I am at war with Manchester Airport.

Not literally, obviously. Because they’d win, what with their access to radar and aeroplanes. Not to mention duty free booze for the victory party afterwards.

But I am having a strongly-worded dispute with them all the same. And it concerns the fact that their recent security improvements are having a direct financial impact on regular people coming to pick up their relatives. And more importantly, those regular people now include me, as I found out a few weeks back.

I arrived to pick Tam up off a flight, and discovered that I could no longer drive up outside the terminal and wait. This is understandable given the attraction of airport curb-sides to people with bombs in their boots. But no free alternative provision has been made by the airport, and so the ludicrous situation arises whereby I drove into the car park and then had to pay to get out, despite being in there for less than a minute.

In fact, had I not had my credit card on me to pay at the exit barrier, I would have had to spend five times longer in there, parking up, and walking to a pay machine and back. And the only reason I would have had to stay was because I needed to pay for a stay I wouldn’t have had to make without the need to pay in the first place. Which makes my brain hurt a bit.

I wrote to the airport in the hope that their brains would hurt too. And they obviously did, because it was only today that I received a reply, six weeks later. They claim to have reduced the cost of very short stays. This may be true, but they haven’t reduced it to nothing, which is what it was before.

It is not impossible to implement a system which makes, say, the first ten minutes free. This would allow people who are simply coming to pick up a passenger the ability to find their loved one, load a suitcase, and get out, and to do this without incurring a charge. This type of system operates in lots of car parks in the city centre, where if you have a sudden change of heart or are struggling to find a space, you can leave without paying. But the airport haven’t done this. Nor have they given me an  answer yet as to why not. And so I have asked them again today.

I fully appreciate the need for tougher security. It’s a shame, but it’s needed. And I also appreciate the efforts airports go to to protect our safety, and the difficult job they must have doing it. But there is no need that I can see to penalise people in this way. If I park at an airport for half an hour, charge me. If I have to enter the car park for thirty seconds because if I don’t then the only alternative sees her wheeling her suitcase all the way home herself, then I think I should get in and out for free. 

Rick

The marvellous Politics Home website (www.politicshome.com) distracts me from work a frightening amount, but does distill the morning’s newspaper analysis into digestable chunks.

Yesterday it recommended an interesting piece by Matthew Parris. He writes about a couple of recent logically questionable proposals from the government regarding obscenity laws and clairvoyants. It isn’t fashionable to curb limits on either, and I certainly can’t suggest it on here without wading into a gigantic puddle of trouble. So instead, I will just post the link and let you make up your own mind…

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article4023121.ece

Rick

A quiet day today, dominated by work and the return of Tamsin, who arrived back from France this evening, riding a bicycle, sporting a bunch of onions round her neck, and promptly going on strike and blockading the front garden. She surrendered fairly quickly though, so all is now well bar grumbling of discontent about the length of the working week.

Ward work wise, I found out a little more about the baffling dog waste non-prosecution today. This caving in by the forces of good against the forces of irresponsible canine carelessness is the result of my work in reporting the dog fouling on Agecroft Road West. Dog fouling which, to remind you, took place seconds after dog and owner had left their house, right in front of my eyes.

Apparently though, having the act witnessed and reported by a local Councillor is not enough. I am now told that since I didn’t manage to get the offender’s name (it’s owner’s name, I presume), no prosecution papers can be served. Instead, the best that can be done is to encourage the whole family to accept a formal caution, which has no practical effect, but in theory will be taken into account next time the offender is caught and, after surrendering his name to the witness, prosecuted. Oh, and the whole thing needs to be broadcast live on Sky News and then immortalised forever on the back of the new £20 note. Otherwise there really isn’t enough evidence.

Cast your wearied mind beyond the acres of red tape that apparently separate me from common sense on this issue, and ponder the strangely international flavour that this tale now takes on. I am told that the offender’s mother has told the dog wardens that her son has fled to Spain since the incident, and will remain there for “an indefinite period.” So, whilst I may not have extracted £50 from this filthy and respect-free individual, I have at least ensured that he’s fled the country. Prestwich now has its own Ronnie Biggs.

I think I may have taken this as far as I can. I have had a look on the Interpol website, and he’s not on there. The Spanish embassy don’t seem interested either, and I can’t afford a private detective. But apparently his Mum has accepted the caution, and the streets are safe once more.

Rick

Manchester based regeneration experts ‘URBED’ are seeking the views of local people on their initial options for a regeneration strategy that is looking to reshape the face, and the fortunes, of Prestwich. Having conducted an appraisal of the area, the masterplanning options are now available to view in Prestwich Library and at the Longfield Centre for a three week period between 19th May and 6th June 2008. The library is open from 9am to 7.30pm Mondays and Thursdays, 9am to 5pm Tuesdays and Fridays , 9am to 1pm Wednesdays and Saturdays and 10am to 2pm on Sundays. For those unable to attend the consultation, the documents are available to view online by visiting URBED’s website on http://www.urbed.coop/ . There are three documents available online (links below) including the “Options Report” which looks at a number of options for areas in Prestwich for development, including; The Longfield Centre, The Health Centre, Metrolink Station, Tesco, a Techno Park and Prestwich Hospital among others. URBED will use feedback from the options to help produce a final masterplan and development strategy for further consultation later on in the year that addresses the concerns of the community and local business community, as well as the development aspirations of developers. Prestwich Option 1 - using an expanded Tescos to anchor the centre Prestwich Option 2 - Anchoring the centre in the south Prestwich Baseline Report Draft Baseline Report May 2008 Prestwich Consultation Report Report of proceedings of the Prestwich Roundtable Workshop in the Longfield Suite 13th March 2008 Prestwich Options Report Options Report for Prestwich May 2008 Prestwich Masterplanning Options

Information uncovered by the Liberal Democrats shows that across England almost three times more parking tickets were issued following the Road Traffic Act of 1991 which allowed local authorities to take over enforcement of parking from the police.

Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary Norman Baker said:

“Illegal parking must be tackled in order to ensure safe and clear roads and local authority enforcement is a very important part of this.

“The scale of the increase in parking tickets following decriminalisation is extremely worrying.

“Motorists need to have confidence in the system. The Government needs to introduce an independent parking regulator to ensure that appeals are dealt with fairly and impartially and to ensure that car parking operators, local authorities and private firms are all held to consistent national standards.”

I get lots of angry residents ringing me about parking tickets which they think are unfair, and which often strike me as being at the excessive end of the scale. There is often a lack of common sense and understanding, sometimes from both sides, and this could be dealt with by national standards which are clearly understood by both drivers and parking enforcers.

