Richard Baum

Hello, and welcome to my web site.

I am Richard Baum, a Liberal Democrat Focus Team councillor for St Mary’s ward, one of the three Prestwich wards on Bury Council, and one of three Lib Dem Councillors representing this ward (alongside Cllr Donal O’Hanlon and Cllr Mary D’Albert).

My full time job is in the NHS, where I work for Pennine Care NHS Trust as a Business Planning Manager.

I hope you enjoy the site, and particularly enjoy reading my blog. I try to make it an honest account of how a Councillor spends his time, as well as a place where you can read my thoughts on lots of things, political and (often) not political.

I hope you find it entertaining and a useful way of keeping up to date with my work in the ward and on the Council, as well as getting to know me a bit more. I try not to bash the opposition just for the sake of it, and a lot of what I write has little or nothing to do with politics anyway! Please feel free to comment on what you read by sending me an email. I will always try to respond.

I have kept a blog since August 2006, and you can see the old version (up to August 2007) here. The old blog made it into Iain Dale’s top 100 Lib Dem blogs in 2006 and 2007 and even got a favourable review from the New Statesman! The new blog has been featured on Lib Dem Voice, and was shortlisted for “Best Blog from someone in an Elected Public office” at the Lib Dem blog of the year awards.

I am 27 years old and I am Prestwich’s youngest Councillor, and also the only Jewish Councillor in the area - we have a very large Jewish community in Prestwich and I am proud to represent it.

St Mary’s ward is one of three wards in Prestwich. It starts at the M60 junction 17, and travelling towards Manchester, it’s everything on your right until you reach Rainsough to the south and the border with Salford to the west. It’s also everything on your left until you reach St Mary’s park to the south, and the Metrolink line to the east.

I have lived in Bury for most of my life, and my family have lived in Prestwich since the 1950s. I currently live on Butterstile Close in the ward with my girlfriend Tamsin, who is a primary school teacher. Before that I lived on Clifton Road in the ward for a few years. Apart from three years in Birmingham at uni, and a couple of years after that in south Manchester, I have been a Bury boy all my life.

I was first elected to the Council in May 2007, as part of the growing Lib Dem group. I serve on the following committees:

Prestwich Local Area Partnership Prestwich

Local Area Partnership Community Development Working Group (I am Chair of this Group)

Resource and Performance Scrutiny Commission

Licensing Committee

Bury Independent Advice Centre

Eleanor Asseton Charity

Suggestion Scheme Panel

I have also served on a number of other committees and outside bodies in the past, including the Housing Issues Advisory Group, the Supporting People Scrunity Panel, and the Council’s Youth Cabinet

I have also represented Bury Council on the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority, and some of its various committees such as the Transport Network Committee and the Service Improvement Sub-Committee.

I support a wide variety of local organisations and groups. This includes local residents associations and community groups and I am a governor of Butterstile Primary School in my ward.

I am also the Secretary of Bury Liberal Democrats and have served as Membership Secretary in the past.

In my spare time I am a member of Northern Air Hospital Radio, the hospital broadcasting service for North Manchester General Hospital. I also like irritating my friends by taking pictures of them and posting them online (there is a link to my photo site in the “useful links” section of this site). I enjoy their company probably more than they enjoy mine, and  I spend most of my time with them.

I like a good book, and can sit through a film every now and again as well. I also like eating out, sadly moreso than I enjoy running these meals off, although I can be seen jogging around Prestwich and Whitefield on occasion. I am worryingly obsessed with TV’s “The West Wing,” and am developing a disturbing warm feeling when presented with a batch of Focus leaflets to deliver.I really do hope you enjoy this site, and please get in touch.Rick