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

Full Council 3.2.10: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Save Our Suite:

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

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

HEATON PARK “GOALS SOCCER” ZONE:

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

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

‘Nuff said! D

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

Sir,

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

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

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

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

D

Heaton Park Plans Resubmitted

I used to sit on the Heaton Park Mgt Committee, but it was a pretty pointless activity, as the park managers did whatever they wanted, despite protestations from the users. At the time, I was a football team club secretary, and they never asked us what would be best, simply kept reducing the size of the pitches because some of the schoolkids who regularly used the pitches weren’t fit enough to play as proper “wingers”. Anyway, back up to date:

Goals Soccer Centres have re-submitted their plans for a commercial soccer centre in the St Margaret’s Road area of Heaton Park this week.

These plans will now be subject to public consultation, with an expected date at Manchester Council’s Planning Committee on 17 December 2009.

The plans have been resubmitted despite significant opposition from local residents, heritage watchdogs and many users of the park.

The new plans see a slightly reduced scheme of THIRTEEN soccer pitches, SIX tennis courts and a climbing wall area. There are 40 car parking spaces and Club House.

Over the next week we’ll be giving you more information on how to campaign against the proposals - this will be our last chance to SAVE HEATON PARK!

More information on the planning application here (Manchester City Council). (Search under Higher Blackley Ward.)

Download the plans here and here.

And the people looke at possible designs, and the overall plan was formulated, and we went back unto the people and showed them the combination of their ideas and planning realities.

We all had different views about how good it really was, but we all agreed it was better than what we currently have.

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

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

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

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

See some of the pictures here. They were from the discussion strategy meeting for the regeneration of Prestwich a couple of years ago. Present were members of the TCR Group, Officers, Councillors and interested parties, trying to work out what was wrong with Prestwich.

So then we look at townscapes, planning preferences, what we actually prefer to see, and what would we want from Prestwich?

Planning Committee gave the green light to the redevelopment of the Town Centre on Tuesday, with approval of the outline plans put forward by HMG, the owners of the shops. I spoke for the application as Chair of the Town Centre Regeneration Working Group, but 3 mins was nowhere near enough time! I did warn about some elements - like ensuring the developers continue to liaise with the public, and take on board concerns about losing the Longfield Suite, or buildng too high.

Last night was EET (Economy, Environment & Transport) Scrutiny Committee, where we look at the work of sub-groups scrutinising the Executive, and/or preparing reports for taking through into policy.

Allotments

A member of the public came & asked questions about allotments - fortunately I was well briefed because I’d just seen the written answer to a question submitted by the LibDems at Full Council. 96% of allotments in the Borough are let, there are 516 plots and a waiting list of 450 people. It is less clear what the Council are actually doing to improve access to allotments, how they’re funded, or how well they’re managed.

Housing Scrutiny

I sit on HIAG, the Housing Issues Advisory Group, who scrutinise the work of the providers of our Council Housing, and also of the work of the “Strategic Housing Unit” of the Council. HIAG reports to nobody, and as a result has no teeth. Senior Managers of Six Town Housing basically ignore HIAG, and will not attend to report their actions there. This is therefore being subsumed into a sub-group of EET, called “Housing Services Sub-Group (HSSG). The voting rights have to be taken away from the non-elected representatives, and it gets 3 Tories, 1 Labour & 1 LibDem, which our Democratic Services Officers tell us reflects the political balance of the Council (26 Tory, 16 Labour, 9 LibDem). I disagreed, but the debate went on & on, and as we’d only ever had one vote on HIAG, we accepted the position & moved on.

Parking Services

We got an annual report from Officers on the issues affecting this department. Lots of stats, and it made fun reading. I asked lots of questions, but felt that there was little evidential substance to the  answers, so will be taking it further. Basically, 1 in 4 tickets are rescinded or cancelled, which means we are paying NCP to do wasteful work on our behalf. Officers said the REAL figure was more like 8%, but did not provide enough evidence to substantiate this. There was no comparison with other Boroughs, so we couldn’t see how Councils who deal with their own parking arrngements get on, or how we fared before 2002, when we “outsourced” to NCP.

I also raised the farce that is currently ongoing about parking around Prestwich Centre, which was always enforced by the Council, and now is being done by “Central Ticketing” on behalf of Riddell’s, the managing agents for HMG, who own the Longfield Centre shops, and who we just gave planning consent to regenerate!

