This weekend may be my last.

On Saturday afternoon I am going “sphereing” with Tamsin. This is an “extreme sport” which essentially involves strapping oneself inside a gigantic transparent sphere and being rolled down a hill. 

I bought this “experience” as a gift for Tam for her birthday, expecting one of her mad friends to offer to accompany her. I was quite happy to drive the pair of them there and back, and watch from a safe distance. Unfortunately, due to a date-clashing tragedy, no such friend is available and thus I am forced to undergo the undoubtedly joyous pleasure of rolling round and round inside a massive rubber ball. 

And then, after that, I have agreed to go ice skating with a couple of friends of our’s. Which means that in the unlikely event of emerging from the sphere with my cognitive function still intact, I have the dubious delight of gliding without any control of my limbs across a frozen surface, surrounded by braying 12 year olds pointing at me as I hurtle towards the barrier and my certain death. 

It is “disco fever” at the rink as well, which means that the entire scene will be set to a Euro Dance soundtrack. I always pictured my final moments to the sound of a lamenting military band of some sort, and possibly thousands of weeping onlookers. But it seems like it will be the Venga Boys. 

I have never quite understood the appeal of ice skating. Entering a slippery surface with hundreds of other people nearby, every one of whom is wearing a pair of knives on the bottom of their shoes, is surely never a wise move. It becomes doubly silly when one’s hands are likely to be on the ground, and thus definitely in harm’s way, for most of the time.  

I fear this may be the last time I post. If so, I leave my collection of Simon and Garfunkel albums to the local branch of Oxfam, and my casework to Cllr O’Hanlon. 

Have good weekends all. 

Rick

I have been busy in the last couple of days. As well as delivering the last of the current batch of Focus leaflets to homes in the Hilton Lane area, I attended a residents’ meeting in Carr Clough, where there were discussions about litter, anti-social behaviour, and dangerous dogs. 

What has become apparent over recent days is the frustration that local residents have about the way the Council, the Police and others are responding to their concerns. Time and time again I hear of local people being ignored or fobbed off – reporting crimes and no Police turning up, or asking for a Council service and being told that there’s no money. Or worse, being ignored entirely.

I don’t know whether all of these stories are 100% true, but I do believe that there is a growing dissatisfaction and a growing disconnection between local people and the Police / Council. And I share this frustration. 

This week I received a report about an inspection of the Carr Clough estate in my ward. A number of issues were highlighted, including repairs necessary to fencing, paving and signs. Some of them will be attended to by the Six Town Housing caretakers themselves, but others will require Council Departments to work together to get things done. I have spoken to and emailed a number of Council officers trying to find out when, how and if these repairs might be carried out, but I’m passed from pillar to post. The answers seem to be that nobody is really sure who is responsible for carrying them out, and that there’s probably not any money to do it anyway. The Council Departments have their planned cycle of repairs, and these new ones that have arisen from the inspection are more of an inconvenience than anything else. 

Not only is this utterly unacceptable, but it begs a couple of questions. 

First, why the Council Departments aren’t working much closer together. If repairs need to be done, there should be named contacts in each Council Department who can ensure that the repair is carried out. Six Town Housing should refer an Environmental Services matter to a named contact in that Department. And we should all know who that person is. 

And second, why is it that small amounts of money are not made available to ensure that these repairs are carried out quickly? We need to be much more responsive to community need, not sit back and casually blame budgetary pressures. These repairs are the little things that people really notice – the repairs to pavements, the new “no dog fouling” sign, the re-erected fence. These are the things that give people pride in their area and faith in the Council. And they are the things that local Councillors should be able to insist on. I am not asking for a new road to be built, or a massively expensive programme of repairs. Just a few pounds here and there on the small but important things.

It simply isn’t good enough to be fobbed off time and time again. Local people have elected me to act on their behalf, and I am thwarted by unelected officers. I am a Council officer myself, for a living. I know that there are budgetary pressures. But inflexibility and a lack of response to community need is even worse, and it needs to end. 

