Richard Baum

February is the month of romantic Valentine’s day, of my girlfriend’s birthday (so, a double hit to my wallet then…), and significant amounts of leafleting.

Sadly for Bury Council, the love of the nation wasn’t focused upon it during this month, as figures from the government showed that only just over half of the residents of the Borough were satisfied with the way things were being run. Such opinions came back to haunt the ruling Labour group three months later when election results confirmed the general unhappiness.

Prestwich’s ugly “Retreat” fountain was the subject of much debate again, as the news broke that plans for demolition would have to be put on hold because of threatened legal action from the artist. Local Lib Dems had long campaigned for the wall to be replaced with more greenery and more seats, but this legal news meant that our plans to give local people what they wanted had hit the buffers. But we started the campaign there and then to get something done at least.

The Tulle Courtdevelopment reached Planning Committee, and plans were approved to replace four of the five derelict blocks of flats with new homes for families in the area. A number of local people opposed the developments, and Lib Dems tried to put their case at Planning. As a result of our joint efforts, a number of concessions were made by the developers.

And this month residents of Highfield Roadcontacted me for the first time about the troubles they’ve been having with traffic and parking since the Radius development and M&S opened. We are still working with the Council to try and sort this one out. My colleague Cllr Donal O’Hanlon has asked questions at Council and worked tirelessly with local people and the Highways and Traffic people at the Council to get this sorted. I have raised it at Local Area Partnership and we continue to demand resident’s only parking for local people. We will continue the pressure and hopefully resolve this in 2008.

Rick