs have as many outside interests as I, but I hope that it keeps my feet on the ground and ensures I’m approachable & well-known.

Anyway - enough for now, more at weekend, probably….

 D

What’s been happening?

Tories elected a very nice man to Mayor - Peter Ashworth. I hope he has a very pleasant year, and uses it wisely.

Annual Council was a fairly tame affair, after which we had a meeting about Prestwich’s priorities for the forthcoming year.

Thursday 15th led me to St Mary’s primary School for photo opportunities with a cycling training event - we’re trying to get kids to get more exercise, and learn to cycle safely from an early age. Then it was the Local Area Partnership meeting, where Urbed presented their initial findings on the Town Centre Redevelopment Study.

Many were disappointed at the lack of innovation & social/leisure facilities, but these are only very early drafts, and include the realism of potential developers’ “wish-lists” too. There is much more discussion to be had, and the initial plans are up on display in the Library now, for people to view & comment upon - have your say now, before it is too late!

On Friday I attended a very interesting seminar on “Business Continuity” for work, but there was some very useful stuff for Council to learn also. I then got to see GMP’s Horse Unit, and a display by the dog handlers & armed response unit - at last something nice!

Saturday 17th was a thankyou party for leafleters & helpers, which was very pleasant. I should’ve been ref’ing on Sunday, but the game was scrubbed, so I had a bit of a free day!

This week I’ve had Planning Control; St Monica’s & Butterstile Governors’ meetings; a meeting with the Fire Service & the inaugral St Mary’s Conservation “Management Team”. The choice was between St Monica’s & the Conservation meeting, nd I felt it was more important to go to the latter, but because I didn’t get back from Consett until 6.50pm, I didn’t have time to forward my apologies to the Governors.

I’ve also had to think about mentoring Mary in her first few weeks & months, and also think about the local “Development Framework” that’s been issued.

Fairly busy then! I’ll let you know what happened at the meetings next time….

The AGM of the Council Group last night - I won’t tell you what commitees etc. I’m on just yet, so all you sweaty-palmed Tories can keep on sweating!

We welcomed Mary, our newest Cllr., and paid tribute to all our workers, who make campaigning easier for us. We also reviewed the election campaign, but all you furrowed-browed Labour spies can look away now, because I’m not telling you any of our secrets! (We know you just copy what we do, even trying to pinch our slogans!)

Now it’s time to go through all the old post that’s been piling up during the election, and deal with the normal events of everyday life, as well as trying to update all the stuff I’d promised to do once the organised madness subsided.

Strangely, I’m looking forward to shopping for some new clothes for my hols (I know - I normally hate it!) This wierd transformation in attitude has probably come about because I’ve noticed that there is a trend in women’s clothing for the “scrunchy” look, and I too fancy some clothes that never need to be ironed (although in men’s size & styling!!!)

Right - just time for a brew, then back to the real job for a while (and it’s still only 8.20am!)

Donal

Not repeating the previous detail, more a ditty about the roller-coaster of emotions that goes on.

Richard was counting Ann’s votes for Sedgley, and at one point was convinced she’d lost to a Tory who sent out leaflets calling himself “Action Man”, without indicating he was a Conservative candidate! My heart sank - I was feeling empathy for Ann, and pity for myself that I’d have to speak to such an edgit on a regular basis (You should hear about some of his tactics!)

Then a little later, the bundles started piling up & I saw that Ann’s pile was slightly bigger, and my heart rose. Hurrah! The people of south Prestwich were not, after all, deceived by such a man! Why did I ever doubt them? After all, they vote for sensible politicians all the time!

I am now basking in the warm glow of satisfaction, that we Councillors, the wider team of candidates, the supporters and well-wishers have achieved a Golden Glow (the LibDem Party colour) over Prestwich tonight. 9 Out of 9! Brilliant!!!!

That picture of Ivan scuttling off is just priceless, by the way……….

