Richard Baum

Tuesday night was the Planning Committee’s final decision on the Children’s Centre for our ward at Butterstile School, and I welcome the Planning Committee’s decision to approve planning permission for the Centre. It is great news for the ward and will allow our children and their families to benefit from this new facility.

However, the conduct of the Council in this matter has been less than the standard I expect, and unfortunately some residents, particularly on School Grove, rightly feel let down.

Because of delays caused by errors in the design and consultation stage, overseen by the Labour-controlled Council pre-May and not speedily rectified by the Tory-controlled Council post-May, residents weren’t properly consulted, and the design had to be radically changed. Seemingly nobody at the Council new that building on a hill might cost a bit more money, or that people near to the development might want their say.

Now time is of the essence if the project is to be completed, because by the time the Council got round to designing something workable and consulting properly on it, months had gone on. As a result, considerations such as parking and traffic access on School Grove haven’t been given the consideration they warrant.

I would like to assure residents that I will continue to press for improvements to traffic and parking here, as I did at Planning Committee some weeks ago when this decision was discussed. Interestingly, Labour Councillors were nowhere to be seen supporting residents.

I stood up for residents then and secured a site visit by Planning not because I was opposed to the Children’s Centre (which I am not), or opposed to it being sited at Butterstile (which I am not either, if it’s done right), but because the residents of this ward affected by a development deserve to have their case justly heard. And now I think they have been. The Committee didn’t side with them, but that’s their decision and as long as it was failry made, I’m OK with it. We need to move on now and try to get parking and traffic controls in different ways - working with the school, the users of the new Centre, and the Council itself.

But worryingly, despite the progress with Planning, the much-needed outreach centre at Rainsough is still under threat. Despite me initiating discussions with Labour-run Salford Council and also securing £20,000 from Bury MBC for this project, Salford have so far failed to commit the rest of the money needed to complete this project in Rainsough. They have gone to the press with their colleagues in Bury and said how wonderful it would be, but they seem reluctant to back up their headline-grabs with any kind of financial contribution. If this outreach centre fails to happen it will be a travesty for local people, and I urge as many residents as possible to make their feelings known towards Salford Labour who appear to have ignored my constructive work in favour of doing nothing for Rainsough again. Even if the money comes, it will only be as a result of our continuing prodding, and a small financial gesture coming at the end of many years of neglect.

I hope it comes, and I hope we can all share in the happy opening of an Outreach Centre. It’s up to Salford Labour to join us now and share our work with Rainsough. Will they?

Rick