Richard Baum

At the end of tonight’s meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, I nicked one of the brochures brought along by the Council’s Prestwich Youth Manager, which outlines the activities for families and adults taking place in Bury over the summer.

I have to say that I am absolutely astounded by some of the things on offer, and I urge any local resident to check out the events on offer at www.bury.gov.uk/events. There’s something to do virtually every single day between now and October, much of it completely free. I am already excited about going up the Peel Tower next Sunday (for the princely sum of £1), and if I was off work all summer like Tamsin (who’s a teacher), I could keep myself well and truly amused with walks, nature activities, arts and crafts, events, shows and other activities.

In Prestwich alone, before this month is out there is the chance to enjoy Salsa, swing and jive dancing, and pond dipping in Philips Park. And in the wider Borough there’s talks at Bury Art Gallery, a tour of the town hall, ranger quests in the parks and walks all over the shop.

For families over the summer there are many things to do with the kids. Thomas the Tank Engine appears at the East Lancs Railway on the first three days of August, there are mini-beast hunts in parks, mask making, and a family fun day in St Mary’s Park in the ward on 16th and 17th August.

The “What’s On” guide also details the activities ongoing throughout the year, and local societies and clubs to join. I just wish I could give up work and do all these things! I’d be busier than I am now!

I am not normally one to give PR to the Council, because often they make me want to hurl myself out of the window in anger. But on this occasion and with this range of activities on offer for residents, they have excelled themselves. I am going to put some dates in the diary right now.

Rick 

Don’t forget that it’s Prestwich Local Area Partnership tonight, from 18:30 at St Monica’s High School. Part of the agenda will be dedicated to the Prestwich Community Plan, which will outline the vision for Prestwich’s improvement over the next three years to 2011.

What is the Community Plan?

The Community Plan is a document which sets out the Local Area Partnership’s (LAP’s) priorities for Prestwich between 2008-11. It is the document which says how Prestwich will become a better place to live in the next three years.

The Community Plan contains ten priorities overall, with the aim to create a Green Prestwich, a Thriving Prestwich, and a Strong Prestwich.

Each of these 10 priorities contains some specific actions which the LAP aims to achieve by 2011.

The first Prestwich Community Plan was created in 2001, with a second Plan in 2005. The first two plans were aspirational documents, but this new plan sets out targets for the LAP to achieve, building on the successes in Prestwich in recent years, and setting the scene for progress in the future.

Who was involved in creating the Community Plan?

The Community Plan has been created after joint working with a wide range of partners, including the Council, Police, Fire Service, NHS Primary Care Trust, the voluntary and faith sectors, and other agencies. There have been a number of events held in the last year in Prestwich and Bury, such as the Bury Community Conference and the Bury Community Planning Event, involving all partners in setting priorities for the area.

Local people have had their say too, via their local Councillors and through the opportunities to comment on drafts presented to previous meetings of the Local Area Partnership. The Developing Communities Working Group of the LAP has met 7 times to discuss the Plan during its development.

In addition, evidence such as government policies, current Council plans, surveys and local intelligence information like the Prestwich Neighbourhood Intelligence Assessment has been used to inform the priorities in the Community Plan.

After extensive consultation and analysis, the Plan was brought together by Carran O’Grady, the Prestwich LAP Manager, with assistance from Councillors and other partners.
What are the Plan’s priorities for Prestwich?

The Community Plan sets out the LAP’s joint priorities for Prestwich. There are 10 in all:

A Green Prestwich
1. Improve Parks and Leisure Facilities for Prestwich
2. Achieve a reduction in car usage in Prestwich
3. Reduce air pollution in Prestwich
4. Improve the Prestwich environment by reducing litter and graffiti

A Thriving Prestwich
5. Create a clear vision for the redevelopment of Prestwich town centre
6. Support for the retention and growth of local Prestwich Village Town Centre businesses
7. Create Better Facilities for the most deprived areas of Prestwich

A Strong Prestwich
8. Make Prestwich healthier
9. Make Prestwich safer, and reduce crime and the fear of crime
10. Create a Prestwich for people of all ages

How will we make sure that we achieve our priorities?

Each of the 10 priority areas detailed in the Community Plan contains agreed actions and target outcomes. There are approximately 70 actions overall that will need to be completed by 2011.

Every action has an identified person and/or agency responsible. All the partner agencies, including the Council, Police and NHS, have agreed to the Community Plan, so everyone knows what they have to do. The identified people and agencies will regularly report back to the LAP and the two LAP working groups on progress, and we can make sure we achieve our aims.

How does the Prestwich Community Plan link to the wider plans for Bury?

Prestwich LAP is one of six LAPs in Bury, each with their own Community Plan. All the Community Plans link to an overall Team Bury plan for the whole Borough.

