As if by some magical force, Mother Nature has once again shown that she’s a Lib Dem voter by turning the sky blue as the campaign kicks off properly.

Last year, all of April was bathed in sunshine as we spent countless hours outside leafleting and canvassing. Recently the weather has been a bit touch-and-go, with bucketfuls of rain pelting me at alarmingly frequent intervals. But today the sky has cleared as if Nature herself was beckoning me with a seductive finger and whispering “Go forth and accumulate votes” into my quivering ear.

Global warming may spell trouble for low-lying Pacific islands, but for Prestwich Liberal Democrats, the unseasonal April warmth has its advantages.

Unfortunately for us of course, the sky is equally blue for the other parties. So I console myself with the fact that our arguments are better, our policies are stronger, and our record of hard work more impressive than either of them. Having the winning ideas is always a useful back-up plan to the weather.

Yesterday I went out leafleting in Rainsough. I would like to take this opportunity to apologise to the three houses on Rainsough Avenue who didn’t receive a leaflet, after I fled from the scene pursued by a dog that I thought at first glance was a runaway buffalo. It really was one of the largest and most aggressive dogs I’d ever seen, and I really didn’t appreciate either its growling, or the fact that it could’ve ripped my head from my shoulders with a single bite.

It’s not that I’m scared of dogs. I have grown to quite like the inquisitive ones that come and sniff my shoes as I walk down their driveway. There’s even a sense of satisfaction in hearing the snarly ones rip up my just-delivered Focus just inches away through the front door. At least one member of the family has shown an interest.

It’s the mad ones prowling gardens that I don’t like. Almost always black and brown, normally sized somewhere between “foal” and “yacht,” and easily capable of snapping my spine in half. Yesterday’s was a prime example. I’d not seen it before, which is a novelty because I know pretty much every dog in the ward now. But it was pacing the garden and growling at things, as if bitter that the job it was born for (guard dog on the Berlin Wall) had been cruelly snatched away. When it saw me it barked so loudly that I thought there’d been a gas explosion.

It was so big, and clearly capable of leaping the flimsy fence separating its mighty jaws from my flimsy flesh, that not only didn’t I venture into its garden, but I left out the ones either side too.

So, that’s why three houses didn’t get their leaflets. And I feel vindicated, because, here I am, alive. And ready for more today. Hooray.

Rick

Bury South’s Labour MP Ivan Lewis, fresh from voting to support the government’s plans to close local post offices, has today launched a stinging attack on his own party just weeks before the local elections.

In an interview with the News of The World, Mr Lewis said that he believes that the Labour party is “out of touch with ordinary people.” His interview has forced senior ministerial colleagues into desperate efforts to hold the party together.

Mr Lewis said that, after 11 years in power, Labour was often “too often silent on the daily realities facing hardworking families.” Perhaps in his most devastating indictment of his own party’s government, Mr Lewis said that “instead of being on the side of the people, too often we simply defend the status quo, even when it is unacceptable.”

Our local MPs words will certainly strike a chord with local voters disgruntled with the policies of both the Labour government and the local Labour party here in Prestwich. Nationally, Labour have once again betrayed local people by pressing forward with a post office closure programme that hits communities hard and puts profits before people. Both Ivan Lewis and Bury North Labour MP David Chaytor voted for this closure programme just days ago. Here in Bury, Labour’s budget proposals to cut millions from services to vulnerable people in return for the cheap political stunt of a 0% Council Tax rise has been exposed for the desperate ploy that it was. And this from the party who tried to close our local school, and still refuse to join the Lib Dems in opposing congestion charging. Not only do Labour defend the status quo, they actively vote to make things worse!

Now Mr Lewis has once again shown that Labour are in chaos. On the one hand he supports the government in closing our post offices, but then he distances himself from them. Could this be another attempt to confuse the voters, I wonder? Is it any wonder that local people have been deserting Labour in droves in recent years when their party is disunited, voting for policies which rip the heart out of the community, and are “out of touch” according to their own MP?!

The Lib Dems have been resolute in their commitment to local people. We are united locally, united nationally, and firm in our beliefs in freedom, fairness and community action. Where Labour wanted to close Prestwich Arts College, we were the only party to campaign to keep it open. Whereas Labour want to close our Post Offices, Lib Dems are campaigning to keep them open. And when Labour refuse to condemn the government over congestion charging plans, we stand up for local people and say no! It’s no wonder that even Labour MPs are now saying that the government is out of touch.

I commend Mr Lewis for his honesty. I only hope that his local party’s election leaflets are equally honest from now on - exposing the Labour government’s let-downs, its high taxes and its mismanagement of the economic slowdown. Labour achieved a lot in the late 1990s, but lots of people agree that a lot has gone wrong since, and the government has fallen out of touch. Now even its own MPs are saying it.

Rick

Well the clocks went forward last night. It was the first such shift in time since we moved house, and I have to say I was shocked by the number of clocks we have in the house. Fourteen, to be precise, not including my watch. I think that’s pretty unnecessary… Still, at least I remembered the correct direction in which to turn them all. A couple of years back I turned them back at this time of year, and was thus two hours behind the rest of Britain for most of a day, until it got dark in the middle of the afternoon and I realised something was awry. At first, I must admit, I thought the world was ending. Then it occurred to me that I’d made a simple time-keeping error. I am still faintly disconcerted to think that the first emotion that struck me after realising we weren’t all doomed was one of disappointment that my Casio was wrong.

Days like this are odd though. Although we’ve only shifted forward an hour, I do feel a bit confused. More tired than I should, and slightly bitter that an hour has been stolen from me, at election time when I need it most. I don’t want it back in September when it’s cold and wet! I want it back now!

This morning I was woken at some time between 7.30 and 10.30, depending on which clock I was looking at, by a resident concerned about the St Ann’s Road junction improvement. Whilst I think we’re all glad that this is being sorted, and that the dangerous junction will now be repaired, there seems to be an awful lot of work going on there to do what strikes me as not the world’s most complicated job (which, as I established last night, is actually changing the clock setting on my DAB radio).

The street, I am told, has been dug up three times in a week, which is not only annoying to locals but also seems a bit of a waste of resource. In addition, work has been going on at the weekends for the past fortnight, starting very early. And this is annoying to residents too, who seem to have received little in the way of communication from the Council. So I have emailed the officers concerned this morning, and will contact them when they’re in work tomorrow, expressing my concerns over this work. It is important that we get the junction done properly and made safer, but it’s equally important that we do it showing concern for local people who have to live there whilst the work is carried out.

Now, it’s early / mid / late morning, so I must go and have either breakfast or lunch.

Rick

I have just had a British Gas man come round to check our boiler, and he spent the entire time here on the phone to a variety of his friends. I only hope that he hasn’t inadvertently leaked copious quantities of carbon monoxide into my house whilst sorting out his social life. He told me that the boiler was fine, but I can’t honestly say that I believe he looked. I do though know where he’s going drinking later, so I may ask him again there. He just wandered into the utility room, made a few bashing noises whilst sorting out the repayment of a ten pound bar bill, and pronounced the system sound.

Other than hunting down errant flue engineers, I am doing a spot of leafleting today. We are obviously hotting up the pace as the election nears. I noticed from my letterbox excursions this morning that polling cards have been sent out to people in the wards. So it really is getting near! Don’t worry if you lose your’s though - you can still vote without it on the day.