Hi,

 I’ve had some blog responses back recently, but haven’t posted them because I’m not quite sure how! (It is not because they’re negative - although some are) I’ll try to arrange a tutorial with a colleague soon, and post them for you.

Checking my messages on the ‘phone, I note that the reason for the 13-months delay in improving the roadworks to junction 17 of the M60, is the following:

• I asked for improvement work at the PLAP (then called Area Board) in January 2007
• The Officer took this request & engineers investigated
• In September 2007(!!!!), an order was placed to do the work
• Because the juction is with a motorway roundabout, the slip roads need closing, and thus it has to be done through the Highways Agency, who get Contractors to do it on their behalf. The Contractors have not found a suitable date that works with the Highways Agency yet!
• I’m now trying to get the Highways Agency to explain their delay!

I noted that a few calls from local papers had occurred recently, but because of work commitments, I was not able to respond in time for their deadlines.

Several planning & other personal issues have been dealt with for constituents, but confidentiality means I can’t put them on a blog!

Time for some real work now…

How very annoying!

I just wrote a post, and published it, but it’s disappeared into the ether!  so here’s the short version:

Last night I asked a question about Town Centre cleanliness, and suggested that the Leisure Services teams display a cleaning rota for town centres & toilets. It was agreed that this was a good idea, and will be considered for adoption theoughout town centres, so the public can see when areas were last cleaned, when they’re due for cleaning next, and who to contact if a place needs interim cleaning. Brilliantly simple, really!

Other questions asked, boring speeches made, very little of substance, but Derek Bowden’s NINE written questions must have beaten a record! He’s either very worried about his Besses seat that has not been seriously attacked by an opposing party for eons, or he’s making a play to be party leader of the Labour party (or both!)

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

I took the weekend off from LibDem & Councillor activities, spending some R&R time with family & friends in Palma, Mallorca.

It’s a very pleasant city, with a fairly nice cathedral as it’s centrepiece.

I’m not sure that I managed to recharge the batteries properly though, being a little indulgent in the European nightlife meant that I didn’t get to sleep ’til late in the morning some nights!

When I returned I came home to lots of emails, phone messages and post, some of which was boring, some silly, some very important and a ridiculous letter from a Mr Lee, of “new Labour”. He purports a “LibDem/Tory administration”, when clearly there are only 8 of us and 21 in the Council from Labour, with 24 Tories. I shall state clearly, “there is no such alliance”. Nearly one year later, your tired Labour team simply can’t get over the fact that after 21 years trying to run Bury Council, the electorate said, “Enough - you’re selling off our heritage because you can’t balance the books!” - think of the Lowry painting!

New Labour, if you can achieve nothing with nearly half the Councillors (by sitting on your hand when it comes to voting on the most important night of the municipal year) then I’m sure the electorate will continue to strip you of Councillors over the forthcoming years.

If you’d rather see vulnerable elderly people wandering the streets; “At risk” children being prevented from getting the services they desperately need, and Council finances being ruined, then sure, vote for “New Labour”. What’s so new about Labour anyway? You have the same tired old tripe from spin doctor after spin doctor, with nothing new to offer the nation after nearly 11 years in power.

Certainly, as a Council-tax payer in Prestwich, I’m at least 15% worse off than I was when they came to power. It’s time for a change, for invigorating new ideas, and only the LibDems have something to offer there!

Last night I participated in “Audit Scrutiny”, where we review the work of the Council’s financial control arrangements. One of the most important phrases was included in the external Auditor’s review of “Accounts & Statement on Internal Control” - the Authority needs to continue to closely monitor budget performance and implement necessary corrective action to mitigate the use of further reserves.

Taken in conjunction with the Director of Finance’s comments - it is accepted that there are hot spots that need to be addressed relating primarily to Learning Disability services, Leisure services and land charge income -   we can see that “new Labour’s” ideas of slashing existing funding to such services, tied in with spending the Council’s reserves, is plainly stupid and imprudent. And there weren’t many Labour councillors there to study the details - we got more questions from Tories than Labour, and they’re in control! Not very effective Opposition, I must say.