Rick

Nick Clegg has written a piece in the Daily Telegraph today, giving his opinions on the current problems for Labour, the Conservative revival, and certain of our specific policies.

“The fuel protests hammer home a clear message. After the 10p tax rebellion, the local elections, and the Crewe by-election, no one can doubt the mood of the country any more. There is insurrection in the air. The British people are ready for change and they don’t believe Labour can deliver it.

“So the next big question is: what kind of change do people want? And which opposition party can make it happen?

“The Conservatives have painted an image of a brave new world, where the sun shines and David Cameron charms the birds out of the trees. The Cameroons have started to believe their own hype: insisting on their right to enter Number 10 without working out what they’d do once the door closed behind them.

“Their strategy is simple enough: why bother choosing policies when the Government is shooting itself in the foot? Cameron’s speech on tax last week was a case in point: he made a virtue of the fact that he will make no further specific commitments on public spending or tax. They are elevating policy evasion to an art form.”

Nick then goes on to talk about the specific Liberal Democrat policy commitments, as you can read in the full piece. Unfortunately my nifty “link” creator seems to have vanished, but click on this lenghty address and you will be magically transported to the article by a machine clearly more capable than this one:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/28/do2802.xml

Rick

The other week I saw a local man leave his house with his dog, and proceed to let it foul the footway immediately, before repeating the trick 50 yards down the road. The man looked on in amusement, and left his gift for the community right there on the pavement.

There’s an old saying about not crapping on your own doorstep, but my mind wasn’t occupied with those particular wise words at the time. Instead, I took busy-body-dom to a whole new level and reported him. I was told that I’d have to fill out a statement, and that a prosecution would follow.

So I did just that. And this morning I am told that because of a lack of evidence, the prosecution can’t go forward.

I wonder, what more compelling evidence can there possibly be than a signed statement from an eye-witness who is also a local Councillor, confirming the time, date and place of the incident, the description and address of the dog owner, and that it happened twice within 50 yards? Was I supposed to take a swab?

So I am a bit annoyed at that. God knows how we are supposed to get dog mess under control when it looks like the only way you can prosecute naughty dog owners is if their pooches relieve themselves in the magistrate’s lap. It isn’t the fault of the dog wardens, who seem as peeved as me. But for some legal reason of which I am unclear, this guy can’t get the fine he deserves. And as a result our streets keep getting dirtier, bad dog owners keep getting away with it, and the majority of good dog owners don’t see rewards for their fairly unpleasant efforts in cleaning up mess.

But we’ll keep on trying, and next time I see a dog owner walk away from his mutt’s pavement deposit, I will pounce with a plastic bag and mail it myself to the Council’s lawyers. Although, on reflection, this might get me into a bit of trouble myself…

Rick

I have spent this breezy weekend leafleting in various parts of the ward, and not doing much else. That my life crumbles to nothingness the moment Tamsin leaves me is as much a testament to her qualities as it is to my inability to make friends. She is in France and so, leaflets aside, my companions at the moment are this computer and the television downstairs, with its litany of pointless channels. Yesterday there were humans involved as well, and there probably will be tomorrow too. But today, oddly, they were all doing other things, and I pottered about here like a lonely old man.

And now I feel guilty for not doing something worthwhile with my time today, like reading a book. Weighty tomes loom down on me from the bookcase, whispering “great men read serious works” whilst I thumb through the pictures in the Tommy Cooper biography, try not to notice that Barack Obama’s book is there just waiting to be started, and not even bother with either in the end. ”Gladstone didn’t spend his spare time watching Sky Sports News” they intone. And they’re right.

I received a call today from a resident, who asked me to do something which I am not entirely comfortable doing.

He lives on a quiet road which also serves as the route for an hourly bus. And he wants me to ask if I can divert it so that it goes down the next street instead. Apparently it shakes the ornaments in his living room as it goes past, and he’s not happy. I know where he lives, because we’ve spoken on his doorstep. I know that the view from the back garden of his house is so spectacular, perched overlooking the Irwell Valley for miles as it is, that if I lived there I wouldn’t care about buses. But he is obviously used to the view, and does care. And so now I have to too.

Now, I have no objection to asking the bus people to consider moving the bus route. The way the streets pan out in this particular location means that there is a perfectly acceptable alternative route 50 yards away which will make no difference to the journey, and all the difference in the world to this man. But obviously it will make precisely the opposite difference to the people on the next street who are suddenly lumbered with a bone-shaking introduction to bus travel every hour. Is this fair on them, I wonder? And will one of them ring me up and ask me to move the bus back where it came from? What should I do then?

Issues like this arise from time to time. Residents ask for things which I think are a bit odd or impractical, or which I know will annoy as many people as they please. I pass on these requests, because I was elected to be an advocate for people, and advocate their wishes I shall. But I was also elected as a community leader - as someone to cut through the issues to find the solutions. And there are few solutions that please everybody. So what should I do? Do I carry on passing on the requests, or do I turn round and say that, since I am just as much the Councillor for the bus-haters as I am for the people living quite peacefully free of buses, that my man should fight this war on his own?

After all, for every resident delighted that the bus is re-routed, there’s another one after my blood for cursing them with a bus. For every householder singing my praises for getting parking restrictions imposed, there’s another one sticking pins on things with my face on them for stopping their right to park. And for everyone pleased about this week’s bollard (myself included), there is an angry man who’s crashed into that bollard and now wants to uproot it and throw it through my window.

These issues are tough calls. And they’re so local that they’re pifflingly small-fry compared to exactly the same types of issues facing the national politicians every day of their lives. And at least when I tinker with a local bus route I don’t have the Daily Mail calling me a butcher whilst the Guardian calls me a saint.

So, the leader/advocate thing is a dilemma. At the moment I am advocating. And if it turns out that I have to advocate for both sides of the same argument, then I suppose I will have to leave logic behind for the good of the ward, and carry on regardless. I think it might be different on the bigger issues. I think maybe when it comes to taxes and housing and Europe and the NHS, maybe politicians should stop saying “yes” to everyone and act more like leaders than advocates. But for me and my bus route, I don’t think picking an argument is the best way forward.

And besides, I comfort myself with the fact that no matter how many people I annoy whilst trying to do the right thing, it doesn’t really matter because there’s a 70% chance they won’t be voting anyway.

Which, of course, is a whole different depressing ball game.

Rick

There have been some remarkable re-unifications in my lifetime. East and West Germany… Madge and Harold from Neighbours… And today, one to top them all, as I am finally allowed back to my precious leaflets after almost a whole month of joyless and utterly free weekends where I could do sensible things like sitting in the garden, enjoying walks, and not helping us come third in Crewe.