Each of the 10 priorities in the Prestwich Community Plan links directly to a Bury Borough priority. This means that Prestwich improves in step with Bury as a whole, and everyone in the Borough is supportive of Prestwich’s plans and priorities.

What about things that aren’t on the Plan?

Obviously there are many things that aren’t in the Community Plan. This doesn’t mean that they aren’t important. Although the Community Plan identifies 10 priorities, a huge range of actions and targets are contained in the plan, and the priorities themselves will ensure that if a viable project requires LAP support to make Prestwich better, then it will receive the LAP’s help.

Come along and learn more tonight, as well as the usual LAP goodness including updates on everything that’s going on in Prestwich.

Rick

Don’t forget the Prestwich Local Area Partnership meeting, which takes place tomorrow (Thursday) night at St Monica’s school on Bury Old Road. God knows I can’t…

Amongst other things on the agenda, there’ll be an update on the URBED Prestwich Town Centre regeneration project, and the ceremonial unveiling of the Prestwich Plan 2008-11, on which I’ve been beavering away nicely for quite some time, and of which more tomorrow.

It’s an open meeting, and everyone’s always welcome to come along and hear the updates on what’s been going on in Prestwich recently. There will be representatives from the Council, Police, Fire, NHS and other partners there. So if you have a problem, if noone else can help, and if you can find them, come to the LAP and ask your question.

My mouth is still burning from last night’s pizza with the local Police, that unbeknownst to me had the Devil’s Vegetables on it, and was as hot as the centre of the Sun. Normally close proximity to the long arm of the law brings me out in a sweat, so such heated conditions weren’t entirely unexpected during dinner with the local Sergeant. However it’s not often that my mouth is the epicentre of the warmth.

But as well as downing fire-extinguishing mugs of water all morning, I have been talking to the Council’s parks people about a potential skate park in the ward. Such ideas often bring about gasps of horror amongst local people who suspect that such a skate park will attract trouble. The reality is often different, and I think it’s important to provide a safe local place for young people to skateboard about if they want to. Quite why anyone would want to is a mystery, but if the kids like hurtling through the air on a bit of plastic with rollerskate wheels on it, then that’s fine by me as long as they don’t hurt old ladies in the act. Sticking them out in a corner somewhere, which seems to be the approach favoured by the Council, doesn’t help with engaging them in the wider community.

The Parks department are a bit reluctant to get involved because of bad experiences in the past ,but I think that if we design it right, and involve everyone in the planning, we could come up with an idea that’s acceptable. Then of course we have to find the money to fund and maintain it, and short of turning the sofa upside down I don’t have any ideas about this at the moment. But we’re working with people to see if we can find an answer to this too. I will keep you informed. I am going to bring it up at the LAP meeting tomorrow night, which is yet another reason, if one were needed, to come along and join the fun.

Rick

The spectacular Politics Home Index website has alerted me to yet more gems today, in the shape of a couple of articles defending MPs and taking a swipe at the screeching media who are enjoying lambasting them with even more gusto than normal at the moment.

The first half of this article, and the whole of this one provided readers of The Times and The Independent with an opportunity for a more balanced opinion of the current debate raging about the merits of MPs, and the dubious rationale for their wages and expenses.

I’ve said on here before that I have more sympathy for the MPs than I do for the screaming hacks attacking them. Obviously there are the money-grabbers and the expense-fiddlers, and they should be rooted out. But find any group of 650 people and there are bound to be one or two bad apples. I believe that the vast majority of MPs are decent, hard-working people who do their very best for tens of thousand of constituents many hundreds of miles from home. They need second homes, they need things to put in them, and they need to be paid good salaries.

I read crazy things every day - that MPs should be paid the minimum wage, that they should receive nothing but the state pension, that they should pay for a second home from their salary. These two articles redress the balance somewhat, and provide some sane analysis of what might happen if these things came to pass.

MPs don’t make it easy on themselves. They do look foolish when they aren’t as transparent as they might be. And the few naughty ones being plastered on page 1 of the News of the World makes them all look bad. But these are the people elected by us to make our country better. We shouldn’t begrudge them a good salary and some reasonable extras for doing that.

Rick 

This evening I had a very enjoyable and informative “working dinner” with the Prestwich Local Area Partnership Manager and the local Police Sergeant, discussing police targets for the Prestwich Plan.

It was the second time I’d been for tea to Croma in 48 hours, and having admired my Sunday night companion’s pizza from across the table then, I ordered it tonight. And thus I have a top tip for anyone likely to be eating in front of a policeman in the near future - don’t order food with jalapeno peppers on it, because you end up coughing and spluttering all over the poor officer, and looking like an idiot. So Sgt Campbell, I apologise for that.