Labour wanted rid of Prestwich Arts College, so they could build a new school in their former electoral heartland of Radcliffe, whilst Prestwich was full and very few pupils put Radcliffe as their first choice.

Labour in Bury have no idea whether they’re for Congestion Charging or not, we can tell you exactly where we stand - firmly against further such tax and spend nonsense.

This Labour government have presided over illegal wars costing billions on the premise of “Wapons of Mass Destruction”. The most effective WMD’s I can think of are Tony & Gordon’s mis-management of Britain’s affairs! They’ve destroyed a lot more than Saddam ever could!

Ah well, I’m now off to work, and will later be working upon a solution to Highfield Rd parking with Officers, followed by a little leafleting and some case-work for constituents.

 More soon…..

So last night we saw both ends of the political spectrum in Bury.

The Tories continued Labour’s previous attitude of applying a generally prudent budget, but missing out on some opportunities to protect the vulnerable people in our society.

The Labour party showed how utterly myopic they can be, by offering a 0% Council Tax rise at the expense of completely decimating vulnerable adult & children’s services, for cheap political stunts. Rather than use this opportunity to seriously debate real alternatives, they decided to give themselves something to put into their Labour Rose - how very sad! The final insult was that they were intending to spend all the Council’s savings (Priority Investment Reserve)!

Pathetic opportunism is something one would expect from full time political activists like Wayne Campbell & his sidekick Mike Connolly, but the sad sight of (the normally serious) Derek Bowden supporting this silly budget proposal shows just how low even the serious Councillors in Labour will now stoop to buoy up their political aspirations!

Two obvious questions come to mind:

1. Labour ran Bury Council for 21 years, the last 10 of which were supported by a Labour Central Govt. Why could they not propose a 0% council tax rise in all that time?

2. If the reserves that the council saves up to protect it from day-to-day costs are so unimportant, why did Labour set them up and not spend them rather than sell the Lowry painting?

The LibDems proposed changes to the budget to ensure that simple services that everyone expects a local council to provide, such as street cleaning & park services were protected, whilst also not letting down the Children’s Services dept., who do incredibly important work, like providing the management for social services provision for “at risk” children.

In the end, at 10.40pm, our amendment was supported and Labour’s silly budget was dismissed.

My disappointment in Local Council grows with the Punch & Judy show last night. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have fun or enjoy our work, but when hours are taken up with knockabout humour and only a few minutes are spent saying how much people will actually pay in council tax, I feel that the Mayor needs to get a grip with the Labour & Tory leaders, and bang their heads together.

This is serious business, and Bib Bobby (aka “Punch”) got so upset with Wayne Campbell (aka “Judy”) and her sidekick Mike Connolly (aka “The Crocodile”) that he was swearing like a trooper and nearly blew a gasket.

 The strange thing was that Derek Bowden verbally asked a pile of questions that I enquired about, and which I’d submitted as a written question to the leader of the Council. I really didn’t think we were alike, but maybe we have more in common than I thought?

Ah well, it’s now officially the silly season of electioneering, so expect to have people knocking on your door, spouting rubbish promises, and looking like a bunch of “not rights”. Unless they’re normal people from the LibDems!

Let’s think about what’s happened in Prestwich since you elected LibDems:

- The Retreat water feature finally got finished & working

- We have a “Regeneration” programme run by Councillors (no matter how much Ivan wants to try and associate himself with it, it was & is down to us!)

- Prestwich Arts College is thriving and not closed (closure was proposed by Maggie Gibb & supported by Ivan Lewis)

- You have a Local Area Partnership that supports representation from the whole community, and interacts closely with health, police & fire to improve Prestwich in an intergrated way

- Rainsough estate is finally on the political radar, thanks to our involvement with the Tenants’ & Residents Association

- Children’s Centres are coming to an area near you shortly

- Safe play parks are provided near to areas they are most needed

And what did you get with 21 years under Labour? Hmmmmm……..