Crucially, local people need to know what’s going on (or not going on) and why. At the moment the frustration is building because they feel that they’re grasping in the dark. 

With that in mind, I have suggested a couple of things this week to be discussed amongst my fellow Councillors and the Local Area Partnership. 

We must investigate some “Pride in Prestwich” events where local people are encouraged to join us and clean up their local area. The Council will be there to help, and other local service providers like the police and fire service will be there too to give advice. There is one such event happening in Sherbourne Court in a couple of weeks, and I’d like there to be more. 

I am also firmly of the view that the Council and Police be held more accountable for the services that they provide locally. I have drawn up a list of service standards and performance indicators that I would like to see reported on at Local Area Partnerships, so that service performance in things like crime reduction, street cleaning and road repairs are public knowledge. I have shared this with colleagues and will discuss how we can take this forward. Local people should be told how services are being delivered in their very local area – in Prestwich not just in Bury – and they should be able to direct service provision so that if things aren’t going well, they’re improved. And if some things need more improvement, local people should prioritise them at the expense of other services. Let the local people decide. The Council have said that streets are cleaned every six weeks, and grass verges are cut every so often too. If the streets in Prestwich are too dirty, but the grass verges absolutely fine, then let’s have more streets cleaned and less grass verges cut. Let the people decide. 

And I have asked that in future, all estate inspections like the one for Carr Clough are followed up, with named officers responsible for ensuring that repairs are carried out, or reasons given where they are not.

It should be simple, and I will be angry if this simple thing can’t happen. I am sick of local people having no say on service delivery. I am tired of being fobbed off by the people who’s job it is to serve us. I am angry, and I am going to keep trying to make real performance information in Prestwich public, get services improved, and get done the things promised to you by the Council.  

Rick

The Liberal Democrats have launched new proposals to make Britain zero carbon by 2050.  With these policies we will be the first major British party to map out the route to a carbon neutral Britain.

We Liberal Democrats have been talking about the environment and tackling climate change long before it became fashionable. We know that pollution doesn’t respect national boundaries and that climate change is a global problem that requires an international solution. Britain should not be a bit player in finding that solution; we should be leading the pack. Whilst Labour fail to hit their own targets, and the Tories have no firm policies at all, here are the ten steps to an improved and sustainable environment promised by the Lib Dems:

1. Make Britain carbon neutral. The Liberal Democrats are the first party to aim for a carbon neutral Britain where we absorb as much carbon as we emit by 2050. The Government is aiming for a 60 per cent cut, and the Tories for an 80 per cent cut.

2. Build a high speed rail line and back rail improvements. The Liberal Democrats are the only credible party on rail investment because we identify a way of paying for it - tolling lorries on motorways.

3. Set up a leapfrog fund to back clean energy in developing countries. There will be no solution to climate change if the developing world has to choose between prosperity and the planet. We must back cheap renewables to power their growth.

4. Boost flood defences and other changes to respond to climate change. New threats need to be met with new responses in a UK national adaptation plan.

5. Commit to 100 per cent carbon free, non-nuclear electricity by 2050. Provide new incentives for renewables and micro-generation through appropriate guaranteed prices.

6. Introduce ‘green mortgages’ to fund the upgrading of our housing stock. On present progress, the Government would take 125 years to meet modern energy efficiency standards. The Tories have no plans.

7. Tax pollution not people. The Liberal Democrats want to reverse the decline in green taxation under Labour, and use the revenue to cut income tax. The Tories have not come up with specific plans.

8. Toughen up the EU emissions trading scheme by auctioning permits. The Conservatives cannot admit the EU is key to tackling climate change, whilst Labour is in the back pocket of the CBI.

9. Back a global treaty with fair carbon shares for all. The only just basis for carbon-sharing is where each person is entitled ultimately to emit the same total: contraction and convergence.

10. The Liberal Democrats are the first party to set out a comprehensive plan to curb carbon emissions.  Labour’s policies are full of contradictions whereas the Tories do not have firm plans. We will reform Whitehall to ensure all departments take climate change seriously.