Don’t forget that the clocks go forward tonight. An hour less in bed means only one thing - an hour more to leaflet. So a double whammy there then when all I want is to sleep and dream of a place where there are no elections. Although, even my dreams are being annexed by politics at the moment. It’s very odd, but three times this week I’ve dreamt about a specific member of the local opposition. It’s doubly weird because we’ve never actually met properly, but in my dreams we chat away like old friends. Nothing bad happens, but there he is, every night, waiting to talk to me about all sorts of bizarre things. Last night it was American Football, and we were having a very involved conversation… It’s like one of those strange sequences from The Sopranos. I really can’t explain it, nor can I seem to stop it.

I wish I could put it down to mild gas poisoning, but apparently my gas system is fine. Maybe my chattering gas man fixed a fault and forgot to tell me after all, and I’ll be back to normal tonight… More likely he made something worse, and I’ll be hallucinating in a gas fuelled haze from now til election day.

At least it’d be a change from letterboxes…

Rick

I was proud last night to join many other local residents in signing the nomination papers for Mary D’Albert to be the Liberal Democrat candidate for St Mary’s ward in the local elections on May 1^st.

Mary’s long-standing record of hard work and local activism is to be admired, as is her sommittment to the local party and its efforts to make Prestwich and Bury better for local people. I have no doubt that she will be a very capable Councillor working continually for the people of the ward.

Mary has lived in Prestwich for decades, and is not only familiar with the issues that matter locally, but feels them personally because she has been a member of this community for so long. Local candidates are vital for local Councils.

Mary has campaigned hard to protect our local Post Offices, in contrast to our local Labour party who’s own MP voted to close thousands more Post offices just last week, including potentially nine more in Bury. Labour should be ashamed. They can’t claim to be standing up for the community when they tried to close our school a couple of years back, and are trying to close our Post Offices now. We opposed them then, we oppose them now, and Mary D’Albert and the Lib Dems will continue to support local community facilities forever.

Mary D’Albert has campaigned with Liberal Democrats in Bury on many issues – she joined our campaigning to stop Labour proposals to close Prestwich Arts College, for instance. She’s been working with Rainsough residents trying to broker a solution on the shops issue, and she’s been instrumental in working with Lib Dems and the Local Area Partnership to bring tens of thousands of pounds to communities across Prestwich.

In the coming weeks Mary and I will be joining the rest of the Bury Lib Dems in asking you for your votes on May 1^st. We are confident that a local, hard-working candidate is a better bet for Prestwich than Labour’s party hack who has been parachuted in to replace the retiring Labour Councillor who led the failed policy to close our local school.

There’ll be plenty more written here and in leaflets about the election in the coming weeks, but for now let me say again that I am proud to have nominated Mary D’Albert to be the next Liberal Democrat councillor for St Mary’s ward, and to join Donal O’Hanlon and me in leading the renaissance of our area.

Rick

Last night’s full Council meeting was, in large parts, the usual depressing slanging match between Councillors who really should know better. Watching grown men (and women) making snide remarks and childish comments  across a room, when there are people with real problems in the Borough, is not pleasant.

I raised the issue of the Butterstile Children’s Centre, and was pleased to hear from the Executive Member for Children’s Services that it will be up and running on time at the start of next academic year. Also, the outreach facilities to Rainsough and Carr Clough will also be available, which is great news. It’s taken a while to get where we are, but it will still be finished in time, and after the right processes have been followed for all local people. The Children’s Centre will be a great asset for the ward, and really have a positive impact on families locally.

A couple of people raised the issue of the toilets at Bury interchange last night. I raised it again this morning at the meeting of the Transport Network Committee of Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority. The toilets are, it turns out, the responsibility of the Council, and they really do need sorting out because they’re in quite a state. Not the right welcome to the Borough for people arriving by bus or Metrolink.

That is assuming, of course, that the Metrolink gets them here at all. I spoke once more about Metrolink this morning. I am still deeply dissatisfied with this system, supposedly the flagship public transport system for Manchester. It is still, in my opinion, far too expensive, dirty, unsafe and unreliable. On Friday I stood waiting for a very long time at Bowker Vale, a station so decrepit that it looks nigh-on abandoned, and was genuinely scared by some of the anti-social behaviour by some people who treat the network like their own uncontrolled playground. I have raised the issue many times, and in other parts of the network there are efforts to improve both the condition and the safety of stations. The Prestwich section seems not to benefit, and although improved ticket machines and CCTV are in the pipeline, they aren’t coming quickly enough.

This may have been my last ever Transport Network Committee, because I may not serve on GMPTA again next year after the elections. But I am glad I raised the issue, and will do so again given the chance.

Rick

Tonight it’s full Council, which takes place every couple of months and brings together all 51 Councillors from across the Borough. Tonight’s agenda has no motions to debate, although we are going to hear about plans for the new Council constitution in the event that the elected mayoral referendum results in a “yes” vote in July.

Prior to the meeting is the photograph of all the Councillors, which I have developed an irritating spot in time for, right in the middle of my forehead, shining like some kind of toxic beacon. It will now live forever on the walls of the Town Hall, alongside the similar photographs of Councils taken since Bury MBC was set up in 1974. A couple of the Councillors then are still Councillors now, which is a sobering thought given that I feel like I’ve been one for ever, and 1974 was seven years before I was born.

On the timetable for this evening, they have allocated half an hour for the photograph. Either they are using an early-Victorian camera, or they have reasoned (quite correctly) that trying to get 51 ego-maniacal self-proclaimed local big-wigs correctly assembled is about as easy as teaching a tiger to pilot an aeroplane. I of course have no illusions of grandeur, and will quite happily stand at the back, in the corner and, given the state of my complexion, preferably facing the wrong way.

The other week we had the annual photograph of the Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) which was an altogether more efficient affair. The Chair almost ran to the steps of the Town Hall in Manchester, and the whole thing was over before I had the chance to straighten my tie.

Feel free to pop along for the meeting. It’s open to the public. Although the public gallery is directly above my seat so you won’t be able to see either me or the spot. You will doubtless see many Members in their best suits and make-up though, which I imagine will be quite a treat.

Rick

Once again any notion that Newton, Einstein and Hawking had it right about the nature of time and space is blown right out of the water with the simple observation that time at weekends travels faster than time during the week. This phenomenon, casually overlooked by generations of so-called physicists, is particularly acute at long weekends, and I am suffering from its effects today.

The Easter weekend was spent largely around the letterboxes of the district, distributing the new St Mary’s Focus, sliding about in the snow and remembering why it is that repeatedly walking up and down sloping driveways isn’t a good thing to do in icy weather.

Aside from falling down at the ends of driveways, I did find time to further my explorations of the woods at the end of my road. I have discovered with delight that they are seemingly endless, and turn from Drinkwater Park into Philips Park at one end, Forest Bank and the Cliff at the other, with the river in between. I have lived round here my whole life, and can honestly say I had little idea this even existed, let alone how large an area of interesting green space we have right on our doorstep. The Irwell Valley must be about the most unsung part of Greater Manchester. What a shame more people don’t know about it.

This week’s meeting schedule is fairly light. There’s Council tomorrow, but that’s about it. Plenty of time for more leafleting then, should the mood take me. If you’d like to come to Council, remember that it is a public meeting and you are more than welcome to attend. It’s at 7pm in the Council Chamber at Bury Town Hall. You can even ask the Leader a question, if you’d like. I will be.

Prior to the meeting there is the photograph of all the Councillors. This has been spectacularly ill-timed from a personal point of view, because overnight a giant spot the size of a Heinz Baked Bean has emerged on my forehead.

Once again I can hear the sound of distant chuckling coming from above.

I forget of course that it’s already Tuesday. I noticed the bins out on the streets this morning, and wondered why on earth everyone on my street had made the same error and put their bins out a day early. Although I forgot to do mine, at least I take comfort in the fact that next weekend is 24 hours closer than I had previously thought.

