Hi,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 D

What’s been happening?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donal

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

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

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

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

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

Hi,

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

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

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

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

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

Time for some real work now…

How very annoying!

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

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

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

Donal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back to the TRA Meeting:

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

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

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

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

Onwards and upwards….

Donal

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 More soon…..

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

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

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

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

Two obvious questions come to mind:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

- The Retreat water feature finally got finished & working

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donal

Last night was Planning Committee again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Donal