They claim they own some bits of land, but we’ve got double yellows there which indicates it is managed by the Local Authority. Tickets are £100, or £65 if paid early, and apply to disabled-badged vehicles as well. This has never before been enforced, and is catching a lot of people out. I have said that I will rip down the posters & charge Riddells a couple of thousand for my services, handing the cash back to those affected by the parking charges. I ‘ve arranged an urgent meeting with the Council’s Officers & Riddells & me to sort it out. If it is not sorted at that meeting, I will very publicly take action to protect the rights of the people of this Borough!

Private Sector Housing Financial Assistance Policy

Our SHU (see above) develop policies to fund adaptations to housing, for the sick, elderly, and others. The new policy explains how the funding is allocated, but most of the detail was skimmed over. The headline is that Govt. has matched any funding we in Bury have paid into this, but it appears that Bury Council under the Tories may cut this in the future. The SHU are banging the drum for their funding for next year, and the Tories may give in to their demands if enough bad press comes their way!

Street Lighting

Our Senior Enginner brought forward a report to explain some of the considerations & options. It missed some stuff off, pointed out by LibDem & Labour alike. I have stepped back from the argument now, with Vic D’Albert (see link to the left) sitting on the sub-group to scrutinise this before early December. There is some possibility of gaining Govt. grants to help pay for this, but we need to move fast, so we’re taking tenders from consultants to help prepare our begging bowl bid.

ELR Update

We all got a copy of the proposals from East Lancs Railway on their future plans. No comments were passed on this, as it was past 9pm and the meeting began at 6.30pm.

SubGroups Update

We updated the Scrutiny Committee upon the work that we’ve been doing in our sub-groups.

Urgent Business

The deletion of the 95 bus affects many wards in the south of Bury, as well as in Little Lever & beyond. Tony Isherwood for Labour tabled this asa concern on “Community Transport”, especially affecting kids going to school at Phillips High from Radcliffe.

It’s already been reported to GMPTE, and Officers & Councillors have been asked to get more information & report back to this Committee for the next meeting. If no improvement is noted, we may need to take serious action. Wait & see….

D

06.17.09

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

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

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

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

It’s a scandal! Tonight I only went to one meeting, a Planning Control meeting which lasted 40 minutes. That beats the previous shortest record of 43 mins from a couple of years back (normally they are 3 hours long, and there is a preliminary 1 hour meeting, plus site visits in the afternoon sometimes!). Fortunately they’re only once a month, so I don’t have to catch up on work too much.

It gives me a chance to catch up on clearing post, bills, expenses (from work, not being a Councillor!) and other home stuff. The missus is away, so I don’t have an excuse of spending QT with her, making tea, doing dishes etc.

Last night I had a fairly early night after watching “Defiance” on DVD (great story & film - worth the rental), I’d been doing leaflets for the Euro election campaign until 2.45am on Sunday night/Mon morning, which needed to be into the PO at 9am on Monday morning. I took them in in my wife’s horse-box. When I got to the PO there were some other Councillors delivering leaflets on behalf of LibDems elsewhere in Manchester, so we all mucked in together to speed up the complicated process of sorting the crates into postcode order.

Where many other people did the laborious task in a group format, I chose to take my work on single-handed. The job was sticking labels onto thousands of leaflets, then sorting the leaflets into streets, then counting them, and putting labeld onto the crates to tell the PO which area they were for, and how many were in the crate. I did them on my own because it was a horrible task and I didn’t want someone else to have to do it. I suppose I didn’t want to show the party in a bad light by having to do such hideous work by a supporter who maybe new to the party. Next time I’ll share the load though - I’ve done my share!!!

So what about the Labour MP for Bury North, David Chaytor, and his “unforgiveable” expenses claim for £13k mortgage payments, when it’s said he’s already paid off the mortgage?

My view of it all, if it’s all true (and it seems it may be by his reported comments) is that it is a sad reflection of someone who probably started out in politics as a force for good, and who has probably distanced himself from reality a little too much, by insulating himself in the cosy glow of Westminster. I genuinely pity him, because this is all he’s likely to be remembered for, after so many years in politics.

The Speaker of the House, Michael Martin resinged today. Someone who’s risen through the Trade Union movement over 30 years, and his career is ending in ignominy - it’s another sad reflection on how the Houses of Parliament can be a cruel mistress, and how isolation from your background probably harms you more than you may realise. I don’t know how often he got back to Glasgow, and whether he went for a pint down the Social Club on a Friday night with his old mates, but I suspect he didn’t much, and he appears to have lost his “grounding” from earlier times.

