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

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!

See the photos above: Is this how you want Prestwich to be managed?

I’d love the Deli to do really well & flourish, but I want them to take a little more social responsibility for their actions. The Senior Engineer for the Council will be coming to inspect soon, and I bet it doesn’t look like this then!

The shop is close to the housing estates it’s designed to serve. They could provide a delivery service (previous owners used to!) or amend their parking to be more suitable. They could buy land nearby & convert it, or work with other businesses nearby to share facilities. What do you think?

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

I attended a branch meeting of The RCN, the Royal College of Nursing, along with Susan Williams and David Nuttall, both Tory PPC’s (Prospective Parliamentary Candidates) for Bolton West & Bury North. Nobody from Labour had the bottle to turn up! I was told they’d asked over 50 MP’s & PPC’s, but only 4 of us had the umph to go (Vic D’Albert for the LibDems in Bury said he’d go but then had a holiday come up!)

We gave them our views of the proposals about the dramatic changes proposed by Labour to the  delivery of health services, and what our parties would bring in if we got elected.

We also got presentations from the local PCT and the health service. I was pleased that I knew our party policies (first test!) and that I came across ok. Susan is a reasonably experienced politician, having been leader of the Tory-led Trafford Borough Council, so she came across well, and David was ok, if perhaps a little too representative of his ilk (he’s a solicitor by trade, like far too many of our existing politicians, in my opinion). however, he was thoroughly decent in sending me a couple of photos he took, which I’m very grateful for.

I’m enjoying watching Question Time at the moment, David Laws is making a good fist of putting our case forward, but that pratt from the Daily Femail is going on about hanging, and some spotty youth claps his hands like he’s never heard of this thery before.

Jarvis Cocker looks spaced out and clearly hasn’t read the papers for months. IDS (Irritable Duncan-Smith) is ok, one wonders why the Tories didn’t keep him as their leader (at least he accepts he’s bald, unlike Cameron!) The smart chap in the audience who talked about teachers being able to pass tick box tests and forget about “teaching” kids to be free thinkers was spot on - they are paid to teach, not tickbox forms! Professional Development is important, but most of the CPD systems (Continuous Professional Development) that all sorts of industries have, is just a waste of time and money for many.

Rail Franchise & Privatisation - is it good? not for me, I think. Old British Railways was far from perfect, but at least they can’t be accused of stripping out the profitable routes (Dr Beeching excluded, of course!).  BR owned Sealink, and my dad worked for 43 years (without a single day off sick, I am told) for BR. I got a “Priviledged Ticket” as a child of a railway worker, and I can only think of one bad rail journey, where my fingers got caught in the doors at the old station in Bury. the Station Master gave me a Victory Vee to take my mind off it - a thoroughly bad day!

Railways require subsidy and are a central resource for the people, just like in France has. Why can’t we see sense?!?! OMG - The pratt from the Daily Mail said something right - the railways would be better as a nationalised industry - surely more so than the banks?

Donal

Donal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

D

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What did I do?

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

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

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

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

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

Donal

Highways Sub-Committee - we discussed the following:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Other matters raised -

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donal

Can England footy team beat Croatia? I’m sure they can, but to win they need mental strength, and I don’t think they can have that without changing the team significantly. In my humble opinion (and most people have one on the England squad!) we’d be better off with a bunch of Championship players, for whom pride in wearing the shirt means far more than the over-paid Premiership players, for whom there’s no novelty in it.

I ref amateur footy, and would much rather see a team with twice the effort and half the skill than the reverse (just think Greece in the 2004 Euros). That way can work, but the reverse ususally can’t.

The Olympics were a triumph, and it looks like the paralympics will be too. The follow-up to this is that the velodrome in Manchester (where so many medals were made in training) is likely to be replaced by a larger one in London. Another success, then!?!?

The Congestion Charge - should we have it or not? There is a launch for the “yes” campaign today, but nobody has sent me any details of the “no” campaign. My view is that we already pay taxes for public transport, road improvements etc. - why should those of us in Gtr. Manchester conurbation pay more than others to get something we deserve anyway?

Haven’t the roads been systematically narrowed in the last 10 years, with more & more bus lanes, chevrons, cycle lanes etc., but with insufficient use by those modes of transport, the Manchester Council now try to force the rest of us into a system which is excessively expensive. They could see they were likely to lose the vote on the old system, so now they’ve brought in a new voting system - not really a satisfactory way to decide how to tax the pants off people!

There have been some dreadful house robberies in Prestwich over the summer - when are the Police going to catch the criminals responsible, and what extra resources are they putting into catching them? I’ll be asking them that this week, but don’t expect any answers - they usually hide behind “operational security” and don’t tell us.

I see that Whitefield Area Partnership have copied our “Love Prestwich” campaign for anti-littering - the sweetest form of flattery?!? Lots of credit for our campaign has to go to Carran O’Grady, the Area Partnership Manager, who works really hard to improve Prestwich, and often overcomes incredible odds to get things going. Congratulate her next time you see her.

Staff pay cuts at Bury Council: What is my view? I can see that the Council HAD to do something, but it seems that the way it was handled was appalling; the moderation process is the thing most people fail to understand; the appeals system in impersonal; and the total result is plummeting staff morale at a time when everyone seems to be in financial difficulties.