The meeting itself was a success, and we now have a framework of police targets to go into the plan, which will be presented to the Local Area Partnership later in the week. I was a bit confused before about how the police measured their performance, but now we can see how local police are doing against their Divisional targets, which will give local people much more of an idea about how local law enforcement are making Prestwich safer.

We also talked quite a bit about how to engage more between councillors, the police and local people. We talked about joint surgeries, which might start happening soon, and broader discussions at local meetings regarding crime. So look out for them in the near future.

Rick

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

Like a lot of people, I stave of suicide-by-boredom by spending Saturday afternoons strolling around bleak city centre shopping arcades, occasionally spending money on stuff I don’t need. Yesterday, in a fit of artistic over-reaching, I spent £25 on acrylic paint and brushes, in the laughable belief that I would use them to create something worthy of hanging over the fireplace. The moment has passed now, but sadly the receipt is in the bin.

Most weekends I end up in Waterstone’s at some point. And yesterday I was thumbing through the the varied contents of one of their door-side piles when a middle aged couple in sandles and beige clothes approached me. The man picked up a book and said “Mmm… Murakami is everywhere at the moment, isn’t he? Have you read Norweigan Wood…?” His companion nodded sagely and said “Yes, but I hear this one explores much broader themes.”

Such exchanges disturb me, mainly because I am incapable of having them. I have no idea who is “everywhere,” or why. I know there’s a book called “Norweigan Wood,” only because I picked it up once wondering how anyone could’ve spun a yarn that thick about the Beatles song. I put it down again when I found out that they hadn’t, and I have genuinely no idea what it’s about. I don’t know who Murakami is either. Put on the spot I’d have guessed he was a chef.

I hope that by “everywhere,” the woman meant “in the snippets of the Guradian culture pull-outs that I’ve read in the hope that I’ll appear impressive.” But there is this nagging doubt that actually she does mean everywhere. In every learned conversation. Around every sophisticated dinner party table. On the lips of every member of the congoscenti and in the minds of every person in Britain with a brain in their heads. Except me. Oh, how they laugh at me, these people and their novels.

Going into Waterstone’s is always a humbling affair. There are people in there, strolling around the literary criticism section with their hemp shopping bags and flowery skirts, who know more about books than I would do even if I lived in the shop doing nothing but reading for twenty years. Where do they get the time? It takes me weeks to read a novel, even if I devour one page after another, simply because after I get though about five of them it’s time to go to a meeting or go to bed. Are these booky people devoid of all other things in their lives? Do they go home to their charming Victorian semis in Chorlton and find nothing within but a pile of books? Do they not work? Or sleep?

I am insanely envious of these people. Their conversations about novels make them sound interesting and cultured, whereas my conversations about the Bury mayoral referendum make me sound geekish and nerdy. They know about authors and themes and narrative arcs. I know about local government performance trends, road maintenance budgets and the Prestwich Plan. They have a favourite passage from Ulysses, I have a favourite political website. They can talk about the new McEwan (and they’d probably scoff at it too…), and pretty young students fall at their feet. I can name the Shadow Home Secretary, and pretty young students run away. Literally, they run from me. 

Maybe it’s because books are sexy and councils are not. I need to find a better way of turning that equation round than quoting recycling statistics.

Even the fun stuff that I know about, like the Premier League and The West Wing, just make me seem a bit over keen. There is a casual effortlessness about literary discussion which seems to go hand in hand with sophistication. And now I’m thinking about how I know nothing about wine either… Was there a week in school where all this was taught? Was I off sick? How do some people know all this stuff, and I don’t? I hope to God they’re faking.

It’s not that I don’t read. I think it’s that I read the wrong stuff. I bet if I asked that couple in Waterstone’s what they were reading, they’d have named a novel so obscure yet so influential that I would’ve been swallowed up in a vortex of panic at my own ignorance. I though am currently reading six things. I am reading The Economist, the Lib Dem News, Private Eye, LGA First Magazine, a novel by Mark Haddon so lightweight that it needs lead weights to stop it floating away, and Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, which I picked up after his birthday concert the other week, thinking that I probably should.

Maybe that’s the problem. If I had six novels on the go at once, before too long I’d be able to at least hold a conversation about them all, so long as it didn’t venture towards comparing their endings. Maybe these bookworms never read anything but novels, and so whilst they can chat relentlessly about Doris Lessing, they don’t have a clue about Robert Mugabe.

Anyway, it’s an issue, this Waterstone’s thing. I go in there and come out full of remorse that I haven’t dedicated my life to reading the great novels, and full of the knowledge that even if I started now I’d still never finish. Every week I’d read a couple of books, only for twenty more to be published that make the critics gush with praise. I need to find a way to reconcile myself to the fact that I probably won’t ever read the wonderful works of classic literature. I will probably never have time to appreciate the power of the written word to convey humanity’s strongest and deepest emotions. Which is sad but, I fear, a necessary sacrifice for now if I’m going to fully understand this quarter’s housing maintenance statistics.

