Richard Baum

Last week’s rejection of an elected Mayor for Bury is welcome. The proposals were a waste of money, democratically damaging, and I am glad that local people did not fall for the lies and spin on the issue of congestion charging.

However, the fact is that 10,000 people and 40% of those who voted indicated their desire to change the way Bury is run. I don’t think we should ignore their dissatisfaction with local services, nor their indictment of the way the Council is run. They voted for a Mayor despite the compelling reasons not to. I bet that many of those who voted “no” did so not out of love for the Council but because they took heed of the consequences of a “yes.”

Council services in Bury have been consistently cut over more than two decades of control by Labour, and more recently in the past couple of years by the Conservatives. Over that same period, Council Tax bills (and Community Charge and Rates before them) have gone up as we have been asked time and again to pay more for less. Every year the story is the same, and I bet I can write my budget speech for next year this weekend and barely have to change it on the night. It’s predictable even now that bills will go up and services will go down.

More disturbingly still, the power of local communities to have a fair say on local services continues to diminish. Post Offices have closed in Bury, as have maternity services and libraries, all in the face of significant public protest. The government and Council may pretend to “consult,” but their consultations are in fact information campaigns. I am as insulted by their lack of honesty about this as I am about the fact that they don’t listen to local views at all.

The Labour government, both nationally and locally, started this rot, and the Conservative administration in Bury since 2007 have done nothing to stop it.

Liberal Democrats in Bury have consistently supported local people in their attempts to stop the appalling cuts in local services. We led the successful fight to stop the closure of local secondary schools in 2005, and have also led appeals to save hospital facilities locally. Just last month a Liberal Democrat motion ensured Council support for an end to local Post Office closures, and our petition on the same topic has thousands of signatures. We are also the party who secured Council opposition to congestion charging.

Our respect for true devolution of power to communities can be seen in how we run the Prestwich Local Area Partnership – with real consultation with local people, and a variety of community groups having a legitimate say in how local money is spent. I recently took the chair of the Developing Communities Working Group, which has developed since its inception to be a leading forum for the community to have their say on the future of Prestwich.

The preservation of local services and obtaining value for money as well is no pipe-dream. It can be achieved through fairer local taxation, which is something that Lib Dems have proposed for a long time in the abolition of Council Tax and the reform of business rates.

The Mayoral referendum was not the right way to seek reform of our Council. But what it did achieve was showing those in charge that they are disappointing a great number in our communities. The failings of successive Labour and Conservative policies locally are clear, and there is lots that we need to do to improve. Local Liberal Democrats will continue their hard work for local people across Bury in the hope that we can create better local services that provide real value for the people of Bury.

Rick