Donal

Last night was Planning Committee again.

There were few significantly controversial decisions to be made, but I asked for a site visit to a Children’s Educational Unit in Moorside, as there were plenty of questions that could be answered by a site visit.

This was granted after a vote by Councillors, but one of the more vociferous Councillors was against the idea, on the grounds that there was sufficient information provided already. The fact that the Councillor used to represent the ward concerned means that his knowledge of the area is much greater than many of the rest of us!

I was also told that this delay may mean that the Children’s Service may not be able to get the work done. If a private developer (rather than the Council) tried to use this argument to convince Councillors of the validity of their argument, we would usually tell them to “hop-it!” to say the least. Lack of time for development is not a reason to pass anything without proper scrutiny, and on Planning we are “semi-judicial”, meaning that we cannot be swayed by political considerations. This is the second time that Children’s Services appear to have taken such decisions to the wire, and I’ll therefore be referring these matters to the appropriate Scrutiny Committee, to see if it’s being run properly.

(The previous one was the Children’s Centre at Butterstile School within my Ward). Other political parties are trying to make some capital of the decision to delay a decision at Planning, where I also asked Councillors to consider a site visit, to understand the issues around the decision. I then left the room, as I have an “Interest” in the decision, as a Governor of Butterstile School. The Councillors chose to make a site visit, because the decision seemed to be rushed without suitable consultation.

A mobile phone mast was granted permission for development on Whittaker Lane in Prestwich, despite concerns expressed by residents relating to excessive development of the street scene: There is another one about 15-20m further down the pavement, with a bus stop in between. I raised the excessive development concerns, as well as explaining to Councillors that proposals had recently been put forward to develop the area for revised parking arrangements, which may require the digging-up of services on the pavement. Cllr. Steve Wright spoke about the concerns many local residents have, as did a softly-spoken resident. However, this was just a slight alteration to a proposal that had already been granted permission, so it was always going to be unlikely that it waould get rejected, and it didn’t.

Tonight is Full Council, where we consider the Budget for next Year. It’ll go on for 3 hours, Labour will probably bawl about all sorts of rubbish, the Tories will say how prudent they’ve been, despite getting a terrible settlement from Central Govt., and we’ll actually ask some questions about services that really matter to Joe Public.
If we don’t agree a budget, we all get barred from office, and maybe even sent down - so that is unlikely to happen!
This is the point where we see if Labour are any form of real opposition or whether they’ve STILL not got over being the party in power. I suspect the latter - I wonder if I could get odds at a bookies on it?
I’m asking questions about park services. This is important to Prestwich as we have Irwell Valley; Prestwich & Mere Cloughs; St Mary’s Park & Flower gardens in our Ward boundary. I want to see the parks flourish, and despite “Bury in Bloom” we seem to have seen precious little of that down here!
If you want to know more, or support us, come along to the town hall in Bury tonight. It’s a bit like Punch & Judy but without the cricket bat!

Donal

Reported various issues raised with me(or requested further detail), this week:

Sherbourne Street lights are out and the road is uneven due to nearby works on former Tulle Court; Youth nuisance on Shrewsbury Rd; Planning situations on Warwick St, St Mary’s Rd.

A planning proposal has come in for the Longfield from the current owners of the buildings. This is strange, as I undestood that they’d been told by Officers about the Regeneration study, and thus should hold back until that’s complete.

However, it needs to be given due consideration, and I’m confident that Officers are working diligently on it as I type.

On the subject of Regeneration, we’ve asked Council to supply a small questionnaire or flyer into every Prestwich Council Tax demand, but this has been rejected, and I’m awaiting an answer as to why. It must be the most cost-effective way to ask all residents of Prestwich if they have an opinion? The Consultants have only budgeted for 5000 residents to be contacted, but there are more like 15000 residents living nearby who really should be contacted. We WILL find a way, I assure you of that.