It is, seriously, a happy event. Lack of leafleting means that my sole entry-point into the world of exercise is temporarily blocked, and my arteries have been audibly groaning for the last few weeks. I also get to meet a lot of people out on the streets whilst I’m leafleting, and obviously I don’t when I’m not. And of course the more leaflets we put out, the more people get to understand that we are at lest partially trying to do what they want us to do, rather than disappearing into a bunker after the election and not surfacing for 11 months.

So I am going to get all inkey again this afternoon, out and about in the ward. And of course God knows it, and so has replaced calm tranquility with a force 8 storm outside. We recently invested in some canvas covers for the garden furniture, which balloon out alarmingly in weather like this. All morning I keep glancing, from the corner of my eye, a dark green parachute billowing out across the garden. It takes a good half second each time for me to remember that this is caused by my own inability to tie a simple knot to the bottom of our swing-seat, rather than any military manoeuvres taking place on my lawn.

It’s the bank holiday of course. 7th one in five months, and the last one until the end of August. Hmm… There’s something askew there, I feel. But, regardless of the front-loading of our days off, Tam has upped and left me for the weekend, and gone to France. So I am free to do what young men do, in the prime of their lives, with time on their hands and money in their pockets. That’s right - leafleting. Marvellous.

I hope everyone has an enjoyable time.

Rick

Just a brief post today, since I have been out all day and haven’t had the time to compose a longer one. I am also tired, having stayed up way past my bed time watching the football, and then been kept up even longer by the whooping neighbours and their fireworks / honking car horns. I’d like to think that my disdain is more to do with being above all that than it is to do with jealousy. But it really isn’t.

Anyway, so tonight it’s the inaugural meeting of the St Mary’s Conservation Area Action Working Group, which will get together periodically to discuss ongoing things to do with the local conservation area. We are lucky in this ward to have a lot of natural and man-made beauty. Unfortunately we also have a lot of entirely-man-made ugliness such as the dire Radius flats and various awful bits of Prestwich Village. So we’re trying to stem the tide of horrific-ness, and extend the good stuff where we can. Part of this is making it harder to knock down grand old buildings and replace them with carbuncles, and part of it is to do with not allowing parkland to be concreted over. Unfortunately, not everyone agrees about what’s any good and what’s not, and it is around these blurry edges that much of the discussion will take place, I’m sure. As well as making sure that everything else that’s supposed to happen happens.

Other than that, I have been chasing up missing street signs today - Carr Avenue and Butterstile Lane, to be precise. For some reason people nick them. If it was Penny Lane or Sir Matt Busby Way, I could understand, but the reasons for these thefts are mysterious… Anyway, I discovered today that it takes TEN WEEKS from reporting the sign missing to getting it replaced. Six weeks to get the sign made, and another four to install it. As far as I am aware the signs aren’t made of plutonium, nor are they made in New Zealand. So the reason for the delay is as odd as the theft in the first place… But they’ll get done eventually, and that’s the important thing.

Rick

Occasionally the struggle to get little things achieved in my ward vastly outweighs the small-time reality of what it is I am trying to do. Today’s successful installation of bollards on Kingswood / Dashwood Road is the perfect case in point.

One night about six months ago I noticed the world’s single largest HGV trying to do a three point turn down the residential side-street that is Dashwood Road. This monster truck was, seriously, about thrice the width of the road, resplendent with more bright light bulbs than the Blackpool Illuminations, and almost certainly possessing a horn of such magnitude that a single honk would have de-forested Prestwich Clough.

This was just the latest in a string of trucks getting stuck down that road, having fallen foul of giggling sat-nav machines mischievously mis-directing their hapless drivers on the way to somewhere else. And obviously the local residents were getting mighty fed-up of their cars being de-wing-mirrored , their walls being knocked down, and their sanity sorely tested.

One such Dashwood-dweller asked whether I could sort out a bollard, which would deter the truck drivers from attempting the three-point turns, and have them driving round the block instead.

An easy task you might think, since a bollard costs £200 and the Council’s budget is £250,000,000. Sadly, this would prove not to be the case, and it is only now, half a year and several threats to pay for the blasted thing myself, that we finally have the Richard Baum Bureaucracy Gone Mad Memorial Bollard unveiled to the waiting world.

The delays were unfathomable. Partly because Council officers gave this absolutely no priority (which is understandable when there are major junctions that need completely re-building, but frustrating nonetheless), but mainly I think because the lines of communication between Finance and Highways are as frayed as a tatty old rope bridge. It took more to-ing and fro-ing than it is almost possible to believe to get this done. But get it done we did. And I am proud.

Unfortunately we are only half way there. The symptom has been attacked, but the cause has not. I wrote to the business to whom the trucks are attempting to deliver, advising them that their lorries were being guided by the sat-nav equivalent of “Number 5” from the Short Circuit films. They assured me that they would take care of it, but they clearly haven’t because the drivers still travel ever more irretrievably into suburbia before realising that a 40 foot truck probably shouldn’t be driving down a narrow street of terraced housing in the middle of the night.

So I have asked for the Council to install signs to tell drivers to ignore their Sat Navs. I am told that such signs don’t exist, but I know that they do because I’ve seen them with my own eyes in such exotic locations as Ashton under Lyne.

Their installation will be another nail in the coffin of despair for local people, but will probably take at least another six months to get done, because nothing’s ever simple, and we’re already starting from a fairly unpromising point whereby the Council flat-out denies that the signs even exist!

And of course I await with baited breath the necessary removal of the new bollards when a truck tries to three point turn anyway and gets utterly stuck.

Rick

Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg today called for tax cuts for low and middle-income earners after a decade of tax hikes and unprecedented public spending rises.

During a speech to the Policy Exchange think-tank, Nick Clegg set out Lib Dem plans for radical and effective changes to the tax system that are will make Britain a fairer place where taxpayers’ money is spent more efficiently:
 

Nick Clegg criticised Labour for years of tax rises:

“Over the course of eleven years of the Labour Government, we have seen National Insurance bumped up, Council Tax sky rocketing, stamp duty quadrupled, dozens of minor stealth taxes imposed, and now the 10p rate of income tax doubled.

“It is ludicrous that the poorest people still pay a higher proportion of their income in tax than the richest do. It is an immoral use of excessive taxation on those who can afford it least.

“Excessive tax can do enormous damage - especially to the poorest families, whose power in our society is already so limited. That is why the Liberal Democrats will focus all our attention on cutting taxes - from the bottom.