Rick

Just a note to wish everyone in the ward a happy Easter.

We have woken up this morning to a white Easter, just like the ones we used to know. In the last Ice Age. Although I suppose there wasn’t Easter then, was there….? Either way, the snow doesn’t make leafleting any easier, which is what I am supposed to be doing at the moment. Nor does it make this evening’s planned trip to Buxton to see Kate Rusby a particularly appealing prospect.

I am going to do absolutely nothing to acclimatise myself to the Arctic chill before I go out though. I have the heating on and will be snug and warm in front of the football for much of the day, with a pile of ironing to do. I imagine this is how Ozzy Osbourne and other hard-rockers like myself like to spend their Easter…

I hope you all have an enjoyable day.

Rick

People in Bury are being given the chance to raise public transport issues face-to-face with the managers responsible for running their services next week.
Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is hosting a Transport Operator Surgery at Bury Travel Shop on Saturday 29 March between 11am and 1pm. Representatives from First Manchester and Stagecoach Metrolink will be attending, along with officers from GMPTA and GMPTE. The event is the first of four to be held in Bury this year.

I am one of the two Bury Councillors on the GMPTA, and we want to hear more about people’s public transport experiences and any suggestions for improvements. When we held more formal meetings in Bury we had low attendance, but I’m sure these new surgeries will give us the chance to speak to a much broader range of passengers.

I’d encourage anyone with something to say about local public transport issues to come along on Saturday - and let us know how we can improve the services they use. Four surgeries a year will be held at bus stations, key transport interchanges, and other suitable locations in each of the ten Greater Manchester districts.

GMPTA also holds regular Greater Manchester-wide transport seminars. Its website - www.gmpta.gov.uk - is also being developed to allow online consultations and a dedicated ‘tell us about your local transport issues’ section.

This is the third pice of good news from the PTA for Bury this week, and a great example of the hard work local Lib Dem Councillors are doing on behalf of Bury.

Rick

Last night I attended a meeting of the Developing Communities sub-group of the Prestwich Local Area Partnership. There was lots on the agenda including updates on the progress of the Rainsough shops debate, the children’s centre, and other Prestwich regeneration projects. Of particular note are up-coming action to be taken as regards enforcement of dog fouling and littering. The local Lib Dems are on the war-path at the moment about both of these things, and it’s good to see that the Council are listening. So look out for some action in the coming months.

This morning I attended the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority meeting, where there was a lot of discussion of the roll-out of the new bus passes for the over 60s, and some frankly unfathomable reports on budgets which members around the table nodded sagely at whilst being spoken to by accountants talking soothingly.

On the way back from the meeting, perhaps as God’s gentle way of prodding me towards not giving up on reading complicated financial papers quite so easily, I managed to crash my car twice. Once into a wall whilst exiting the car park, and once into a lamppost whilst reversing into my space at work. They say bad things come in threes, so if you see me driving any time soon, best pull over to be on the safe side.

The Easter weekend kicks off in about four hours which will seem interminably long sat here at my desk. Blogging may or may not be sporadic during the long weekend. Obviously there will be more leafleting than I care for, as election time hurtles towards us. And on top of that, Tamsin goes away to Florida with her family for a fortnight, leaving me to live the life of a bachelor-king. So I may be being fed grapes by a lady somewhere, and have no time for the likes of this.

Probably not though, so I imagine I’ll be back tomorrow

Rick

Liberal  Democrats in Bury have accused Ivan Lewis MP and David Chaytor MP of failing to support local services after they voted to support the Government’s massive post office closure programme.

The Government has ordered that one in five branches be closed. Opposition MPs tried to stop the closure programme on 19th March when a motion was proposed in the House of Commons demanding the Government halt their plans to make 2500 branches shut up shop.

But enough Labour MPs rallied around the Government’s closure plans to reject the motion and ensure the closure programme can continue unhindered. Two of those voting to close post offices were Bury’s MP.

Disappointed local Liberal Democrat campaigners are calling on Ivan Lewis and David Chaytor to explain why s/he voted to close post offices.
“Our MPs have let down people in Bury by voting to allow the closures to continue,” said Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson Vic D’Albert. “In May the announcement will be made as to which branches here will be put forward for closure. This was an opportunity for Ivan Lewis and David Chayor to make a stand on behalf of residents. I am disappointed they have backed the Government rather than local people.

“The loss of post offices will hit communities hard in Bury. They are vital assets for many local people and closing them will cause many difficulties for older people and others with mobility problems, in particular.
“Despite the decision of our MPs to help the Government press ahead with closure, Liberal Democrats are continuing to fight the demolition of the post office network.”

For the second day running, your Lib Dem representatives on Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) have good news for local public transport users, and this time it’s of particular benefit to the most vulnerable people in the Borough.

A new door-to-door transport service for people with access and mobility difficulties is off to a flying start in Bury. GMPTA extended the popular Ring & Ride service at the end of January when it added nine new minibuses to provide extra trips across the conurbation.

In the first few months, 246 passengers journeys have been made from Bury on the new ‘cross boundary’ service into neighbouring districts. And 2,355 journeys have been made.

Ring & Ride makes a real difference to people who find it difficult to use ordinary public transport to get out and about. It has always been a very popular service for making trips in Bury but we’re always listening to users’ suggestions for improving it. We surveyed passengers and they said they would be prefer to keep on paying a fare rather than travelling for free - so long as we invested in this new cross boundary service.

So I am delighted to see so many people finding it useful. It is clearly giving Ring & Ride users in Bury a lot more choice about where they can travel.

Previously we could only offer local district based services but the new minibuses are allowing us to take people that bit farther afield into neighbouring areas. The investment has clearly been worthwhile and I’m glad to be able to offer such an improved service. I’d encourage anyone who might want to give Ring and Ride a go to call GMPTA and register to use the service.

Passengers must register their details before they travel by calling the Bury depot on 0161 764 1999.

The service currently runs from 9.30am to 4.30pm, Monday to Friday. Journeys can be booked from seven days in advance up to one hour before travelling.

To book a journey on the cross boundary service call 0845 688 3989 (lines open between 8am and 4pm, Monday to Friday).

Fares are set at £2 for a single journey, and £1 for a single journey for GMPTE concessionary permit holders.

For more information on Ring & Ride visit www.ringandride.info http://www.ringandride.info

Great news for Bury!

Rick

After a year of campaigning for reductions on bus travel rates for children in Bury, the Borough’s young people will be able to save £1 a week on the cost of school travel from next month.

Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority (GMPTA) is introducing a new £6 weekly ticket for three of the school bus services it provides in the borough. It currently costs 70p for a single child ticket. The Bury members of GMPTA are my fellow Lib Dem Councillor Andrew Garner, and me.

The School Saver ticket will be valid on the 799 service to Derby High and the 797 and 798 to St Monica’s RC High in Prestwich .

The new School Saver ticket could save families in the borough nearly £40 a year on school travel costs. I’m pleased we’ve been able to provide the ticket on three of the school bus services we provide in Bury. Unfortunately, we’re not able to extend the offer to commercial services, and of course we continue to campaign for big reductions and more fairness in children’s school bus travel..

The new School Saver ticket will be on sale from Monday 31 March in newsagents, supermarkets and garages across Bury with the Pay Point sign, as well as from the GMPTE Travelshop in Bury Interchange.

Pupils will be able to buy the School Saver ticket up to three days in advance of its start date and will need a GMPTE Under 16 membership card. The card is free and application forms can be picked up from Travelshops or downloaded from www.gmpte.com/under16

Rick

Last week’s rant about hair, and my relationship to it and its female slaves, has made the recommended blogs list at Lib Dem Voice. Number 12 in a list of 12 is a start, at least!

