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!