Richard Baum

I have been busy in the last couple of days. As well as delivering the last of the current batch of Focus leaflets to homes in the Hilton Lane area, I attended a residents’ meeting in Carr Clough, where there were discussions about litter, anti-social behaviour, and dangerous dogs. 

What has become apparent over recent days is the frustration that local residents have about the way the Council, the Police and others are responding to their concerns. Time and time again I hear of local people being ignored or fobbed off – reporting crimes and no Police turning up, or asking for a Council service and being told that there’s no money. Or worse, being ignored entirely.

I don’t know whether all of these stories are 100% true, but I do believe that there is a growing dissatisfaction and a growing disconnection between local people and the Police / Council. And I share this frustration. 

This week I received a report about an inspection of the Carr Clough estate in my ward. A number of issues were highlighted, including repairs necessary to fencing, paving and signs. Some of them will be attended to by the Six Town Housing caretakers themselves, but others will require Council Departments to work together to get things done. I have spoken to and emailed a number of Council officers trying to find out when, how and if these repairs might be carried out, but I’m passed from pillar to post. The answers seem to be that nobody is really sure who is responsible for carrying them out, and that there’s probably not any money to do it anyway. The Council Departments have their planned cycle of repairs, and these new ones that have arisen from the inspection are more of an inconvenience than anything else. 

Not only is this utterly unacceptable, but it begs a couple of questions. 

First, why the Council Departments aren’t working much closer together. If repairs need to be done, there should be named contacts in each Council Department who can ensure that the repair is carried out. Six Town Housing should refer an Environmental Services matter to a named contact in that Department. And we should all know who that person is. 

And second, why is it that small amounts of money are not made available to ensure that these repairs are carried out quickly? We need to be much more responsive to community need, not sit back and casually blame budgetary pressures. These repairs are the little things that people really notice – the repairs to pavements, the new “no dog fouling” sign, the re-erected fence. These are the things that give people pride in their area and faith in the Council. And they are the things that local Councillors should be able to insist on. I am not asking for a new road to be built, or a massively expensive programme of repairs. Just a few pounds here and there on the small but important things.

It simply isn’t good enough to be fobbed off time and time again. Local people have elected me to act on their behalf, and I am thwarted by unelected officers. I am a Council officer myself, for a living. I know that there are budgetary pressures. But inflexibility and a lack of response to community need is even worse, and it needs to end. 

Crucially, local people need to know what’s going on (or not going on) and why. At the moment the frustration is building because they feel that they’re grasping in the dark. 

With that in mind, I have suggested a couple of things this week to be discussed amongst my fellow Councillors and the Local Area Partnership. 

We must investigate some “Pride in Prestwich” events where local people are encouraged to join us and clean up their local area. The Council will be there to help, and other local service providers like the police and fire service will be there too to give advice. There is one such event happening in Sherbourne Court in a couple of weeks, and I’d like there to be more. 

I am also firmly of the view that the Council and Police be held more accountable for the services that they provide locally. I have drawn up a list of service standards and performance indicators that I would like to see reported on at Local Area Partnerships, so that service performance in things like crime reduction, street cleaning and road repairs are public knowledge. I have shared this with colleagues and will discuss how we can take this forward. Local people should be told how services are being delivered in their very local area – in Prestwich not just in Bury – and they should be able to direct service provision so that if things aren’t going well, they’re improved. And if some things need more improvement, local people should prioritise them at the expense of other services. Let the local people decide. The Council have said that streets are cleaned every six weeks, and grass verges are cut every so often too. If the streets in Prestwich are too dirty, but the grass verges absolutely fine, then let’s have more streets cleaned and less grass verges cut. Let the people decide. 

And I have asked that in future, all estate inspections like the one for Carr Clough are followed up, with named officers responsible for ensuring that repairs are carried out, or reasons given where they are not.

It should be simple, and I will be angry if this simple thing can’t happen. I am sick of local people having no say on service delivery. I am tired of being fobbed off by the people who’s job it is to serve us. I am angry, and I am going to keep trying to make real performance information in Prestwich public, get services improved, and get done the things promised to you by the Council.  

Rick