So thanks to Lib Dem Voice! And to anyone attracted here for the first time because of that post, please accept my apologies - it had been a stressful day all round.

Rick

I had a fairly eventful weekend, which involved a trip to a Brazilian restaurant at one point, and a significant amount of leafleting. The latter hopefully burned off the many millions of calories consumed at the former.

Tonight is a meeting of the Bury Liberal Democrats. All members of the party are welcome to come along to Elton Liberal Club from 7 o’clock, to hear about the latest developments in Byr, plans for the election campaign, and various other excitements.

Also on the agenda is some training on canvassing and “knocking-up” voters, which is less alarming in reality than it may sound here.

The meeting takes place in the “Sinatra” room of Elton Liberal Club. When I booked the room and was told its frankly startling name, it prompted me to ask the landlord whether Ol’ Blue Eyes had ever actually performed at Elton Liberal Club, perhaps stopping in with Ava Gardner for a pint of Mild one night in the middle of a run at The Sands, Las Vegas.

Apparently not.

Rick

Last night was a meeting of the Performance and Resources Scrutiny Commission, the body that I sit on comprised of back-bench Councillors scrutinising the Executive’s work on performance and finance.

It was a one item agenda last night, a “call-in” of the Executive decision to award the contract for a Home Improvement Agency to Six Town Housing rather than go for an open tender. This will radically improve the way that disabled facilities grants are dealt with. The “call in” meant that the Scrutiny commission wanted to examine the decision in detail. The Executive (essentially the Council’s “Cabinet” of executive members) are held to account by Scrutiny, and this “call in” system is one way of doing that.

We could decide to accept the decision as it stood, or refer it back to the Executive with comments, or refer it to full Council for debate. 

I have to say that it was an excellent meeting. The debate was thorough and fair, and the meeting really did benefit from a single item agenda allowing for proper scrutiny and giving members the chance to read twenty pages of papers properly, rather than not read 150 pages of papers and struggle through a dozen agenda items like normal.

In addition, there was no split on party lines, as I’d feared.

At the vote, the Commission voted that the original Executive decision was right (there was one abstention) and that no tender was needed. Although the call-in didn’t result in anything changing, it did scrutinise the decision and give reassurance that the Executive were right to proceed as they did. Which is what Scrutiny should be about.

So STH will run the Home Improvement Agency, and this appalling service will hopefully get much better very quickly. Scruiny can’t be held responsible for the performance of the service, but at least we know that the decision to go with STH was fair and proper, and we can scrutinise performance in the future.

A good night, and I felt useful and like I’d really helped decide something positive. Which is a novelty for a Scrutiny system which I think sometimes needs a radical shake-up. And I hope to be able to start talking about that shake up soon to the people who might make it happen.

Rick

I am triple-booked tonight, on what is a busy night for Council and community meetings in Prestwich, and so we have had to re-jig our diaries to make sure that there is Lib Dem representation at all of the events taking place this evening.

The one I’m going to is at the Town Hall, and is the latest meeting of the Performance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Commission. Tonight’s meeting is a specially arranged one to discuss a decision of the Executive that has been “called in” for extra scrutiny. It relates to the proposed establishment of a new Home Improvements Agency to help with Disabled Facilities Grants and minor adaptations to homes for people with disabilities.

This is a public meeting, and you can come down to it from 18:00 if you like.

However, there are also other things going on tonight which people might be interested in.

The ongoing URBED consultation process on the regeneration of Prestwich reaches another milestone this evening, with a further consultation event, from 17:30 – 20:30 at the Longfield Centre tonight.

As well as that, there is a special meeting of the Rainsough Tenants and Residents Association tonight, at the Scout Hut, to discuss the Chapel Road shops. That’s at 19:00.

Rick

I was deeply disapointed with much of today’s budget. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has called it a green cop out which kicks the difficult decisions on environmental taxes into the long grass and offers no help to the millions of hard pressed families struggling to make ends meet. And I agree with him. 

Once again I am disappointed that the government have failed to go far enough on green measures. They’ve not done anywhere near enough to address unjust inequalities becoming endemic in society. And they’ve gone nowhere on helping the famlilies like ones here in Prestwich who are feeling the pinch from rising bills. 

Labour have bottled it. 

Unlike Liberal Democrat proposals for a Green Tax Switch, the money raised from environmental taxes will not be given back to families in the form of other tax cuts, but instead be taken by the Government to fill its black hole.  

There are some good bits – the review of road tax, for instance. But it doesn’t go far enough, and it isn’t happening quickly enough. Why not now, and why not more? Investing money to investigate road pricing is good news. But, again, it’s half-baked, and where is the carrot to go with this stick? Will the review talk about road pricing as a replacement for fuel duty and excise duty, or yet another revenue-grab? 

Some of the housing measures sound good too. Giving key workers more opportunities to borrow is a good idea. But the government’s track record in providing affordable homes is woeful, and this misses the mark again by failing to talk about more sustainable and affordable housing. 

This was an opportunity to give whatever help possible to millions of stretched British families who are feeling the pinch whose money just doesn’t go as far as it used to. But the opportunity has been wasted. The budget gives only limited help to the poor, but maintains special treatment for the rich. 

Where is the much needed reform to a tax credit system that is confused and unhelpful? Where are the environmental measures needed to make Britain a global leader in fighting climate change? Where is the innovation to respond to these challengnig times? 

Lib Dems believe that Green taxes should be revenue-neutral. They should not be treated as a wheeze to squeeze ever more money out of the British people, but should instead be designed to encourage green behaviour, and to cut the taxes of the most needy. But the government miss the point and do the opposite.    

This is not a budget for the environment. It’s a budget driven by fiscal incompetence and political desperation. 

Why has Alistair Darling not had the guts to claw back the huge profits made by energy companies, thanks to the emissions permits that the Government has given them for free? 4.5 million people still live in fuel poverty and the Government’s 2010 fuel poverty target has been conveniently forgotten by ministers.  The increased in Wunter Fuel Payment sounds great, but trying to grab headlines by increasing it for just one year will do nothing to help poor pensioners in the long run. Surely this is the time to compel all energy companies to introduce real, fair, social tariffs for all vulnerable people, not just those on pre-paid meters? 

This budget gives no real help to families struggling with higher food bills, higher energy bills and higher debt repayments. 

A disappointment and an opportunity missed. And, more than that, a steadfast refusal from the government to admit that its mistakes and poor fiscal management have led to an over-taxed nation on the bring of serious economic turmoil. 

Rick  

It was with sadness that I learned of the death of the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Michael Todd, yesterday.

Michael Todd was a distinguished Chief Constable with a lifetime of achievement in British policing behind him, who would have continued to make a great contribution to the fight against crime.

Although I never met Chief Constable Todd, I do have regular contact with local Police officers who I know admired him greatly, and will be very saddened by this tragic news.

My thoughts and sympathies go out to our hard working local police officers here in Prestwich today, as well as to the entire Greater Manchester Police service, and all of Chief Constable Todd’s colleagues, family and friends.

Rick

What is it about girls’ hair?

Last night I went leafleting. I timed the excursion to within thirty seconds of perfection, only being pelted by thunderous rain as I walked back to the car. The friend I was leafleting with was also subject to half a minute’s rain, and was transformed in these few moments from a calm, rational human being into a screaming, flapping animal which I can only assume took the wrong fork when man and beast made their evolutionary split some time ago.

Apparently her hair had got wet, leaving it vulnerable to “frizzing.” I am not exactly sure what frizzing means, but I suspect from the reaction that it is about a dozen steps up the pain meter from getting your leg pinned under a boulder and hacking it off with a pen-knife.