“The most disturbing development is the Prime Minister’s penchant for surprise tax changes. It’s a tombola tax system. Gordon Brown treats tax like Forrest Gump treats a box of chocolates - you never know what you’re going to get. 

Nick Clegg said that the Tory plans were ill thought-out and not right for the country: 

“David Cameron cannot credibly argue that he wants to cuts taxes and improve public services unless he says how - he has asked us to trust him but why on earth should we?

“Tory tax policies are all smoke and mirrors, striking postures whilst ducking all the tough choices.

“He has cried crocodile tears for the millions who lose out from this income tax hike. Crocodile tears because he has no policies to help the people who are suffering.”

Instead of Labour tax rises and Conservative bluff, Nick Clegg set out the Liberal Democrat vision for a fairer, greener tax system: 

“We already have a radical tax package, cutting the basic rate of income tax to just 16p, to make work really pay for everyone.  And scrapping the unfair council tax, which hurts the poorest the most.
 
“Council Tax bills have more than doubled since Labour came to power, and the poorest pensioners pay four times as high a percentage of their income than the richest working people.
 
“Removing this unfair tax and replacing it with a fair local income tax will massively shift the tax burden away from the poor – and take many people on the lowest incomes out of tax altogether – those who don’t pay income tax but are hit by the council tax. It’s absolutely vital that we make these tax changes if we want to make work pay.
 
“At the moment, for every pound you earn over and above six thousand, at least 31p is lost in tax and National Insurance. 
But for many, because of the loss of tax credits and means tested benefits like Council Tax benefit, much more is lost. 1.8 million people face an effective tax rate of more than 60%.  For the worst affected, the tax rate can be 90p in every pound. And almost all of them are low earners.
 
“The moment you add in the cost of childcare – or travel to work – for far too many people work is just not a viable option.
 So these tax cuts are at the heart of the Liberal Democrat plans.
 
“And we will make up the money by taxing pollution and reforming capital gains tax and pensions tax relief.Switching over £8bn of taxation from income to pollution is and will continue to be one of the corner stones of Liberal Democrat tax policy.
 
“The other two parties’ environmental credentials will not stand up to closer inspection unless they are prepared to use green taxes to change behaviour.  
 
Mr Clegg re-affirmed the Lib Dem commitment to get tough on tax avoidance both by businesses and individuals.
 
“It is unacceptable that someone on the minimum wage can pay 31% tax when some of the very richest people and businesses can pay virtually no tax at all. We must stop the drive from companies who decide to locate “virtually” offshore.
“The UK has much to offer, good communications, a skilled worked force and a desirable place to live. If a company is attracted by these things it must also pay UK tax.
 
“A Liberal Democrat Government would have a very simple rule. If your company is based in the UK, you pay tax in the UK - not Jersey or the Cayman Islands.
 
“Too many top companies and prosperous people in Britain now see no shame in aggressive tax avoidance. It may, strictly speaking, be legal but it lets down millions of hardworking ordinary taxpayers.
 
“So over the coming months, we will work with financial experts and business to find ways to make tax avoidance so difficult it is no longer worth trying.
 
“I want to send a clear message to businesses and some very wealthy people that tax is not optional.”

Nick Clegg’s message is clear - the Lib Dems have fully costed and radical tax plans that are markedly different, fairer and greener than what is on offer from Labour and the Tories.

Rick

Today I find myself over the worst of my near-death man-flu experience, but still without any physical energy at all. It’s a good job I work in a typical twenty-first century occupation – slumped at my desk in front of a computer screen for a reason beyond comprehension – rather than in an iron smelting works or anything that requires me to lug things about all day, or else I may have had to take the day off. So, for one day only, I am delighted at the decline in our glorious manufacturing heritage. I tried to walk up to a colleague’s office earlier, and the resultant strain on my body was akin to a solo assault on Kilimanjaro, so I have decided to seek refuge at my desk and communicate with others using only email for the rest of the day.

In the end I didn’t run the Great Manchester Run. I could barely climb the stairs at home without collapsing in a breathless heap, so it was fairly unlikely that I’d have managed to run to Old Trafford and back. St John Ambulance have enough problems without my wheezing body lying stiff and prone in the back of their van. So now I need to fend off the angry mob of people who sponsored me to do it by finding another 10k to run…

The week ahead is fairly light in terms of Council meetings. The committees and such are all still sorting themselves out, and won’t get going properly for another week or three. In the meantime there is ongoing casework and party malarkey to deal with. It was the post-election thank-you party for all of our many helpers and supporters at the weekend. I wasn’t there due to being shivering and moaning like a girl at home at the time, but I hear it went down a storm.

I hope everyone has a nice week.

Rick

I am sat in front of my computer wearing a dressing gown on a Saturday night at ten o’clock. Any fading memory of my loud and raucous youth has disappeared completely this evening, as I have forsaken the lure of a party to sit and write a draft of the Prestwich Plan.

However, my choice to swap socialising for solitary typing was made easier by an attack of Man Flu which has crippled me this evening, and turned me from erudite man about town, to groaning misery. It began during the FA Cup Final, a match normally so boring that it brings on comas, but today able to start a throbbing in a part of my head I can only reasonably call my brain stem.

This is a worrying part of the body to have anything abnormal going on in, and it has since spread to the rest of my skull, resulting in the type of regular throbbing that makes me think my head contains not just a brain but a high performance Swiss timepiece.

I am supposed to be running the Great Manchester Run tomorrow. This was already an unpleasant prospect, and is now rendered about as palatable as sharing a surfing lesson with Jaws. If I survive the night at all, I will make a decision about whether to run or not in the morning. I am relying on the healing powers of Lucozade and grapes in the meantime, and right now I am going to bed.

I may be gone for some time.

Rick

Last night eh Local Area Partnership heard a presentation on the future of Prestwich Cash Office. A number of local people will have noticed the signs that have been put up at the “Cash Office” at the Library announcing its closure. We have been assured that these have been put up in error and the office is not closing at the present time.

Prestwich Councillors all met with Mike Owen, the Council’s Director of Finance and E-Government on Wednesday, who answered questions on the cash office. The Council does want to review whether the Office is viable nowadays and will be consulting on this over the summer.

We made some very strong points about the benefits of face-to-face human contact - particularly as post offices are closing and some shops are reluctant to run the “Pay-Point” system because of security issues. The Prestwich Local Area Partnership will be receiving a full report and consultation at its July meeting. In the meantime, I will gladly relay the concerns of any local residents regarding the future of this important community asset. 