Tonight is the Town Centre Regeneration meeting, which reports to Prestwich LAP on the review & study currently being undertaken by Urbed. Should be quite interesting, with a number of important issues coming to light, and it’ll require a firm grip on debates from me (as Chair) to ensure that we get through the whole agenda. We’re considering the following main issues tonight:

1. The progress of the Urbed study
2. The Consultation Event
3. Suggestions from a group known as the Regeneration Commission
4. Traffic/Planning Issues for Highfield Rd & Whittaker Lane

More to follow…

So, the political shenanigans season has started early this time!

Politicians are sticking oars into oily black seas, where no such oars should be placed! Time to put them back into areas where no such wooden object should be placed!!!

No details this week - let’s see what materializes (maybe you can decipher it at a later stage!)

I`ve been blogging for a couple of weeks now, and recognise from cryptic conversations about paint drying and grass growing that it’s a bit weak on the sensational side. I could be nasty, and that would be fun, but I’m sure that the blog would get pulled farily quickly. Maybe I’ll try it in a couple of weeks!

This blog is being written on a Swiss computer, so the letters are not all in the same place, and nor are the punctuations (apologies in advance! - see if zou can guess what letters/punctuation are different+). Iäm back in the morning to complete mz constituencz ward duties.

This week we had full Council, and the Leader, Cllr. Bob Bibbz (known to manz as Bib Bobbz for his tendencz to get things muddled) managed to have a go at me for asking him what the hell has happened to accountabilitz, when the Council doesnät even know where it left the benches it places around the borough for Pensioners to rest their wearz bones upon after a hard morningäs shopping+

Bob is obviouslz becoming more confident, and certainlz managed to keep the rather war-wearz Labour group well in control.

Bob didnät reallz know what question I was asking, and so tried to cover everz base with “how it was everz Councilloräs dutz to contribute to the well-being of the Borough+” for mz preliminarz question, but he tried weasling his waz out of the supplementarz question with some bland response and having a personal dig.

Labour were biyarre. Gasillions of questions about anzthing thez could think of, with no rhzme or reason connecting them. Mostlz it was a whinge-athon, whilst trzing to score minor political points from the various Councillors thez have up for re-election this zear (Cllr. Boden asked 6 - practicallz unheard of from the whole Council, let alone one Cllr+++)

What did I do?

I asked about Gtr Manchester Wasteäs attitude to Prestwich tip and the Forestrz Commissionäs approach to manage it. Peter Ashworth, the jovial Torz Cllr on the Waste Authoritz Board gave a good answer, but it did not correspond with the info. I had, so I asked him to check the facts and confirm in writing. Iäll chase that over the weekend in writing. Itäs important as it forms a vital wildlife corridor, as well as integral to the LIVIA urban park project being managed bz Manchester & Salford Councils (who are woeful at keeping us informed+).

I also asked a question about Gtr Manchester Fire & Rescueäs commitment to Fire Sprinklers. Kent F&R actuallz have a grant szstem to contribute towards sprinklers, zet we donät even insist upon them in schools zet!! The Brigade fullz favour sprinklers, and criticise Labour Govt. for failing to grasp the nettle with recent legisaltive changes. It would be great to see Wales & Scotland take the lead, and show England how our sillz Govt. szstem does not benefit the people of the land, onlz the politicians (think NHS & education in Scotland, for example!)

The one thing that I reflected upon this week is that I have been keeping mz elevction promise of using mz mouth in proportion to mz ears. I listen more, and talk less, which makes people occasionallz listen when I have something to saz (whatever tzpewriter or computer I use+) If onlz all politicians would follow suit!+

This is not the onlz precendent I have set of late. I hear that the FA are now considering a rule Iäve been applzing since I became a referee 6 zears ago. This is that Captains can speak to me on the pitch, all others will go in the book or off, if thez speak to me. If thez swear (at anzthing or anzone other than their own stupiditz) then thez at least go into the book. If thez swear at me, itäs straight off+. I didnät think it was revolutionarz then, but when I hear Hansen & Co. on MOTD, thez think itäs the best thing since sliced bread!+) (How manz times can he saz “Time and time again” on one program?)