These plans are the first and only realistic route for change. Only by supporting the Liberal Democrats can we ensure a carbon neutral Britain.

Rick

Things have not rested whilst I’ve been away, and continue to carry on now that I’m back. Cllr O’Hanlon did a grand job of looking after my ward work whilst I was on holiday, and I thank him for that.

Since I have come back, a number of things have happened. Here are just a couple - I have arranged a meeting with residents of Webster Grove this week to talk about various housing and anti-social behaviour problems and see if we can move forward there. I have also started to arrange a meeting with Cllr Connor from Salford City Council about the shops in Rainsough which are a top priority for us to redevelop as soon as possible.

So things carry on, and just because I am on holiday doesn’t mean we stop working for you.

Rick

I am back from holiday. I spent five glorious days on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland. It is a land so staggeringly beautiful that it is the single most compelling argument against air-travel that I yet to come across. Environmental campaigners take note. There’s no need to live in a tent by the M4 for a week. Just convince every would-be flyer to head to the Hebrides for a few days, and nobody would ever go abroad ever again.

It is rare these days that I find myself in a place so remote and unsullied by human litter and concrete that I could quite easily be in another time. If it wasn’t for Tam’s Nissan Micra transporting us across the moorland roads at 50mph, I could have been in the Dark Ages or the Victorian age, or any time in between.

For mile upon mile there is nothing, nothing, but nature. Pine forests and bouldered cliffs, grazing sheep and soaring eagles. We went to Staffa one afternoon, completely devoid of the touch of humanity for decades, and all the better for it. So exceptionally quiet that when the wind died away I understood what silence was for the first time in a long while. 

Iona too is a beautiful place. Ten minutes by boat from Mull itself, it is the home of Christianity in Scotland – and a better testament to God’s glorious creations I could scarcely contemplate. A fine resting place for the late John Smith, former Labour Party leader who is buried in the grounds of the abbey. 

We had no mobile phone reception of course, so I was forced to live as our forefathers did, without text messages for the better part of a week. But I didn’t die. Probably because we had BBC News 24 in the room. 

And there were very few tourists to speak of. I was expecting (and the Rough Guide had told me to expect) thousands of holiday makers yomping across the grasslands, and children doing the “Balamory” tour through Tobermory. There were surprisingly few. I was happy not to be surrounded by ten thousand mobile-home driving Americans tearing through the island. But at the same time I hope people aren’t deserting this beautiful place for a cheap last minute deal somewhere horrific out of the Airtours brochure… 

We climbed Ben More, the highest peak on the island, an official “Munro” and, at 1000 metres up and boggier than you’d think, probably not the best thing to be attempting to climb in my trainers and a t-shirt. The last thing St Mary’s needs is a by-election, which was one thought that went through my mind as I clambered uneasily over the scree. 

We came back via a wedding in Newcastle, which is a surprisingly long way from Mull. And now I’m back.

I am going on my summer holidays tomorrow, to the Isle of Mull, in the Hebrides. I am disappointed to learn from the BBC weather service that the defining feature of the island for the next five days is going to be threatening clouds. However, I suppose it could be argued that if I’d wanted tropical sunshine, heading north from Manchester probably wasn’t the brightest idea. 

I have never been to Mull before. In fact, my Scottish adventures have been limited to a couple of weekends in Glasgow during a foolish teenage romance, and a break in Edinburgh when a £10 Travelodge room was too good to resist. I hear that Mull has birds to spot and caves to explore, mountains to climb and walks to take. And that’s what I’ll be doing. 

We are also attending a wedding in Newcastle on our way home in a few days. Due to an horrific geographical error, I assumed that getting from Mull to Newcaslte would be like getting from Manchester to Liverpool. Unfortunately this assumption was based on the belief that my own brain was a superior mapping tool than Ordnance Survey, and yesterday I was sorely disappointed to note, on consulting a map, that Mull and Newcastle are almost as far apart as Mull and Manchester. 