Last night’s Prestwich LAP contained one gigantic disappointment - the list of roads identified as most in need of repair, and the frankly laughable amount of money given over to repair them.

As in previous years, the top dozen roads are identified. These, remember, are the least well-maintained roads, the ones with most pot-holes, cracks, loose paving stones and all the other hazards and unpleasantness that makes driving or walking down them dangerous.

The total estimated cost to repair all twelve is £596,000. The total budget allocated to fix Prestwich roads this year is just £108,000. That’s only 18% of the money needed to fix even the twelve most needy! That figure of £596,000 doesn’t even consider the 13th worst road, let alone the 14th, or the 114th, or the countless other roads with holes and cracks.

We have less than one fifth of the money necessary to repair our dozen neediest roads, and this is a disgrace.

Six of the dozen roads have been held back from previous years because of funding problem. One of them, Fairway in Sedgley, will cost by itself nearly £50,000 more than the entire budget allocated for roads. In St Mary’s, Sunny Drive and Barnhill Drive have been identified as needing work, but if both of these schemes get the go-ahead, this will account for nearly half of the entire available budget.

This is a matter which Liberal Democrats will certainly be taking up at Council level, to try and convince the Council to provide more funding for roads which are verging on the dangerous. The costs of compensation for trips and falls must surely point to the dire need for investment. But at the moment the people of Prestwich are very badly done to when the cost of replacing the pavement alone on Parrenthorn Road in Holyrood is more than the whole budget for roads and pavements for the whole of Prestwich.

The decision on which roads get repaired will be made by the Town Centre Regeneration Group, which is a sub-group of the LAP. I will make representations to this group on behalf of residents, but unfortunately this grossly inappropriate funding means that many local people will be left sorely disappointed by a Conservative council failing to prioritise roads in a budget already cut to shreds by a Labour government.

Rick

Last night’s meeting of the Prestwich Local Area Partnership (LAP) was successful on a number of fronts.

First, there were no recorded fatalities despite the meeting taking place in a room hotter than an angry volcano. If I’d have known what the temperature was going to be, I’d have brought along a couple of eggs to fry on the floor rather than waiting until I got home for tea. I would also have probably removed my tie, although I may not have gone quite as far as one member of the panel who decided to leave any semblance of respect at home as well as his formal attire, and come in a t-shirt.

The substance of the meeting was also pleasing as well. The “business” part of the meeting saw reports back from a number of the groups operating in Prestwich to make the community better, and we learned about their successes in the past couple of months. There were also updates from partners including the police (reporting a fall in most types of crime), the NHS (presenting about new GP facilities in Bury, although not in Prestwich), and the fire service.

Then the “Open Forum” gave the chance for lots of local residents to raise issues about the work of the partnerships. Once again there were frustrations raised about street cleaning, and I have now asked for a formal response from the Director of Environmental Services as to why the pavement-sweeping machines aren’t being used properly around here. Also, there were calls for larger bins on the precinct, and more action to be taken on pigeons. I was pleased to report that work to pigeon-proof the Precinct will take place this Sunday after I asked for it to be done some time ago.

Perhaps the main event though was the initial options report from URBED, the design consultancy we have engaged to consider options for the future of Prestwich Town Centre. The options that they put forward are really just their first thoughts, and do lack certain of the elements which they will have in their final form (such as the west of Bury New Road, links to the Clough and full consideration of traffic and parking), but they do give a flavour of some of the types of things that we could consider for the next 5-10 years in Prestwich. There was a full and frank discussion afterwards from amongst the many dozens of local people who came to the meeting, and the options are available for all to view in Prestwich library.

Rick

Only a brief post today, because I am struggling to breath under the weight of work I keep putting off to do Council things…

Yesterday’s Annual Council was a remarkably dull affair. The whoops, screams, and general childishness I expected from the ruling group on their assumption of overall control for the first time in Bury sine 1986 didn’t emerge. So credit to them for that. It beats their various displays in Council over the last twelve months. Instead, the historic moment passed in a grumbled “aye” when the motion to let the Conservatives form the Executive was put to Council.

The only other marginally exciting part of the agenda (and I use that phrase with a spade-full of salt) concerned democratic arrangements, and was postponed. So we were left with various annual reports, all of which were informative, but none of which were in the least bit fun.

I am prepared for the LAP tonight, which, just to remind anyone who wants to come, is at Prestwich’s Longfield Suite, from 18:30. There will be presentations on the Urbed regeneration and on local health services, as well as the open forum where you can ask us anything (to do with the work of the LAP, obviously).

So maybe I’ll see you there.

Rick

An important day for Bury today - it’s “Annual Council,” where Councillors vote to see who will form the Council’s Executive (i.e. who will run the Council) for the coming year. Since the Conservatives won a small overall majority in the election, they have the votes to ensure that they run the Council, and I’m sure their lady members will be suitably dressed to mark the occasion, before heading off to Ascot or whatever is the correct thing to do with what they’ve got on their heads. 

There will also be a debate on proposed changes to the Council’s constitution, particularly around the rights of Members to ask questions. I suspect there may be some objections to the proposals to limit the time given to questions in meetings, so there may well be some fiery debate.

The Annual Council meeting is actually split in two, with one half dedicated to business (the Executive positions etc), and the other half given over to the ceremony of electing a new Mayor. The Mayor for the 2007-8 municipal year is Cllr Dr Farook Choudhry, and his term of office expires today. The presumptive new Mayor is Cllr Peter Ashworth, with whom I served on the Resource and Performance Scrutiny Commission and the Council’s Youth Cabinet. He will be elected and sworn in this afternoon as well, and I send him my congratulations and wish him all the best for the year ahead as the Borough’s Mayor.

So, in essence, that’s what I’ll be doing today.

Rick

The first Prestwich Local Area Partnership of the Municipal Year takes place at 6.30pm pm Thursday 15th May 2008 at The Longfield Civic Suite, Prestwich. Come along and see the launch of the “Love Prestwich” anti-litter campaign, which follows on from some of the work local Lib Dem Councillors have been leading on in getting the Council to tackle the “Dickensian filth” which sometimes plagues local streets.

Prestwich LAP will launch its Love Prestwich Litter Campaign for the summer which aims to target Prestwich Village Town Centre to promote respect of the environment to residents and businesses to Love Prestwich and keep it clean. Lots of the problems we have with litter are caused by people dropping it, and we need to create a lot more pride in our local area. So many local people tell me that they lovel Prestwich, so now is the time to show it.