If her hair had caught fire, or been infested with bees, or inexplicably lit up like a beacon casting a shaft of light high into the sky above, I could have reasonably understood the reaction. But the flappy arms and the running and the screaming and, God help me, I’m sure there was weeping, did make me genuinely think I’d been momentarily distracted whilst she’d trod on a land mine.

This isn’t the first time that a girl’s hair has caused me confusion. I once dated a girl who’s reaction to even the fluffiest of white clouds punctuating a summer’s day was to leave the house armed with an umbrella the size of a three-man tent. Her idea of a sexy shower together consisted of donning a shower cap and watching the hose with a mixture of suspicion and cat-like readiness whilst I stood shivering in the corner wondering how hard it would be to drown myself.

Needless to say, the relationship ended before too long, and since then there has been an unwritten rule in my love life that says that the girl concerned can’t care more about the rigidity of her hair style than she does about me.

Friends of mine are content to walk through the streets holding umbrellas above their heads when conditions are bone dry. I am not entirely without doubt that some of them put their hoods up indoors, just in case. One girl I know spends day after day inspecting her hair for split ends, a condition so spectacularly undetectable to the naked eye that she may as well worry that there’s a hydrogen atom on display on the top of her head. She is, by definition, worried about something half the width of a single human hair…

I couldn’t care less about my hair. It grows, I get it cut, and it grows back. It is a simple equation and one which I am entirely comfortable with. I see no reason to complicate the picture with anything produced by L’Oreal.

There is a billion-pound industry in male grooming products that I proudly contribute not a single brass penny to. As long as it’s clean I don’t give it a moment’s thought, and despite having a succession of barbers try to palm off their crazy gels on me, I have resisted so far, and lived to tell the tale.

Yesterday I got it cut. Five pounds, thank you very much. Girls I know spend, literally, hundreds of pounds a year on their haircuts. They go to Toni and Guy. I go to some guy called Tony. I simply don’t understand why they do it. Is there some scissor technique I don’t know about? Is there a hidden artistry in the blades that I don’t get from my “number three at the back and sides?” Do they worry that sacrificing glamorous salon for high street barber-shack will mean running the risk of having their ears scissored off by some barely-trained amateur? 

When I was at university, and even a fiver was too much to pay for a haircut, I went to a “hair dressing academy,” where it was free so long as you let a trainee do it under supervision. The experience was simply the most laborious four hours of my life, punctuated every ten minutes by a single snip, each one followed by discussions and feedback from an instructor. The whole process was like trying to start a fire by putting a plank of wood near a radiator.

But even then, the hair got cut (eventually), and I survived.

I just don’t see the fuss. I look at myself in the mirror, and there aren’t any clumps falling out or bits flying off at crazy angles that make me look like a scarecrow. There are no matted wedges that mark me out as a madman, and I’m not constantly attended to by a bunch of swarming flies. So I spend a tenner a year, and they spend hundreds a year, and the results are the same… One of us is missing something somewhere, and I hope to God it isn’t me. 

It might fall out one day. I am told that baldness follows on from the maternal grandfather. My one of those lived to 83 and had a full head of hair until the end. But ,on the other hand, it might follow on down the male side, and my Dad makes Bobby Charlton look like Peter Stringfellow.

Either way, I suppose I don’t care. It’s hair. It’s there. Deal with it.

Rick

Work has begun to improve the dangerous junction at St Ann’s Road and Bury New Road – home of course to the world’s most redundant and daft set of traffic lights, installed only ten yards from an existing set and presumably designed by lunatics with the sole aim of causing mayhem.

I have been pressing for this for a year, after numerous residents complained, and I was delighted when the Council listened and said that they’d include the repairs in this year’s programme. Hopefully the work will run to schedule and be finished on time, removing the unnecessary and confusing second set of traffic lights, and leaving the junction safer for everyone concerned.

Rick

God’s continual mocking of me shows no sign of abating. We have an arrangement, Him and I, whereby I try my best to do good things, and He amuses Himself by plonking annoying but ultimately quite funny trials in my path, which in turn then never leave me short of things to write about on here.

I was woken last night at 01:00 by the sound of my wheely bin blowing over in gale force winds and driving rain. I wandered over to the window to take a look, and saw the contents of the bin strewn across the road and blowing around the neighbourhood.

Not a pleasant sight at that time in the morning.

Undaunted, I put on the first two items of clothing that came to hand (dressing gown and work shoes) and headed out into the street, to spend the next ten minutes battling against The Perfect Storm to retrieve a week’s worth of rotting food and general horror from my neighbour’s shrubs.

I respected bin men before, and now I do even more. Although last night’s work had more in common with body-exhumers than bin men, I’m sure. And I bet they don’t have to tackle our rubbish in the middle of the night dressed only in a towelling robe.

So I am tired today. But I will still find time later on to do some Councillor work – I am out leafleting this evening in the north of the ward, assuming that the weather doesn’t put on its angry face again and leave me looking mournfully out of my lounge window at a world sailing off in a storm somewhere.

Rick

It’s disturbing quite how large a role the weather will play in the election campaign. Last year I was very lucky in that it was sunny for the whole of April (apart from at night, obviously). So we could canvass, leaflet and campaign to our heart’s content. And then some more.

Apparently the government always does better when the General Election falls on a sunny day. I think in Bury, the richest party does better when it rains in the spring because they can just post their leaflets, whilst the poor ones forego the stamps and hand deliver them as they turn to mulch in the street.

This week I want to be out leafleting in Prestwich and Whitefield, but apparently the worst storm ever is about to hit us, and so that might put the dampeners on that little scheme.

I spent a large portion of the weekend in the garden of my new house. My newly planted seeds will doubtless benefit from the rain, and I was very pleased to see that the garden gnome I purchased on Saturday is resilient enough to have withstood the wind overnight without toppling into the soil.

We planted some sweetcorn and some tomatoes. A bit like The Good Life. Although, alas, without Felicity Kendal.

Rick

In his first conference speech as leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg demanded a shake-up of the whole political system.

A running theme of the speech was the need for a new kind of politics.

Nick Clegg said:

“The great political story of our time is the story of the vast and growing army of people who look at the two main parties and say “no thanks.” People who, like me, like you, want something different.”
He said most people were tired of politics:

“Tired of a system that swings like a pendulum between two establishment parties. Tired of the same old politicians, the same old fake choices, the same old feeling that nothing ever changes.

“But this isn’t a story of indifference. People do care about issues. Climate change. Poverty. Their local school or hospital. There are marches and campaigns and petitions launched every day of the week.

“People care. They just don’t care about politicians.

“So this is the end of the line for politics-as-usual.

“If we want a political system that works for the future, we need to start again.”
In addition to a change in the voting system, Nick Clegg set out three big changes that are needed:
“First, let’s clean up politics. Scandals over pay and expenses have shattered confidence.

“Thousands of voters have seen their MP exposed for corruption – and been told there’s nothing they can do about it. I want a Derek Conway Clause. So if an MP is suspended for serious misconduct there is an automatic recall ballot so people can call for a by-election.

“If your MP lets you down, you should have the power to fire them.”
“Second, let’s give people the say they deserve.

“I hold town hall meetings up and down the country every couple of weeks – where I answer any question, on any topic, and anyone can come along. I say to Gordon Brown and David Cameron: do the same.

“Today I’m writing to invite them to join me at any one of the town hall meetings coming up. Not as a media stunt, but a direct conversation with people – no spin, no hand-picked audiences, no planted questions.”