The wedding itself will be yet another occasion when a couple more of my friends remind me of my advancing years and get hitched, rather than, y’know, behaving like teenagers for a few more years, or sitting at home with their parents playing video games, drinking milk and watching cartoons. It will be the first wedding where both bride and groom are long-standing friends, rather than just one half of the couple. Watching them in bride and groom-wear will be like some mad dressing-up game gone awry. It should be the generation above us getting married. Not our one. I am firmly of that belief for the time being. 

I may cry at the ceremony as well, which is unacceptable for one of my standing. 

All of which is a round-the-houses way of saying that I won’t really be blogging much over the next few days. But I will be back after the break for more. 

Rick

Today is A-Level results day, and so thousands of young people across the country can breath a sigh of relief that the wait is over. If you got the grades you wanted, well done. And if not, there are many, many options available, so don’t be despondant.

I still have nightmares now about my own A-Level results day in 1999. The results themselves were fine, but the worry remains with me to this day. I occasionally still have dreams where I find myself panicking about the impending results. And it takes me a few seconds when I wake up to realise that it’s all in the past now. The whole of the A-level process was deeply unpleasant, and more work then I’ve ever done for anything in my life. And I’m glad because it taught me the value of hard work, and the limits of my own capacity to do hard work.

The “are they easier?” debate rages on, as it does every year. I don’t think it needs to. Regardless of whether they are easier or not, and regardless of how hard people work, the A-Levels are failing to distiguish between the brightest and the less bright. The award of an A-Level is primarily to reward achievement and learning, but an important secondary purpose is to enable employers and universities to pick those with the most potential. And the system fails here. The government suggests an A* grade as a way of picking out the very highest achievers, but this still leaves a quarter of all students getting an A. There arte schools ditching A-Levels for International Baccalaureates, and of more universities having entry tests now.

What we need is to find a way of allowing the hard workers to get the recognition they deserve, and simultaneously of allowing them to be distinguished from their fellow students.

So why not get rid of grades altogether? Imagine a student who gets 85% in his Maths A-Level. Why can’t this student have this recorded on his certificate, rather than a grade A, which may well fail to dstinguish him from someone who got 75% or 100%? Why not also have a second score shown next to the percentage, giving an idea of how close to the top of all the other students my student came? My student’s 85% may actually be the best result in the country. Or it might be the worst. At the moment there is no way of knowing.

Rather than giving offers of grades or points, universities could request average percentages, or average placings on the list of scores for that exam. Or a mixture. This would also allow them to distinguish between supposedly “hard” and “soft” subjects. An offer of 80% in Maths, and in the top 10% of all entries for Media Studies say, regardless of score. It would also allow universities to tailor their offers if the papers are perceived as easier in one year to the next.

Just a thought…

Rick

Well, the Great Sea Bass Experiment of 2007 passed without major incident. I cooked dinner for Tamsin using hitherto untried ingredients without the need for a meeting of the government’s emergency COBRA committee in response. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were not required to reprise their roles in The Towering Inferno, and there were no light aircraft emptying tons of water over a mile-square area of flaming Prestwich. Whether or not the incident passed off without food-poisoning will become clear in the coming days.

This afternoon I am attending a Council meeting about ”I’m a Councillor, get me out of here!” which is not a documentary about our collective feelings at the Council meeting last Wednesday night, but is in fact a scheme to engage young people with local democracy and their Councillors. I must say that at present I know little more about it than that, but I will be briefed later and can report back tomorrow.