The MP Expenses Scandal can be summed up by common sense, as applied by anyone who has to claim expenses in connection with their work: 

When you claim for something you should not, at the least you are being misleading, and at it’s worst you may be committing a fraud. If it appears to be excessive and unconnected with your work, why should your employers foot the bill?

If the auditing of expenses was weak, and the rules poorly applied, then that is the fault of the Speaker and his team. However, it is also imcumbent upon those who make our laws to be seen to be truthful, and if the cleaning of a moat, or the collection of Capital Gains as the result of the sale of dwellings is somehow related to the law-makers’ duties, I fail to see the connection. Paying back may not be enough for the press or the public, the scent of blood is clear and I suspect the bloodhounds in the press will continue to hunt!

D

Manchester Council is plannig  pop concerts in Heaton Park, which they own. They are also planning to knock holes in the recently-built wall, to put extra gates in, to allow access and egress.

They didn’t need this for the Pope’s visit in 1982, when 250,000 people gathered on one field (and the other 750,000 expected didn’t bother to come) so why do they need it for a pop concert of 70,000?

Why have they failed to notify Bury Council, onto whose roads such gates will abut?

Why have they failed to notify the school who will be adjacent such gates?

Why have they failed to notify nearby residents and Councillors?

Is it because they are stupid and ignorant? Is it because they forgot? Is it because their Councillors and/or Officers are inept? Or is it because they don’t care what other people think?

I suggest you take a look at their planning portal here and give them your comments. They’ve had mine!!!

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….

What does?

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

Distant Lands:

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

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

Local Stuff: 

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

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

Getting into the groove of this free thinking stuff now!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donal

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

Hi there!

Today I got help in working through my lack of understanding, and am now able to post simple messages on the website. Stick with me, and see the development as I learn more and more.

One of my New Year Resolutions was to get my website going, so here’s this year’s first post.

The most important news at the moment is the Town Centre Regeneration.

Prestwich is currently going through a Consultation exercise, to help us work out what the next generation Prestwich Town Centre should be like.

The Council set aside money a couple of years back to pay for outside specialist consultants to help in the process, but because the regenerations of Bury & Radcliffe town centres had started, there was insufficient resources to manage a third renewal strategy at the same time.

Now the Consultants have started the process, and want to hear the views of those who live in, use, or would like to use Prestwich.

There should soon be a weblink from the Council website directly through to “Urbed” consultants, and they’ll be keeping a “blog” to keep everyone informed. I hope to be able to link directly from here too.

There will be several ways to get your voice heard, and we’re just going through the process of working out the best methods to achieve the widest consultation possible.

My role in this is three-fold:
1. As a ward Councillor for St Mary’s Ward, Prestwich Town Centre lies in the heart of my ward. I want to help make the revitalisation of Prestwich a reality, and will do all I can to turn a great opportunity into reality.
2. As a representative of the people in my ward (even if you didn’t vote for me!)

3. As Chair of the Town Centre Regeneration (TCR) Working Group, I can help shape the consultation process, and ensure that the voice of the people is not just heard, but enacted.

How does it work?

The TCR was set up as a sub-committee of the Prestwich Local Area Partnership (known as the PLAP, and formerly the Local Area Board) to help bring about the revitalisation of Prestwich.

The TCR reports to the PLAP, and the PLAP reports to the Council. Within reason & legal limits, the Council should enact motions brought to it by the PLAP, as advised by the TCR.

The TCR is made up of Councillors, Council Officers, and interested parties such as representatives of business & residents.
Because it’s impractical to include everybody who would have a direct interest in the changing face of Prestwich, it’s necessary for others to feed into the process by other means - via Councillors; via the Council; directly with the Consultants;email; letters; phone etc. to ensure that opinions are heard.

It doesn’t matter if you’re 12 or 102 years old, we will try to find a suitable way for your voice to be heard (and of course, listened to!)

So if you want more shops; better sports facilities; cleaner streets; safer roads or anything else, keep your eyes peeled now, because the next nine months could be the ones that shape Prestwich for the next few decades!

Enough from me for now - if you have any comments please respond and I’ll try to get back to you in a reasonable time. However, remember that I am new to this, and I don’t spend every waking hour sitting in front of a computer awaiting correspondence! Have a little patience with me?

Regards,

Donal