And, whilst the book people can moan about congestion charging and post office closures round their dinner table, making no difference to anything, I can… Well, at least I get my picture in The Advertiser from time to time.

Rick 

As well as spending £100,000 and countless hours staging a referendum that moved us precisely nowhere and yet which still managed to please me, the Council has also this week given me my debut on the Licensing and Safety Panel. This is the group of Councillors who decides whether to grant licenses to taxi drivers (in the main) and whether or not to take them off the naughty ones.

Obviously there are loads of applications for licenses every year, and so the panel only gets to see the ones that aren’t clear-cut decisions. Most people applying for licenses are perfectly decent people wanting to earn a living performing this important public service. But an important public service it is, and so everyone wanting to do it has to be a fit and proper person, and when they’ve got a criminal record as long as the Tyne Bridge, it’s up to me and the rest of the panel to decide.

This is an important job. Not only are we talking about the livelihoods of the people involved, but also their families and of course the safety of their passengers. It’s not to be taken lightly.

We had about half a dozen license revocation issues at the start. This is where license holders have done something naughty (usually getting caught plying for hire rather than picking up pre-booked customers like they’re supposed to, although occasionally something very naughty indeed like beating someone up) and now come before us to see if it’s naughty enough for us to take their license off them.

After that was a dozen or so applications, where we were tasked with deciding whether people with criminal histories were now reformed enough to be given a license. For some it was easy, either because their discretions were so few or ancient as to barely be worth a mention, or because they had more form than Reggie Kray. But for others it really was touch and go. It doesn’t feel pleasant watching a man trying to make a living be denied that opportunity by us.

What irks the most is spent prosecutions. Under the enhanced CRB check that taxi drivers must submit to, all the convictions ever recorded, spent or not, are disclosed. So we have cases of people with long records stretching over a number of years, but who have been conviction free for a decade or more. What do we do with people like this? And, should they even have to tell us? What is the point of a spent conviction if it is never truly wiped away? One fella had a trivial conviction the best part of 20 years ago. Why should he have to declare that no matter what job he’s going for? He committed the crime but he paid the punishment and has obviously reformed since.

It was an interesting evening, and the legal advice we got through light on some interesting issues, like the achingly slow criminal justice system. Unfortunately these meetings aren’t open to the public because of the confidential things discussed. It’s a shame because unlike 95% of the other Council meetings, watching one of these would probably enthuse people about what we Councillors get up to. Sadly the public are stuck with scrutiny, where it’s now wonder the average audience is nil.

Rick

The people of Bury voted “No” to an elected Mayor yesterday, rejecting the proposals by a 60:40 margin.

The final result was 15,425 votes “No” and 10,338 votes “Yes”, with a turnout of 18%.

Lib Dems in Bury campaigned hard for a “No” vote in the referendum, and I am glad that the idea of an elected Mayor has been rejected by local people. As I’ve been saying on here all week and elsewhere for ages, a Mayor would have been an expensive and democratically disastrous move for Bury.

The “Yes” campaign suggested that the voting for a Mayor would help defeat plans for a congestion charge. In reality the idea that a Mayor could stop the congestion charge was always false, and I always thought that local people wouldn’t believe it. Bury Lib Dems continue to oppose the congestion charge, and the Council is now free to continue working hard to get improved public transport for Bury without this additional tax.

It is a shame that the people behind the original petition cannot be brought to book for their half-truths and rumours - the effect of which has been an expensive and time-consuming referendum which has achieved nothing but keep some people’s faces in the papers.

I maintain that this referendum was never really wanted by the people of Bury, many of whom were tricked into signing a petition they thought was about something else. The massive rejection of an elected Mayor is a victory for common sense and a defeat for those who try to trick local people.

The issue of the Mayor was always about more than the congestion charge. A Mayor would have meant a less democratic system for local people, and would have cost a small fortune every year, taking money from vital services to pay for a vanity exercise.

The result last night has had several spin-off effects. On ths plus side, I can now stop writing about it, which is a relief. On the negative side though, I am regretting getting fitted up for those ermine robes now. I suppose they will have to go back now that we won’t be having a Mayor…

Rick

Today polling stations are open in the referendum to decide whether Bury should have an elected Mayor.
People should vote at their normal polling stations (that we used for the elections in May). The polling stations are open from 7.00am - 10.00pm. You do not need your polling card to vote.
If you have a postal vote which hasn’t yet been returned, you can fill this in in the normal way and take it round to your local polling station.

The local Liberal Democrats are urging everyone to vote NO in the election because we believe this to be an undemocratic waste of public money. Lots of people have questions about this important issue, the local Lib Dems have produced this factsheet
to answer some of your questions.