The meeting will also feature URBED, the regeneration specialists who we’ve been working with on plans for the future of the Village centre. Following on from the huge turn out at Prestwich Visioning event in March, URBED will be coming along on Thursday to say what people Love about Prestwich Village and how it might move forward.  They will have some initial options and ideas to put forward of how the future of Prestwich may look in the future, and there’ll be the opportunity to ask questions on what you see. 

There’s so much going on in Prestwich at the moment, and I’m confident that we stand at the start of a hugely exciting time.  This is the perfect opportunity to come and have your say. As well as the URBED proposals and the Love Prestwich campaign, the Open Forum will be at 7.30 for any concerns members of the public may want to raise about anything at all to do with the Council, Police, Fire and Health services, and the local area in general.

It will also give you the chance to meet the newest Lib Dem Councillor in Prestwich, Cllr Mary D’Albert, who will join the LAP for the first time.

Please do come to the meeting and have your say on what’s going on in Prestwich.

Rick 

The domestic news today has once again been full of the types of economic bleakness that makes me ache with frustration about things.

Prices for domestic fuel seem about to leap again, and if Tam and I are feeling the pinch trying to keep the two of us warm in a modern house and with two above-average incomes, God knows how OAPs and big families with low wages are supposed to cope.

On top of this, I tried to fill my car this morning and would have had to take out a mortgage to achieve it, had any been available. Sadly the credit crunch means that there aren’t any, and so I was forced to pay with my Debit Card, which I feared would melt in the machine.

I really should know more about the forces at work behind these events. At the moment I can’t understand why, if everyone is bothered about the rising price of all, they just don’t stop paying those prices for it… Of course I know it’s not as simple as that, but the nuances of why things are happening the way they are escape me sometimes, as they must do so many people caught up in events beyond their control.

As a result, I am now reading a book about The City and the economy at the moment, and it is teaching me about what’s important and why. I hope it might make my frustration less about feeling ignorant. It’s oddly both complicated and very simple at the same time, but what it underlines is how immensely powerful the large investors and financial institutions are, and how they can generate both enormous wealth, and the potential to make millions of livelihoods vulnerable even for people with nothing to do with them.

The Lib Dems nationally are acutely concerned about the state of the economy, and have today launched their manifesto for the City of London called “A New Deal For The City – Liberal Democrat Proposals.” The document sets out our plans to create a new relationship between the Government and the City, by reforming regulations and simplifying taxes. What is clear is that, although the City is rightly praised for generating wealth, jobs and expertise for the country, it isn’t perfect. There are abuses and unfairness in the system which now seem to be effecting the entire country, and it is government’s role to continue allowing for innovation and the success of the City, but in an environment which protects us all.

I am learning more about this all the time. “The Economy” might seem boring, but then anyone with a job or a home or a car is as vulnerable to its fluctuations as I am. The proposals in our document today are sensible and much needed ways of trying to ensure that whilst we maximise the great potential of the City to drive forward our country, we don’t forget the responsibilities this brings to the government and the City itself.

Rick

At my party on Saturday, a friend of mine who I’ve known since three minutes after I started university, and who has recently married, announced that she was now pregnant. I was overjoyed at the news, cooing around the place like a demented owl and generally doubting my own gender by getting the types of broody feelings I’m not sure men are biologically supposed to get. It was the best news I’d heard all year.

But now, two days and one clean-up later, I find myself asking how on earth this managed to happen. Obviously I have moved on from the biological now. My parents taught me about the dangers of baths that are too hot, and of cabbage patches years ago, and I tell Tam never to take such baths or eat such vegetables because I know we’re just not ready for children yet. No, I don’t mean how she managed to get pregnant in the first place, but how in the name of all that’s rational I came to be old enough not only to have friends who are married, but friends who are now carrying children of their own.

Does this sudden dismay happen to other people? Do others ever just stop for a moment and think about how many decades their inner-selves are from their outer-selves? Is there a cure?

Yesterday, and I mean, literally, yesterday, I was six years old. I lived in a house with my parents and sister, I went to primary school, and I played with a plastic football and Lego bricks. There is no way, NO WAY, that anyone in my peer group is now old enough to have a baby, without them being the talk of the town and rightly whisked off to a country house supervised by sadistic Irish nuns. And yet, it turns out that they are all old enough. How did this happen?

There was someone else at the party, a friend of Tam’s, who has gone through the whole pregnancy thing already, and emerged out the other end with a real child. A “Francesca” that breathes and cries and will soon walk and talk. How could she have done such a thing and survived? Here she is, with a baby, still managing to do normal things like engage in conversation and drive a car, and here I am struggling to come up with the necessary commitment to bung a pizza in the oven for 15 minutes. If I had an actual baby, I really don’t understand how I would be able to do anything other than act like a jibbering wreck.

I can pin-point the exact moment when we suddenly stopped being the young generation and started being the middle one. It was 19:50 on October 31st 2006, when the last of my grandparents died, and there was absolutely nothing and nobody standing between my parents and The Great Hereafter. The shield that separated my cosy little childhood from nasty things like time’s irritating ticking disappeared. But I didn’t have to do anything about it then. I could just pretend to still reside in kid-hood, because there was no-one beneath me coming up on the rails. Now that’s changed too, and there is no place in the play-pen left for me. I’m going to be shoved out of it by a gurgling newcomer who is the product of someone who was, last week, LAST WEEK I tell you, the 18 year old fresher at university tumbling about the place without a care in the world. And now she has travel-cots and stuff that pumps things. It’s unpleasant for any number of reasons.

I have a responsible job. I am elected to public office for God’s sake. People ask me to do things for them, and they get done. I debate issues that matter and people ask me for advice. And yet, in my head, I just can’t contemplate that it is even conceivable that a peer of mine is doing something this grown up. An actual baby, that will be here after we’re gone and will have babies of its own.  

I probably grossly undercooked a sausage or two at my party. I thought quite often about the mountain of debt it is necessary to tunnel into to afford the mortgage on the house. And I let two dozen people drink red wine near my cream sofas. But the one truly frightening thing about Saturday night was the thought that in six months time there’ll be a little one amongst us and we really really won’t be those kids who met on the first day of university any more.

Which would be a sad thought, were I not still absolutely gob-smacked with delight about the whole thing.

Rick

The weekend just gone saw my house well and truly “warmed,” when a large throng of people descended on it and risked their lives by taking part in that most extreme of sports – eating food barbecued by me.

The death count is currently static and zero, but can only move one way, and since the gestation period of whatever bacteria I have infected my friends with is probably a good few days, I am expected a flurry of angry and vomit-interrupted phone calls towards the end of the week.