And then this evening I am going to see Manchester City. In a fit of madness in the wake of my election victory, I decided that I’d treat myself to some Premiership football, and bought a pair of season tickets. Given that City managed to score a whopping 10 home goals all last season means that I am not expecting Brazil, but it should be an entertaining way to let off some steam on occasion. Worryingly I can see myself starting to care about the team, which will put me on the road to a lifetime of disappointment. But, as an active member of the third party in a two party system, I suppose I am halfway there already…

Rick

It has been 100 days since I was elected as a Councillor for St Mary’s Ward. I realize that President Roosevelt managed to forge the New Deal and rescue the USA from the depths of depression within 100 days, and I can’t lay claim to that. But I think that together we’ve achieved a good deal in the first 100 days. And, let’s face it, the USA hasn’t stumbled into a depression, so technically they didn’t need saving this time round… 

Since the election, Donal O’Hanlon and I, your local Lib Dem team in St Mary’s have:

-         Opposed congestion charging for Greater Manchester at the Council and the Passenger Transport Authority

-         Secured full-scale consultation on the future of Radcliffe Riverside High School, whilst ensuring that the school is finished on time

-         Ensured re-surfacing of Spring Vale and sections Lowther Road

-         Installed new safety signs of Lowther Road

-         Closed down a troublesome pub on Prestwich Village to enable it to rectify its license violations before re-opening

-         Secured proper protective fencing around the Tulle Court redevelopment for local residents

-         Supported the second annual Prestwich Clough Day, as well as helped to raise funds at yet another successful Prestwich Carnival

-         Ensured proper security for the Jewish cemetery on Bury New Road

-         Kept residents fully informed about parking restrictions on St Mary’s Road

-         Fixed traffic lights at the junction of Chester Road and Bury New Road

-         Attended inaugural meetings of new Tenants and Resident’s Associations for Rainsough and Sherbourne Court, and given our full support to these great new bodies

-         Played a full role in the scrutiny of the Council, with positions on a number of committees

-         Started a serious dialogue on the future of Prestwich Village, with a view to real consultation with residents in the very near future and throughout the process

-         Met with Council officers and residents over concerns about the new Children’s Centre at Butterstile

-         Started talks with Salford Council about renovating the disused shops in Rainsough

-         Replaced a number of street lights vandalized in the spring

-         And much, much more that you can read about in Focus and on this blog

 We promised to keep in touch all year round, and already we have distributed a “thank you” Focus and another full Focus newsletter to every home in the ward, with another Focus on its way in the coming weeks. We write, print, and fold all the Focuses ourselves, and hand deliver them to virtually every house (and post the rest!). We have also held four street surgeries, with more planned in the near future – just look out for dates posted through your door with Focus when we’re round your way. 

We promised to work hard for you all year round, and the list above shows that we are doing just that. If you have an issue, do get in touch and we will try to help. 

The first 100 days have been a steep learning curve, but I am proud of what we’ve started. I hope that in the next 100 days, and the many more to come after that, we can make St Mary’s the place we want it to be.

Rick 

Today has been a day off work, but I have spent most of it attending to council work and writing the new Focus newsletter.

This morning I had telephone conversations with the Council over the cemetery on Bury New Road which has been causing security concerns, and also I finally resolved a blue bin query for a resident that had been rumbling on for about six weeks. Which just goes to show that persistence pays off - although why it took eight emails to get an officer to mnake one phone call is a mystery…

I then sat down to write the new Focus, which needs to be proof-read, printed and folded, but which should with any luck start hitting the doorsteps of St Mary’s when I am back from holiday at the end of the month. There are lots of exciting things to report, including successes in street signs, road maintenance and noise nuisance. And there’s lots going on in the ward to talk about as well, including the proposed Children’s Centre, Tulle Court and the future of the Village. So it will be a packed edition. It certainly tested my desktop-publishing skills - never in my life have I fiddled around for so long trying to fit photos with text. Whoever designed my particular package clearly had a different set of brain wiring than I do, because some of the things on there simply make no sense whatsoever.

I met up with Cllr O’Hanlon mid-afternoon to talk over some casework and take photos for Focus. He was dressed in a suit, having come from work. I was dressed in a polo shirt and jeans and looked as if I’d stumbled off a building site somewhere. So once again Focus will make me look significantly less upstanding than I’d like. But don’t be fooled…

I did have dinner to cook for Tam tonight. I was going to try some sea-bass, and probably burn the house down in the process. Unfortunately for her (but perhaps fortunately for the fire brigade) she is now busy and the culinary / incendiary masterclass will have to be postponed until tomorrow. Which finally allows me some rest. Hurrah.