He said the party’s new health policies, adopted this weekend, would give every citizen an even more direct say, with the power to run their local health service, by standing for election to their local health board.
“Third, let’s design a new political system for the 21st century.

“It shouldn’t be hammered out in secret, smoke-filled rooms, by the powers that be.

“I want a citizens’ jury of 100 people to sit in a Constitutional Convention with all the political parties, churches, civil society groups and more - to look across the board, and redesign the way Britain is governed.

“I wrote to David Cameron and Gordon Brown proposing such a Convention just after Christmas. Their replies were laughable.

“Dave suggested he and I gang up on Gordon. And Gordon sent me six pages of legalistic waffle.”
He said he had been originally drawn to the Liberal Democrats because the party was independent and not in anyone’s pocket. He proposed measures to stop Britain becoming like America, where political influence is all about money.

“It’s still the same.

“The establishment parties will manipulate the system to get the power they want. But they’ll never change it.

“They like having power and privilege sewn up between a few chums in the Westminster bubble.

“That’s why they won’t do what’s needed and get the money out of politics. They don’t see we’re heading for the skids.

“If we don’t act, Britain will end up like America, where political influence is all about cash. That’s why I want a universal £25,000 cap on donations. A real cap on spending.

“And yes, an end to big union donations, and an end to offshore finance from Belize.”
Nick Clegg said he would do whatever it takes to get change in Britain:

“If it means walking out of Parliament when the big parties collude against us, I say: fine.

“If it means boycotting banquets that celebrate our relationship with dodgy regimes, like Vince Cable did, or speaking up to expose corruption like Chris Davies did, I say: so be it.

“If it means risking court, and refusing to sign up for an Identity Card, I say: bring it on.

“And you can expect more - much more - of that from me.”
He returned to the anti-establishment theme later in the speech, relating it to foreign affairs too:

“Our whole international political system – and Britain’s role within it - is twisted and warped by powerful people determined to promote their own interests.

“What better example is there than Iraq? If there is one thing this illegal war has taught us, it is this - that when others choose to ride their tanks over the top of international law, our government must not roll over or join in.”
He said the end of the Bush administration offered a real chance to break with the past:

“Set priorities here in Britain, not in the Pentagon.

“No more nods and winks to the abuse of human rights. No more secretive deals to host American missile systems on British soil. No more neo-con wars.”

He said Britain’s response to threats must always be ethical, measured and legal:

“Under Labour, quite simply, it isn’t any of those things.

“This is a government which identifies twenty ‘major countries of concern’ for human rights abuses, then exports record levels of arms to nineteen of them.

“This is a government which cancels an investigation into corrupt arms sales to Saudi, then rolls out the red carpet for a state visit from its king.

“This is a Prime Minister who refuses to speak up on human rights abuses in China, then picks up his reward in the form of special trade deals.

“For too long, vested interests have triumphed over doing what’s right and it’s got to stop.”

Just a brief posting about the new St Mary’s Rose, the Labour leaflet, which I read whilst out leafleting in the ward today (this is about the third one they’ve done - there must be an election coming up!).

Having turned their vitriol-fuelled fire up to “furnace” with the last issue, this time they plunge new depths with an outright and massive lie, putting on paper for the first time what they’ve almost said in the past - that Lib Dems in Bury shouldn’t complain to the Council when things go wrong because the Lib Dems and the Tories “are the Council.”

That’s an absolute lie. The people who wrote it know it’s a lie. And if they had any decency they would publicly retract it and let the people of this ward decide the coming election on facts, not falsehoods. They are spreading lies for votes. That’s not what any of us should be doing. It brings the reputation of all of us down.

If this is what the St Mary’s Labour candidate was taught (and was teaching) at Labour campaign school, then there is a sickness at the heart of his party of which he should be utterly ashamed.

Just for the record, once again, the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are not in any coalition, alliance, or anything else. The Conservatives control Bury Council. Lib Dems and Labour have one member of the Executive each, the Conservatives have all the rest. There’s no coalition, no joint policy making, no joint anything. Labour’s leaflet is lying. It’s lying because they want power in Bury, and they are so obsessed with holding on to their last seat in Prestwich that they are stooping to incredibly low depths to do it.

This isn’t political spin. It’s not their take on things as opposed to our take on things. It’s an actual lie. It’s like saying the sky is yellow or the Moon is made of cheese. It’s just not true. Don’t believe it.

I could take a bit of story-fiddling. I could live with them spinning things to suit them. It’s how politics works (although I wish it wasn’t). We all write leaflets promoting ourselves and our achievements, and we all go over the top sometimes. But what St Mary’s Labour are doing is just telling lies in the hope that it wins them votes. It isn’t right.

As it goes, I think the rest of their leaflet is twaddle as well, but that’s pretty much their side of a story against our’s. There are grains of fact in what they say, even if it is skewed virtually beyond recognition and the facts are consumed in rubbish. I can live with that. Let the people decide, fine. I’ll write a better one for us.

But the coalition thing is a downright lie. So don’t be fooled. I would like them to produce a single piece of evidence to back up their claim, and I will gladly speak to anyone who rings me up to speak to me about it, if you aren’t clear. Including St Mary’s Labour, who I know read this blog, and who I take no delight in telling, once again, that they should be ashamed of their continuing actions.

Rick

Bury Liberal Democrats won an award at last night’s Local Government Awards at the Liberal Democrat Spring Conference in Liverpool. We won the Vice-President’s Award for opposition groups, meaning that your local Lib Dem team were judged as the top performing opposition Council group of the year.

This is great news, and shows that our efforts in Council, for Prestwich, Bury and Greater Manchester have been recognised externally.

This year has been a great challenge for an opposition group dealing with a Tory administration for the first time in 21 years, and battling against outrageous Labour lies locally whilst trying to do the best for Prestwich.

During the last 12 months, Bury Lib Dems have:

- Led the fight against congestion charging, proposing the successful motion which secured Bury Council’s opposition to the charge

- Secured 1/4 of a million pounds of extra funding for children’s services in Bury

- Secured more money for street cleaning and parks

- Got Prestwich Village “deep-cleaned”

- Started work with URBED on the future of Prestwich

- Said “No” to a coalition with Labour (and are suffering their vitriolic letters in the press because of it every week) in favour of the democratic choice of the people of Bury

- Fought against Post Office closures (the government no they’re closing Post Offices, but won’t say which ones until after the elections)

- Fought against disastrous Labour budget proposals which would have meant huge cuts in services.

- Supported a Council Tax rise lower than in previous years.

The award is nice to get, but our hard work will continue now and into the future.

Rick

Another threatening letter from a Quango arrived this morning, telling us that we were liable for a four-figure fine for not having a TV license. A stern brown envelope, a letter with lots of red ink, nasty words and exclamation marks.

“We know you’ve bought a television,” it said, “and we know you’ve not got a license.”

Quite why the government thinks it’s got the right to demand that TV retailers take our names and addresses when we buy a TV is a mystery, because it’s none of their business. But that argument pales into insignificance against the fact that once again, some government computer somewhere has got this WRONG.

For the second time in two days, I have received a letter calling me a criminal, as a result of government computer cock-ups. This one was resolved after a phone call this morning. It turned out that when we moved and we registered a change of address on the license form, the automated machine on the other end of the phone couldn’t make out what we were saying. Because it wasn’t a human being, it just told us to hang up, and we assumed it had been sorted. Sadly not. And this letter is the result.

Once more the government’s computers and robotic answer machines cause me mild annoyance. If I was old or unsure or frail or vulnerable, letters like this would have caused a lot more stress than that. And the trial of talking to a machine rather than a person would have caused more stress still.