Talking of which, itäs big match at the weekend. Will thez be silent for the 50th anniversarz of Munich? ……Come down to Hough End and see!!! (or are zou a couch fan, watching two slightlz more expensive teams at the weekend???)

Treesà

Vale Drive - land ownership is being determined, before thez consider whether the Council can prune the trees.

Lowther Close - same situation as above.

Longfiled Cleaningà

Richard asked questions of the Leader, Cllr Dot Gunther answered on his behalf, with no real answers being given. I know that from questions Iäve asked of Officers, thez want to wait until after the wall is engraved, and I said “bugger off”. It needs to be done Zesterdaz, not in a couple of monthsä time+. See Richardäs link from the left side, to read more. I will press harder at the TCR next week.

Roadsà

Butterstile Lane was repaired (well done) and Sandz Lane has been noted but not zet done. Iäll chase this again over weekend.

Hilton Lane junction with Burz New Road (BNR) is to be raised (AGAIN++++) at TCR next week.

If zou have anz further road issues, give me a call and Iäll raise them to the top as much as I can.

Traffic Crossingsà

St Annes Rd is still not top prioritz, see Richardäs recent post about this. Weäve both been chasing Council officers frequentlz about the dangerous crossing/lights on BNR. Should be started in the next couple of months though+

At Council I took the opportunitz to tell the top guz responsible about the sunken crossing opposite the Knowslez pub in Burz, just outside the bus station and probablz used bz hundreds of Council staff each daz. Thereäs a massive puddle where it should be raised, so visuallz impaored people know there is a crossing bz the raised bobbles on the pavement. Itäs in Burz not Prestwich, so letäs see how long it takes them to fix it - a bit of an experiment?

Planning

A resident has requested change of use for part of a dwellnig into an office. Iäve asked for more info. as I neeed to understand all the matters before representing a constituent one waz or another. Iäm on Planning Committee which is semi-judicial, so I have to be verz clear about not making mz mind up without all available facts. Possiblz more to follow….

OK - did zou guess the different kezboard bits?

• y is z and z is y
• à is where ‘ should be
• + is an !
• _ is actually where ? should be, but I thought that was too hard
• ç is where £ should be, but I didn’t use that

See zou soon (on a normal kezboard, perhaps_+++)

Donal

Tonight was the quasi-judicial “Planning” Committee. This means we don’t act like party political people, but responsible members of the Community!

There was not too much controversial stuff on the list tonight, but it was heartening at the end to see that our Enforcement Officers have been out working very hard to make sure people (and businesses) only do what is agreed by Planning Officers & Councillors.

The Planning Committee is made up of a real mix of people, and it’s nice to see a couple of younger Councillors getting onto it this year. When I started in 2006, it was the one thing I really wanted to be involved with, and I found most of the Councillors were “relatively” old. This concerned me, I was worried that they would all hark on about “good old days” etc., but in most cases I needn’t have worried - most are fairly progressive.

It’s one of the few Council meetings that the public turn up to. This makes it more lively, and I enjoy it because I feel knowledgeable about most areas of the borough, but when areas that I don’t know about come up, and I learn about them!

When I got home I watched Shameless on C4. I think it’s brilliantly written, about a family of “scallies” on a housing estate in Manchester. The father’s a drunk, the mother is unsure of her sexual preference, the wild kids range from 7 to early 20’s, and the pub is often the centre of the attention.

One of the actresses went to St Monica’s, where I’m a Governor and where I went to school (although back then it was called St Peter’s). It’s good to hear talented locals doing well!

Ok, enough for tonight, I have work, holidays, running and a gazillion other things to think about before sleeping.

Donal