Rick

Residents who live alongside the Metrolink line need to be aware that the contractors currently working on renewing the track have informed the Council that some limited work may be needed during the night. Your local councillors have protested against this proposal, and we have received assurances that no heavy cutting or noisy work will take place.  However, despite local Lib Dems asking for no work to take place at night, and for the contractors to do as they promised all along, it seems as though we’ve been ignored.

Residents should only have to endure some noise for one night in the majority of cases, but on occasion there will be areas which are inconvenienced for two nights. Please contact me the next morning if work is disturbing you during the night and I will report this immediately to the relevant authorities.

The proposed areas and dates for night working are given below:

Thursday 16^th August – Prestwich to Heaton Park

Friday 17th August  –  Heaton Park to Bowker Vale

Saturday 18^th August – Bowker Vale

Thursday 23rd August  –  Prestwich to Heaton Park  

Friday 24^th August – Heaton Park to Bowker Vale

Saturday 25^th August – Bowker Vale to Queens Road

Wednesday 29^th August – Bowker Vale to Crumpsall

The work will take place in the above mentioned locations between the hours of 10pm and 10am each night and every effort will be made to keep un-necessary noise down to a minimum.  For more details about the track upgrades programme, please phone 0161 228 7811 or visit www.gmpte.com.  Alternatively call Carillion Control on 01788 866 080.

Rick

I have just returned from the Bury Lib Dem summer BBQ, where the rain held-off for long enough for the assembled to enjoy lots of nice food and banter. I think I may suffer serious intestinal failure later on due to an almost incessant refilling of my plate throughout the afternoon. The stages of my gluttony went as follows:

1) “I have eaten just enough to stave off hunger”

2) “I have eaten about enough to make it difficult to get out of my chair without groaning.”

3) “I have eaten so much that people are actually beginning to mutter things to each other now, and look at me a bit funny.”

4) “I have eaten an entire cow.”

5) “Seriously, is this some kind of record attempt?”

6) “Home.”

So, food-wise it was a successfuly afternoon. I also enjoyed upwards of four hours in polite company without saying anything horrifically offensive, which is always a bonus. I live in constant fear that I may crack a joke which, in my head, is utterly hilarious but which, when said out loud, is actually only one step away from a capital offense.  And it becomes extremely difficult not to lapse into risky territory when, as happened today, our host Cllr Ann Garner found herself on the receiving end of some amorous attention from a canine guest. Happily for all concerned the dog found itself distracted by a bag of food waste, leaving Ann to rejoin the conversation, and me to not make any awful jokes.

It was great to see so many supporters out in force, from all over Bury, and this is just the first of a number of social events for the local party in the next few months. Including, of course, the annual dinner. Watch this space for more information on that.

In the meantime, let me take this opportunity to say thanks to our great hosts the Garners, for providing their home and most of the food and drink. A job well done, and a very enjoyable afternoon.

Rick 

There is something exceptionally disheartening about going into Tesco to buy 30 hot dog rolls and 30 burger buns for the BBQ today, and then exiting the building to discover a deluge of water pelting down from above that suggested that I’d have been better off buying an ark than a super-size tube of American-style mustard.

Rick

All residents, both party members and non-members, are welcome at the Bury Lib Dem summer BBQ, which will take place this Sunday at the home of our local party Chair Cllr Andrew Garner, at 82 Glebelands Road in Prestwich.

Come and enjoy the food and drink (especially the burger and sausage buns, which I will be providing!), and meet like-minded Lib Dems and would-be Lib Dems from the local area.