So, again, I say, if the government’s computers and robots can’t get things right all the time, and all of my time, their envelopes, and our money is wasted sorting out the mistakes, can we please return to a society where personal details are mine, people are there to speak to if there are mistakes, and there’s a bit more friendliness and a bit less Orwellian madness in the system? Please.

I never thought it would be true that Matt Lucas and David Walliams would become the greatest satirists of our age, but their “Computer Says No” character is about as nailed on as you can get!

Rick

Last night was another meeting of the Resource and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Commission. The agenda was fairly short last night, and made even shorter when the main item was postponed.

It was supposed to be a report on a strategy for the Borough’s Civic Halls (including the Longfield Suite in St Mary’s). Instead of a paper outlining where the Council wants to go in the future, it was simply a statement of where we are now, lacking in foresight and vision, and really a very disappointing piece of work, not least for the members of the public there to hear it.

The role of scrutiny is to discuss Council policy is detail. Civic Halls are important to people, as community facilities, and much loved buildings (in some cases, not necessarily Prestwich!). But they are also expensive, so we need to know what the Council wants to do - do we want community facilities that might lose money, and if so, how will we fund them? Or do we want commercially run venues, and if so, what will that mean for the community?

I don’t know the answer, but we need to have the debate. We need the Executive of the Council to come up with a strategy for Halls that we can debate and discuss with local people. At the moment they are content to muddle along in a halfway house scenario where the halls are attempting to do both things but are doing neither of the two options well.

So we sent the report back, and will hopefully have our strategy at a future meeting.

Also on the agenda last night was a report on Housing management costs. Six Town Housing, who manage the Council’s housing stock, are still expensive, and still costing more than before. This is worrying because their service isn’t very good either in a lot of areas. However, the report painted some positive pictures, including rent arrears falling. The Six Town picture may be getting slightly rosier, which is good news.

Rick

I often write on here about how the government is changing this country for the worse - ID cards, mass surveillance and an over-reliance on computer databases to access all types of services. It’s done in the name of security, or data-protection, or ID-fraud prevention, or whatever excuse the government thinks of at the time, but it is depressing that I can’t do anything these days without jumping through hoops to prove who I am.

And last night it came back to bite me.

I changed my car in November, after the old one threw a strop in the middle of the M1 and refused to ever work again. That’s the last time I buy French…

So I did everything I was supposed to do, including filling out the form to let the DVLA know that I wasn’t the owner, and that the garage I’d bought my new car from was instead. I heard nothing. Not the promised acknowledgement letter or anything. And a few weeks later I got a tax disc reminder letter, which was concerning since I had told them I didn’t own the car.

So I rang them up, and put the matter to bed over the phone, making it clear that they had made a mistake, and being told that, yes, they had made a mistake. Job done. I didn’t really mind the cost of the phone call or the wasting of my time, because mistakes can happen, and this one got fixed.

Only last night I returned home to discover an £80 fine waiting for me, for failure to tax a vehicle that I have now told them TWICE I don’t own any more. I can’t ring up to appeal, I can only ring an automated line to pay the fine. My right of appeal can be made by letter, but if I say I’ve let them know and have no documentation to prove it, I am still lumbered with the fine.

I have let them know (twice), and because of their incompetence, I of course do indeed have no documentation to prove it. But I am not going to pay this fine. I have appealed in writing, and await a response.

This is annoying (and potentially expensive). But it’s also worrying. Everything we do is now on one government computer or other. They want all of our health records on computer, our fingerprints, our iris patterns, maybe our DNA… And of course mistakes can happen. Computers are run by people who make mistakes. Whichever DVLA staff member dealt with me has inputted something wrong, and now I have an £80 fine to pay which is difficult to challenge, and for which the burden of proof lies with me. How many people, I wonder, are in my position, mistakenly fined? And how many of them are too frightened of the letter shouting about a “criminal offence,” or too unsure what to do, to challenge the fine? £80 is not a small amount of money, and it should be rightly levied against real criminals. But not everyone fined is a real criminal, because computers at the DVLA make mistakes.

Imagine if they make a mistake inputting my ID card data. Someone else’s fingerprints down as mine. The wrong code put somewhere by some faceless bureaucrat somewhere, and me denied access to the NHS. Or you denied a job because of a mistake with a CRB check. Or your children stopped from getting onto a plane because of a mistake in their passports.

Government reliance on computers to be 100% right all the time means that it is now extremely difficult to challenge the mistakes that are sometimes made. Government needs to be less arrogant in its assumption that it is always right. Government isn’t always right, and in my case now it is wrong. The fact that I’ve told the DVLA of a change of address in the intervening weeks between my supposed offence and now is hardly the act of a criminal trying to hide. And yet, despite them writing to me at the new address, they don’t take that into account, because the computers that run Britain can’t be wrong…

But they can, and they are. And how often do they have to be before someone puts the brakes on and we return to a place where we can talk to people face to face, and relate to the government that is supposedly there to help us. Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, has had something to say about this this week, paying particular attention to the mobile phone costs of ringing government helplines. He too is concerned about the faceless bureaucracy which we all have to deal with these days, and which I now have to tackle for the sake of £80.

Rick

This weekend is the Lib Dem spring conference in Liverpool, where the party will be debating exciting new policies, particularly in health, where we will be discussing radical new ideas including massive decentralisation of the NHS to give local communities far more of a say in how services are run.

I will be staying in the ward to get on with local issues, but a number of Bury Lib Dems, including St Mary’s ward Councillor Donal O’Hanlon, and Bury South Parliamentary candidate Vic D’Albert, will be at the conference tp help shape our policy and take advantage of the training and other things on offer.

I look forward to catching up with them when they get back, and to following the conference closely in the news.

Rick

The Government’s £100 million scheme to help first-time buyers has sold only 451 homes since it started in 2006, according to figures obtained from the Liberal Democrats.

In a housing policy paper to be debated at the Party’s Spring Conference this weekend, the Liberal Democrats will argue for the multi-million pound scheme to be replaced with Government-backed equity mortgages.

The paper Homes for All: Action to Tackle the Housing Crisis will set out how the Party would build an additional 1.3 million affordable homes to buy and rent over the next decade, whilst equity mortgages would ensure the homes remained affordable after their first resale.

Liberal Democrat research on Government schemes to help first-time buyers shows that between April 2006 and Oct 2007 there were just 451 completions through the First Time Buyers Initiative despite over £100m investment in the scheme.

This is really depressing news for many young people who find themselves nowhere near the first rung of the housing ladder.

The Government’s flagship home ownership schemes are woefully inadequate compared to the real affordability gap faced by first time buyers.

Building a handful of houses to gain headlines has not helped the thousands of people for whom a home of their own is further away than ever. The HomeBuy scheme has failed. We should be building far more homes for first-time buyers and ensuring they remain affordable for future generations.

In Prestwich the problem is as acute as elsewhere in the country. Houses in St Mary’s are too expensive for first time buyers, and planning laws and government planning policy are doing nothing to make it easier for young people to get onto the housing ladder locally.

Rick

URBED, the urban regeneration specialists currently undertaking a study into the future of Prestwich, gave a presentation at last night’s Local Area Partnership (LAP).

It was great to see so many members of the public there, and the presentation went down very well. I think URBED and local people want much the same thing - a revitalised retail sector, some relief of the traffic problems, and an improved environment. It was great that URBED presented possible solutions to all of the problems that we face. None of them are insurmountable.

There are some concerns at this early stage, and rightly so. We need to learn lessons from the Radius fiasco - there can’t be another building that looks quite so out of place and dominates the landscape so much. There has to be enough thought given to parking.