How would I have handled it differently? Not sure - I don’t have access to all the info. that the Tories have, but two things spring to mind quite easily:

• Don’t send letters to arrive at people’s homes on a Saturday morning
• Hold joint presentations with the Union for all staff

 The Union seem equally to blame in this situation, but they don’t pay the bills so are not getting tarred with the same brush - they should be!

There will be lots of scrutiny of the whole system, and especially the appeals system being introduced - hopefully the LibDems can drill down to ensure that fairness is achieved through the Full Council meeting tonight & the special Scrutiny meetings arranged.

More later…..

What does?

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

Distant Lands:

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

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

Local Stuff: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also been doing loads of my own stuff:

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

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…

Going fly fishing soon. A lesson. Supposed to relax me.

Wife bought me the lesson a couple of years ago, but was so busy having just been elected (probably busy telling everyone I was elected!) that I didn’t get round to it then.

Anyone know anything about it?

It sounded/looked really good on the films I’ve seen it in (A River Runs Through It)and the books I’ve read (The Pied Piper, by Neville Shute) recently. The only time I’ve previously tried fishing, I spent 3 hours in the teeming rain at a private lake in North Wales. Most of the 3 hours were spent trying to sew a piece of sweetcorn to a fish-hook! I trudged back to the hotel and dried myself by the fire with some large whiskies and pleasant conversation. At least some of that day had pleasant memories!

Looking at hols at the moment - considering Cuba, Croatia and Greece, but open to ideas. I suppose cold weather and a wife with garden leave kind of concentrate your mind towards warmer climes.

Anybody got better ideas, let me know…

Donal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The next steps are:

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

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

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

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

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

Cheers,

Donal

Okay,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pleasant night out, commiserating with colleagues made redundant today.

One would have thought that a bank could ensure final payment to employees they are making redundant, but no, this was too much! Nevertheless, they (the staff) all seemed to enjoy it!

On my taxi ride home (taxi was early - hoorah!) we were stopped by Police officers. I don’t know the reason, I suspect that they did him (my driver) for excess speed. The clock time was 23.41, location Bury New Road, Higher Broughton.

The police officers got very upset when I started taking notes, and asked me to return to the vehicle. Apparently, it was “Nothing to do with you”. Not please, not sir, just a curt demand for compliance. Hmmmm! Not the best way for someone to get me to comply (ask my mother/wife/friends etc.)

For fun I complied, but nevertheless took details of one officers’ number, the other refused to provide his, saying that details were upon the ticket (is this an issue for data protection, for me as a witness?)

I asked the driver to show me the ticket, as I wanted to see the officers’ number. The number was illegible. It then took a call to GMP Traffic (856 4080) which was cut off after 5.30 minutes ringing (despite assurances later that they are staffed 24/7); followed by another call to central no. (872 5050) who put me through to central control , and after I explained the issue, they then said “putting you through” without explanation to whom, and then left me on hold for 5 mins and then cut me off; I then telephoned the switch (872 5050) again, and explained exasperatedly why I did not want to be put through without explanation - they told me it was my role to explain this to the control officer!

I finally got through, and explained why I did not want to be put through to anyone, without the existing operator being present (is it any wonder police time is wasted?!?!?) The member of staff was quite helpful, but could give me no names (including hers!) but finally got me the correct number of the officer concerned.

Given the incident reported on national news last week re. police officers being impersonated, and a cash transfer house being cleaned out of £50M+ (of which Police have recovered less than half - well done chaps/chapesses) is it any wonder people want to know who and why the vehicle in which they were travelling was stopped?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many legitimate taxis (for such was I riding in) were used in illegal acts over the last 12 months? On Thursday night? In this area?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many muggings, violent acts, burglaries, domestic violence issues etc. were reported on Thursday night in that vicinity (Rialto area, Higher Broughton)?

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many speeding tickets and other cautions were issued by those 2 officers to persons engaged in “otherwise” legal actions?

Maybe the number of collisions/pedestrian accidents/near misses occured in that vicinity at 11pm-12am on a Thursday night over the last 12 months? (Why were the officers there?)

Wouldn’t it be interesting to know how many police (of any rank) were operating in the area at that time?

Let us then compare the statistics, and judge the police upon the statistics that count TO US, not the blurb quoted by endless temporary Chief Constables learning their political skills in Bury, before being moved to scary places, such as David Anthony, and his predecessor. Yes, I know Broughton is not in Bury, but can you explain a faster route to Prestwich from Manchester at that time on a Thursday?

Maybe one for the new Chief Constable or his rep. at Safer/Stronger Scrutiny, maybe even “Budget Council”?

A final note, to help worry you to sleep - the control room spent ages before confirming they could give me no further information, after I refused to give my details. I said that they have my telephone record & number traced, so they can always call me if they need to. However, when I asked whether it made a difference if I made a complaint at some time in the future, nobody seemed to know! SO WHY ASK FOR IT?!?!?

One thing is for sure, when the LibDems run our country, the truth will (mostly) out!

Cheers,

An angry Councillor!