The fun starts at 4pm, and hopefully they won’t be using pictures of me from the Prestwich and Whitefield Guide as kindling for the fire…

Rick

The Prestwich and Whitefield Guide today published an article on my efforts to preserve the privacy of the Jewish cemetary on Bury New Road. The wall surrounding the site has been knocked down as part of a new development, and this has increased visibility and thus the risk of vandalism. I am seeking assurances that a suitable replacement wall be installed as soon as possible, and that in the meantime the flimsy metal fences protecting the site are replaced with sturdy wooden ones. The Prestwich Heritage Society are also helping with the campaign, and have pointed out the historical significance of the site as the second oldest Jewish cemetary in Manchester, dating back to 1841. I thnak them for their efforts in the campaign so far, and I hope that the article in the papers helps to convince the developers of the real need for protective measures.

Rick

This morning I attended a meeting of GMPTA’s Transport Network Committee. The most interesting part of the meeting was discussion of the Metrolink track upgrades. Apparently the number of complaints about the replacement bus service has been much less than anticipated, which is great news. And having experienced the buses myself, it is no surprise - I freely admit that my worries about the service are unfounded and that on the whole it is working well.

However, there is a noticeable disparity between the story being told by officers of the PTE, and the story I’m being told as a Councillor as regards the likelihood of the track repairs beijng completed on time. The officers seem fairly relaxed, but I have been sent a letter explaining that Carillion (the contractors carrying out the work), have asked for 24/7 access to the tracks to make the repairs in time!

I don’t see why the repairs should take longer than necessary, if the original estimates were based on accurate data. Carillion are blaming the weather - first for being too wet to do much of the work, and now for being too hot to test the tracks during the day! It seems odd that they want it both ways, especially since weather does tend to be hot in August, and it hasn’t been unusually so. I do hope that the original estimates weren’t made purposely short just to ensure that we selected them to carry out the work…

If you live near the Met line and have a view on whether you want the work on the track happening through the night, do get in touch!

Rick

Last night the Bury Labour group took the words “summer recess” fully to heart and held an emergency council meeting on the subject of Radcliffe Riverside School.  So I took off my beach wear and put my suit back on for the evening.

The original plans for a 900 place school for secondary age pupils have been pondered by the new(ish) Conservative adminstration, who had an idea about perhaps reducing the numbers to 600 and giving the remaining space over to a primary school.

This idea was mentioned publicly, and obviously panicked a lot of people. However, it appeared that the “idea” was not a fully formed proposal, so lots of the questions about governance of the school(s) and altrnative uses for the building couldn’t be answered, much to the frustration of most of the people there. Of course it’s worrying to think of a school with pupils of 3 years old and pupils of 16 years old sharing the same facilities. But this mightn’t happen, and the whole debate was impossible to get to the bottom of.

Liberal Democrats believe that full consultation with parents and the community must take place before any decision on the use of the school is made. And we fully support the need for a brand new secondary school for Radcliffe. So last night we put an amendment to the motion, calling for the school to be built and for consultation to take place on its use. And the other parties followed our lead and voted with us. We still want a new school for Radcliffe opening in January 2009.

In Prestwich many of us have painful memories of the discussions when one of our local schools was threatened with closure a year ago (Prestwich Arts College on Heys Road). We said then that there should be a place in a Prestwich high school for every Prestwich child that wanted one, the same must be said for Radcliffe.

We got more questions than answers last night (and there ws plenty of time for both - the meeting went on for so long that I feared many Radcliffe children would have graduated university whilst the debate still raged in the Council chamber…), but guaranteed two important things - a new school for Radcliffe after years of delays, and full consultation on how it is used.

A successful night.

Rick

Regular readers will no doubt have noticed that the look of the blog has changed in recent days, and has been accompanied by a dramatic reduction in the number of postings (to nil, in fact).

This is becasue I have moved across from Blogspot to Wordpress, and am now using a special type of blog developed by the Association of Liberal Democrat Councillors (ALDC). Over the next few days I will be tinkering with it to make it look right, and find my way around the various things I can do. And then we’ll be back with the daily (ish) postings.

The old blog is still viewable by using the link on the left.

Rick