Richard Baum

Here’s a question - would Sir Alan Sugar hire a man who, when set the task of firing three job applicants and narrowing the shortlist to two, in fact manages to only fire one applicant, thus leaving four?

Probably not. And yet Sir Alan himself did just that this evening, whilst hunting for his Apprentice on BBC1. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but tonight I ws forced to watch The Apprentice having been cruelly abandoned by Tamsin. She has gone to see “Sex And The City,” a movie so unappealing that I’d genuinely trade in my corneas for a medium popcorn at the cinema door rather than have to sit and watch it. So I was left with the television and the ironing.

Thankfully, the evening was for-shortened somewhat by the Developing Communities sub-group of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which I chair and which took place at the Methodist Church Hall after work, postponing my return to the empty house with its irnonig and television by a couple of hours. A surprisingly low turn-out this time after some staff shake-ups in the partner organisations over the election period, but there were still eight of us there to talk about some of the key issues in Prestwich.

There were updates on the Children’s Centres - the Sedgley one is all but done and we’re talking about the garden area and developing outreach facilities. The St Mary’s one is a bit further behind after the planning delay, but is still set for completion in the summer.

We also talked about a great new health project in Rainsough targeting men through football, and giving them the opportunity to earn formal qualifications and get health check-ups through participating in events put on by the local Primary Care Trust.

There were some frustrations, such as the ongoing saga with the Rainsough shops on Chapel Road, but on the whole it was a very positive meeting, giving groups the chance to talk to each other and build networks that can help us all. That’s one of the main aims of the group, and it works well.

It was also the first formal meeting where we could present our ideas as Councillors for the new Prestwich Plan, which I hope will form the bedrock of everything we’re doing for the next three years. It amalgamates early drafts, which accrued after conversations with partners, with our own ideas for a green, strong and thriving Prestwich. There are ten priority areas, and actions in each. We’re consulting on it with the partner agencies now, including representative groups of lots of different areas, faiths and interests. And once we’ve got comments, we can finalise and publicise the document and move forward achieving what we’ve said we’re going to do, in conjunction with the Council and everyone else.

Not a bad evening’s work, even if now I am bored and wondering how long that film she’s gone to see can possibly be…

Rick