There were representatives from every walk of my life there in the garden on Saturday night – neighbours, old friends, fellow Lib Dem types, strangers who claimed to be friends with Tam… And obviously because we all lead contented lives where our every whim is catered for in a blizzard of effortless consumerism, nobody could be bothered putting in the necessary legwork and making new friends any more. So we had the odd scenario which I see at weddings whereby the assembled crowd split off into sects, not intermingling except for laboured small talk in the queue for food. I am equally guilty of being simply too lazy to bother making friends with new people. Occasionally someone new sneaks in by the back door, just appearing at enough functions that I’m also at so that my ignoring turns to gruff nodding, then to an acknowledging smile, until eventually conversation turns to mutual ground like the fact that we keep bumping into each other at interminable social events. But mainly, I’m sorry to say, my friendship train left the station long ago.

So on Saturday I got a taste of what it must be like having a wedding of my own – being happy that everyone I love is in the same room for pretty much the only time in my life, but then spending the whole time panicking that I can’t get round to see them all. There really is a lot to be said for granting audiences with people at individual time-slots. At least then I could ask the sort of probing questions about new boyfriends that I really want to ask, rather than just glancing across rooms at laughing crowds that should have me in them, and making sure everyone has enough wine in their re-usable plastic cup.

The perfect way to get rid of hangovers, whilst simultaneously fulfilling community duty, is to attend the Annual Prestwich Clough Day. Happily for all concerned, this was yesterday, and once again was an absolutely excellent event of which our whole area can be proud. The weather was perfect, unlike last year when, as I recall, Prestwich was visited by the monsoon. This year the brass bands weren’t using their trumpets as snorkels, which is always a good sign for an outdoor event, I find.

As in previous years there were some excellent stands, full of information from community groups, the Council, local charities and societies. I learned a lot about the very exciting developments from the Forestry Commission in the Drinkwater Park area over the coming months – there are going to be some beautiful new developments, by the sounds of it. There were also animals to view – birds of prey and hedgehogs received plenty of attention from the guests who I’d brought along post-housewarming.

I think there were more people there than I’d seen in previous years too. I was there from the beginning right through until near the end, and it was a hugely successful event which showed our district off for the vibrant and friendly place it really is. Enormous credit must go to the organisers and those who gave up their time to make the stalls a success. Their efforts really did make an enormously positive impression. Here’s to next year.

Rick

Last night’s Lib Dem Group AGM saw lots of interesting discussion about the election campaign just gone, and our plans to work successfully on the Council over the next 12 months. Obviously none of the discussions were anywhere near as interesting as frolicking in the sunshine outside, but unfortunately with the privilege of power comes the irritating burden of responsibility, so I had to put down my ice cold Vimto momentarily, exchange my flowing Hawaiian grass skirt for a suit, un-hand the hula girl, and go to the meeting.

Congratulations to Councillors Tim Pickstone and Andrew Garner who were re-elected Group Leader and Deputy Leader respectively, and to Cllr Mary D’Albert who remained conscious throughout her debut Group meeting. The last twelve months have undoubtedly been a success for our Group - election victories and leading campaigns on issues like congestion charging and post offices - and we are sure to go from strength to strength with a continuing leadership team and a new face on the Group.

The meeting also saw us discuss appointments to the many many (many) Council committees, working groups and outside bodies that exist across the community. In the grand shake-up I emerged on to the Resource and Performance Scrutiny Committee, and the Licensing Committee. I worked on R&P last year - it’s the Scrutiny Committee that takes a broad view of all the Council’s work and focuses on service performance and finance. It was enjoyable and I think we got some good stuff done, so hopefully that will continue. Licensing will be new to me, but I join my colleague Cllr Steve Wright on it and he only has good things to say about the work we can achieve on there.

I was also elected Chair of the Community Development Working Group of Prestwich Local Area Partnership last night, which is an exciting challenge. I was a member of the group last year and we achieved some great work in Rainsough and Polefield, so hopefully I can continue the momentum here in the coming twelve months. I will be supported by Cllr Ann Garner who is stepping down from the Chair herself but will still be a valued and influential member of the working group.

All such re-shuffling pales into insignificance when set off against the blue sky above me this morning. It’s still far too sunny outside to be cooped up in an office. Resultantly I may make a daring bid for freedom soon after lunch. There may be fireworks.

Have a good weekend. 

Rick

The continuing warm spell meant that last night I took advantage and mowed the lawn. The occasion also saw the juddering debut of my new strimmer. Such is the exciting life a Councillor leads in the week after an election.

So now my lawn has stripes on it, which I must admit are wavey in parts due to the fact that my lawnmower has the turning circle of an oil tanker, rendered even worse by the fact that in turning it I regularly ended up inside a shrub.

I have scheduled a barbecue for Saturday night, so expect that sky to turn black and start pelting the earth with rain like God’s own rage at about Saturday teatime.

Tonight is the Liberal Democract Council Group Annual General Meeting, where we decide who does what and how the Group is going to work for the coming year. It will be nice to see my colleagues’ brows looking less furrowed than when I saw them all last on election day (although they became visibly less creased as the results became clear).

And in the meantime, I must get back to work. Sadly not under a tree, but here in my office, which is so hot that I’m fairly certain there is liquid magma flowing through the radiators.

Rick

Now that the election is over, there is less need for me to spend every waking hour out on the streets, so of course God has warmly mocked me by stopping the rain and blasting us all with a premature taste of Summer. I took advantage of the nice warm weather last night by unpacking a flat-pack barbecue, and attempting to build it.

Obviously, this being a construction project overseen by a British elected representative, it drastically over-ran. However, the delay in completion was only a few hours long, and was caused less by chronic maladministration, and more by my utter inability to tighten a nut to a screw. Somewhere along the line, when I should have learned how to do man’s things like re-wire stuff and wear a tool belt without looking like a buffoon, I missed out. Other people know how to do this stuff. I absolutely do not.

What I have now then is a functioning, if somewhat rickety, barbecue. It’s not all bad - I suspect it can be just about used for its primary purpose, although it may not work entirely as planned, and is in danger of collapse at any moment. Rather like the Home Office, in many respects.

Where my barbecue is different from the Home Office is that it has foldy-down side bits for hot dog buns and burgers. And these folding side table bits do indeed fold down, after some rigorous shaking. They are the definite highlights of my work. And, like all masterpieces, we should not risk damaging them. As such they should be preserved in either the up or down position at all times, and not tinkered with. Let me assure you that my reluctance to repeatedly extend or contract the shelves is entirely about the preservation of fine craftsmanship, and nothing whatsoever to do with the possibility that the whole thing might fall to pieces in my hands, scattering white-hot coal fragments over my nearest and dearest.