But URBED showed last night that we can achieve what Prestwich needs, and if the right things are built in the right way, we can even make Radius look like part of a planned Prestwich, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb.

Prestwich has a huge amount going for it: Excellent transport links, proximity to the city and the countryside, a “village” feel and an affluent and vibrant community. It is spoiled at the moment by a lousy town centre, awful traffic, and a local street environment that is neglected. All of these can be solved, and now we all have the chance to have our say through the URBED study.

Exciting times for the area.

Rick

Last night’s meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership (LAP) was the final meeting of the municipal year, and contained some great news for local organisations to whom we were able to award thousands of pounds in grants.

The LAP controls a number of grant funds and can allocate them to local groups throughout the year. Already this year for instance, we have allocated £10,000 to the Rainsough community centre, with more to follow for Children’s Centre outreach both there and in Carr Clough.

Last night the following awards were made:

- Prestwich Carnival were awarded £2,125, which will ensure the continuation of this excellent community-wide event for the next two years. This money was awarded from the Kickstart Community Initiative fund, which is to benefit the entire community.

- The Prestwich Clough Centenary group also received £2,125 so that the Clough Day which has taken place for the last two years can continue for the next two as well. This too is a wonderful Prestwich event, and we are proud to provide the money to keep it going. This money also came from the Kickstart Community Initiative fund.

- £1,500 was given for the provision of a sensory garden for disabled children at Butterstile. This money came from the Kickstart fund, which is for small projects.

- Heaton Park School applied for money for fencing around the school, which will be an asset to the local community and which we were happy to provide £5,000 towards. This grant was made from the Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital fund, which is for capital schemes benefitting the local environment.

- The Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital fund was also the source of money for the Downham Tenants and Residents Association, for whom the LAP has given £500 towards the cost of creating a “wildlife corner” for communal use on land that is currently an eyesore.

- And the Cleaner, Greener, Safer capital fund has been made available for refurbishment of the Parksway ginnel in Sedgley ward, where £1,000 will be used for essential security work.

- A ball zone will be created at Parrenthorn school, with £5,000 coming from the Community Development fund for projects in the community.

- In addition, a further £5,000 has been made available from this fund for a new under 5’s play area in Polefield.

Altogether last night there was over £22,000 of money invested by the LAP into much needed community projects. This is a massive investment, and we have secured major projects like the carnival and much-needed play facilities, as well as smaller things like the Downham wildlife corner.

St Mary’s in particular will benefit from the Clough day which takes place in the ward, and the Butterstile sensory garden, on top of Rainsough money which has already come this year.

All in all a very good night for Prestwich.

Rick

Tonight is the final meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership (LAP) of the municipal year. It’s an open meeting, so come along and ask your Councillors some questions!

The meeting takes place at Sedgley Park Primary School, which is on Kings Road / Bishops Road. Incidentally, this was the school my Mum went to, and my grandparents lived right opposite it for 50 years.

None of which is at all relevant to the meeting itself, which starts at 18.30 with the “business” part of the meeting. We’ll hear reports from the LAP Manager on outcomes since last time, including an update on the Prestwich Community Plan. We will also receive reports on current work from the Youth Service Manager, the two LAP sub-groups (on the town centre regeneration and on developing communities), and from our partners in the police and NHS.

Part two of the meeting is the open forum, which begins at 19.30. Members of the public are welcome to raise issues of concern with members of the LAP in an open session. If you have any issues you want to raise about the Council, local NHS, police, fire etc, then come down and ask us. You don’t have to sit through the rest of the meeting if you don’t want, and if you are uncomfortable asking your question out loud then we can arrange for it to be read out on your behalf as well.

After the open forum there will be a presentation from URBED, the consultants appointed to come up with a regeneration strategy for Prestwich centre. They will let us know their key findings to date.

After the end of formal business there will be the chance for you to talk one-to-one with any of us about issues as well.

So do come along and say hello, or tell us about anything we might be able to help you with. It’s what we’re here for after all.

Rick

The Liberal Democrats have called for a review of the Dangerous Dogs Act after a 43% increase over four years of people being admitted to A&E because of dog attacks.

Hospitalisation of children and young people has risen by a fifth, with 58% more adults being admitted to A&E as a result of dog attacks over the same four year period.

The problem is particularly bad in London, where there has been a 119% increase in A&E admissions for dogs attacks on under-18s.

These are enormously disturbing figures. Almost 4000 people were rushed to emergency wards in the last year alone due to violent dog attacks. There is a worrying trend in some areas of using dangerous dogs as fashion accessories or, worse still, as weapons. Dogs often only become violent as a result of mistreatment by owners - or because of a failure to train them properly.

Irresponsible owners are more likely to make a dog ‘dangerous’ than it being born a particular breed. There needs to be a greater emphasis on responsible dog ownership and warning people of the risks, particularly to children, rather than taking a purely enforcement-based approach.

No-one knowingly puts their child in danger but it seems that the message is not getting through at present. With so many children apparently at risk, perhaps now is the time to review the flawed Dangerous Dogs Act.

At a local level, Councils will soon take on extra responsibilities in dealing with stray dogs as well as dog fouling. But with resources already very stretched, it seems as if once again the government are expecting local Councils (and local people) to pick up the tab without being adequately funded.

Rick

My house creaks an alarming amount in high winds, I have noticed this weekend. Of more concern is that, for the first time ever, I am now liable for repair bills should the breeze dislodge the foundations. In my former days as a tenant of various sub-standard hovels across the UK, all it took was a call to the landlord when a slate blew off the roof and scalped a pedestrian, and the problems went away. Now such liabilities rest on my shoulders, and it is a worry. I need to live somewhere low down, to avoid the winds. Yet high up, to avoid the floods. A quandary…

The other week, when workmen came here and stodd tutting and shaking their heads at an appliance that neither worked nor fitted in the hole I had prepared for it, one of them remarked that I had landed in the “real world” of home ownership. I said then, and I’ll say it again now - there’s a lot to be said for a nice landlord and zero hassle. Yes, it’s money down the drain every month, but at least that swaying tree in next door’s garden threatens to fall on a roof that’s someone else’s problem, not mine.

All of which has detained me in the last couple of days, as well as some leafleting across the ward as the world says hello to the latest St Mary’s Focus. We’ve been out and about distributing it, as well as working across other wards. Yesterday I was in Liverpool for the majority of the day on a Lib Dem training event, returning just in time for the City v Wigan game. I thought I’d not make it back for kick-off, so I’d given my tickets away and had to settle for watching it in the pub. At half time I left, returning home to listen to it on the radio. My thought was that if I could reduce the number of my senses involved in the match from two (sight and hearing) to just one (hearing), it might make the horror of a goalless draw against Wigan at home seem bearable. It didn’t. Paying for two tickets and then not going to that game was probably about the best forty quid I’ve ever spent.

Tamsin was away for much of the weekend, and so I took advantage of being a young, free, single-for-a-night Councillor about town, and went to bed at 20:30. I slept for a dozen hours and then got up in time to head to Argos and buy a £7.99 Casio digital watch, purposefully purchasing the cheapest timepiece money can buy. The way I look at it is, there’s no point flattering to deceive with a hundred quid twinkly watch which looks alright but is actually rubbish. If I could afford a really lovely watch, or wear it without splattering it into a wall as I walked past, then I would wear a nice watch. As it is I don’t trust my arms not to swing into solid surfaces, so I may as well wear an awful watch. It says I don’t care, and has a certain “geek chic” appeal. So I like to believe…

I just watched “Bobby” on Sky Drama. If I could make a speech like that guy, the public gallery at the Town Hall would be overflowing…

And there endeth the weekend.

Rick