Now that my work is done, all that is left is for me to put the BBQ to good use this weekend at my house-warming party, by poisoning all of my friends.

As well as being all manly and building stuff with tools, I have been catching up on casework these past 24 hours. I have facilitated a meeting between the Police and a local man concerned with vandalism at some local allotments. Also, I have chased up some missing street signs (Butterstile Lane and Carr Avenue, not that you’d realise you were there, of course), and got the Council Tax people to prioritise the case of a local man who’s refund application has got lost in the system somewhere.

Thankfully, I am better at the casework than I am at the furniture-building. It’s a good job, otherwise nobody would cast a single vote in my favour ever again.

Rick

I am at a bit of a loss at the moment, and I wonder if I’m the only one feeling the pain of election cold turkey. This is an odd time of year when the elections are finished and the Council has yet to kick off. A kind of hole in the political space-time continuum that sucks people in at the conclusion of the count, and spits them out at annual Council with nothing in between except for a black and empty week and a half.

I do miss the campaign though, despite disliking every minute of it. I don’t have a mother-in-law, but I suppose if I did, and she came to visit for an entire horrific and unendurable month of ceaseless horror, before abruptly leaving, I’d feel the same kind of confusing sense of loss. I’d have done anything to end it sooner, including acts of criminal violence, but now that it’s gone away and left me with nothing to think about but the good bits, I wonder if I wasn’t just wasting time complaining instead of appreciating it. It’s not often a team comes together to achieve something that is genuinely good. It’s even less often that I am a part of it.

For weeks on end I was immersed in the election – leafleting all day every weekend, canvassing every night, and thinking of little else but how much I wanted to win a contest which, it turned out, even fewer people cared enough about to vote than last year. In the last week I was literally doing nothing but sleeping and election-ing, and in the last 24 hours even the sleeping was jettisoned in favour of about 5,000 leaflets and lots and lots of knockabout knock-up fun. It is not the nature of elections to have soft landings, but I wish there was some way of scaling down activity gently, rather than ramping it up until the last minute and then just stopping.

I miss it now, despite wishing the whole thing over throughout. It’s the people more than anything, of course. Although I wanted to commit an act of savage harm on the person who asked me to go knocking up 100 more people at 20:00 on election night, I’d really quite like to be back there now with the rest of the team, knowing that he was as tired as I was and that we were both going through it together. Thankfully my sleep-deprived and leaflet-addled body couldn’t muster the beating I so longed to meter out, because if it had then I probably wouldn’t have been invited back.

I spent the weekend away from Prestwich. In Cumbria, at a hotel I am loathe to call “my favourite hotel” because I think it makes me sound worryingly middle-aged. Is it right for me to have a favourite hotel when there is 99.8% of the world left to explore? People retire to their favourite hotels. People my age should have favourite bars or something. Is it wrong that mine is becoming the one at Bury Town Hall?

Well, I suppose this hotel is my favourite one so far. And in it I returned to normality, of sorts. It’s a “foodie” place, and whilst on six nights a week the menu is more or less normal (with only one or two dishes that I am not cultured enough to understand), the Sunday night tasting menu involves bizarre dishes which this week included filet of python. There were only about six guests, and one man declined the python on animal welfare grounds, only to tuck in with gusto to the replacement course of veal. I can only hope he didn’t vote.

But throughout the weekend, where I did normal things like sleep in late and watch TV and drive off to see attractions that weren’t related to local pot-holes or derelict shops, there was something missing. It is depressing to think that I am almost certain it was a pack of leaflets and a canvass sheet.

Rick

Liberal Democrats at Bury’s election count last night:

Here’s our new team of Councillors in St Mary’s Ward - Donal O’Hanlon, Mary D’Albert and Richard Baum…… Labour MP Ivan Lewis sneaks past behind.

Lib Dem Councillors elected last night Mary D’Albert, Vic D’Albert and Ann Garner with some of their group colleagues Steve Wright, Wilf Davison and Donal O’Hanlon.

More pictures here

Last night’s results were a triumph for local Lib Dems in Prestwich, and my thanks goes to everyone in the ward who helped and supported us through a long and tiring campaign. Congratulations to the newest Lib Dem Councillor in Bury - Mary D’Albert, who joins Donal O’Hanlon on the St Mary’s team. Re-election for Vic D’Albert in Holyrood and Ann Garner in Sedgley means that we now have all 9 Councillors in Prestwich, the culmination of work that started in Holyrood 22 years ago when we had no Councillors and not much else either!

I am very tired this morning. Yesterday could not possibly have lasted a mere 24 hours. It felt like it lasted about a fortnight. The count alone seemed to drag on for days. If I had the strength or inclination I would investigate the clear flaws in the space-time continuum that affect campaigners on election day. But, perhaps to the relief of us both, I don’t.

In the end the result was a good one for us, and I hope that the good work we’ve started locally will continue now that we have 9 Councillors out of 9 in Prestwich. We are moving forward now in Whitefield after an excellent second place in Besses.

I am taking a couple of easy days now where I will not cast eyes on a single leaflet, and then it’s back to work with a full team of Lib Dems in St Mary’s. I will write more then. At the moment my eyes are heavy.

Thanks again for eveyone’s support. And well done Mary.

Rick

Liberal Democrats have continued to move forward on Bury Council making another gain from Labour and holding off a challenges from the Conservatives. This is the fifth election in a row in Bury where we have made gains.

Full results to follow, but in our key wards in Prestwich the results were as follows:

Holyrood
Vic D’Albert (Lib Dem) 1632
Labour 669
Conservative 852

St Mary’s
Mary D’Albert (Lib Dem) 1308
Labour 1013
Conservatives 692

Sedgley
Ann Garner (Lib Dem) 1488
Labour 906
Conservatives 1238

Across Prestwich the share of the vote was:
Liberal Democrats - 45%
Labour 26%
Conservatives 28%

The Liberal Democrats now have ALL NINE councillors in Prestwich. We’ll be doing our best all year round to stand up for the local community.

Across the motorway Lib Dem candidate Julie Baum put in a stunning performance to move into second place with a 50% increase in the Lib Dem vote.
Besses
Julie Baum (Lib Dem) 614
Labour 1084
Conservatives 584
Others 354

Well done to all our candidates, but particularly to re-elected Councillors Vic D’Albert and Ann Garner, and to new Councillor Mary D’Albert.
A huge thank you to the whole Lib Dem campaign team for a stunning result. Full results to follow.