Nick Clegg has taken a strong stand on cleaning up Parliament and leading the call for a complete overhaul of our political system. Last week at Prime Minister’s Question Time he challenged Gordon Brown to reform our electoral systems. Now even Brown’s own ministers are echoing Nick’s call.

Nick is making the case to:
- Give people the right to sack MPs
- Stop all big party political donations
- Elect the House of Lords
- Make the voting system fair - so that governments can’t just get all that power and all that money with only a minority of you voting for them
- Put an end to self serving politics and put you back in charge
- But Nick can’t do it all on his own. He needs our help.

Oasis are performing in Heaton Park on Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th 2009.
The event management team are distributing this leaflet to nearby residents this weekend, but no doubt the concerts will affect everyone in Prestwich.

Prestwich is going to be VERY BUSY on the days of the concert - so please be prepared! Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any information or help.

The text of the factsheets is reproduced here, or you can download printable versions of page one here and page two here.

Oasis will be playing three concerts on the 4, 6 and 7 June and on each day there will be a series of road closures in place in and around the concert venue at Heaton Park.

Road closures will come in to place on the evening of each concert from 9.30pm onwards until the audience has dispersed and the roads can safely be opened, which is anticipated to be around 1am.

The road closures will affect:
• Bury Old Road between Heywood Road and Scholes Lane/Sheepfoot Lane;
• Sheepfoot Lane, between Bury Old Road and Middleton Road.

Diversion signs will be put in place on the nights of the concerts to allow motorists to take alternate routes. There will also be signs put up in advance of the concerts to advise local residents in advance of these road closures.

There will also be waiting restrictions in place on Bury Old Road, Sheepfoot Lane and St. Margaret’s Road from around 12 noon on concert days. Similar restrictions will be provided on each of the side roads in the vicinity of their junctions with the main roads.

Signs will be provided to exclude concert traffic from the residential areas near the venue and additional enforcement will be in place to deal with illegally parked and obstructive vehicles.

More information about the concert and the plans which have been put in place to minimise the impact on local residents can be found on the Heaton Park website at www.heatonpark.org.uk.

A Council spokesperson said: “We are aware that there will be disruption in the area around Heaton Park for local residents throughout the durations of the concerts. Staff from Bury Council have been working alongside representatives from organisations such as the Police, Manchester City Council and the concert promoters to put plans in place to help keep this to a minimum. However, we also want to make local residents aware that road closures could be brought into operation at other times if circumstances make this necessary”.

Top Labour Party officials are meeting today to decide whether disgraced Labour MP for Bury North David Chaytor will be allowed to stand again at the next election.

Since allegations emerged about a £13,000 payment which the Daily Telegraph claim Mr Chaytor received for a “phantom mortgage”, the MP’s fate has been in the balance. Now, almost two weeks after the allegations emerged, and with no public word from Mr Chaytor in almost as long, it is the Labour Party and not local people who have their say over his future.

I repeat my demand that Mr Chaytor should face the electorate now, in a by-election. He can put his side of the story, and let the people of Bury North decide. He is Bury’s MP first and foremost, not the Labour Party’s. Although he represents the party at Westminster (or, at least, he did before he was suspended over these allegations), his first responsibility is to the people of Bury North who elected him. He has told them very little so far, and now his party is deciding his fate rather than the people. That’s not on. Especially since the reason they’re doing it is to try to hold onto the seat with another candidate, one untainted by allegations of sleaze.

It shouldn’t be up to the Labour Party to make decisions on behalf of the people of this town. If people want to forgive Mr Chaytor, or believe his version of events, then they should have the chance to say so. If they don’t, they should have the chance to let their feelings show too. Labour are robbing the people of that chance by taking the decision out of their hands.

This isn’t even the same as a local party selecting a candidate. I could accept that more. Even the Labour Party members of Bury North are denied the chance to de-select the man they trusted to represent them and their party. The national party has decided that it knows more than the local party and the local people, and that it will make the decision on our behalf.

They shouldn’t. The people of Bury should make that choice. There should be a by-election. Mr Chaytor should explain himself now, and the people should decide.

Rick

I have been reminded of many old proverbs during my time as a Councillor: “Too many cooks spoil the broth” is one I often think about when wading through the treacle of a meeting agenda with two dozen other people round the table wittering on for hours. “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” is another which lolls about my brain when I’m yearning to go home during epic committee meetings.

Today I am reminded that good things come to those who wait, because after a Lib Dem campaign lasting more than two years, the Council and the Greater Manchester Urban Traffic Control have agreed to install pedestrian crossing facilities at the junction of Hilton Lane and Bury New Road. It’s fantastic news, and so long as the money’s found, it’ll be done as soon as possible.

The campaign for a safer junction all started before I was even elected, when local residents complained about this dangerous and complicated junction. It links Hilton Lane, Scholes Lane and Bury New Road. It is close to schools and shops, and without pedestrian facilities. Every day I see school children taking their lives in their hands running across the road.

We asked for help and action from the Council, but nothing was forthcoming. The campaign has gathered pace, including cover stories in our “Focus” newsletters and a 500 signature petition presented to the Mayor of Bury.

And today comes the great news that a scheme has been designed to give local people what they want. Pedestrian crossing facilities will be installed at the junction at last. It’s been agreed as necessary, the design work has been done, and all we now need is for the Tories at the Town Hall to find the cash.

This is fantastic news for road safety in Prestwich, and a testament to a hard fought and lengthy campaign from local residents supported by local Councillors. A great show of what can be achieved together for the good of the community.

Rick

Regular readers will remember that last week all of the Greater Manchester councils announced (with full orchestral fanfare) some new public transport funding. I blogged about it then. It isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, because it still doesn’t give the region what we need. It’s also absolutely obviously the “Plan B” which everyone said didn’t exist when we sensibly chucked the idea of congestion charging out the window last autumn. But, on the plus side, it’s better than nothing.

Or, is it?

Well now I’ve had a closer look at the agreement that’s been struck, and it looks to me like the Tories in charge of Bury Council have done a pretty rubbish deal for the borough. I did think it was better than nothing, but on closer inspection it might actually BE nothing! Nothing except a whopping great bill for Bury!

Here’s what’s happened…

All 10 Authorities in Greater Manchester (that’s Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Wigan, Trafford, Oldham, Tameside, Stockport, Rochdale and Bury) have agreed to make some sacrifices in order to get government to put in a couple of hundred million pounds to pay for better transport. That’s a couple of hundred million pounds of our money to begin with, which we’re expected to be grateful to receive back. But that’s a side issue. The main issue is the sacrifices. These are:

a) “Top-slicing” some of the local transport fund which is used by the 10 Authorities for local transport improvements like walking buses for schools, cycle improvements etc. The Bury Tories, in charge of the Council and negotiating this deal on our behalf, have agreed that Bury, like the other Authorities in Greater Manchester, give up 40% of this. So that’s 40% of all the local transport improvements gone.

b) An increase in the amount of “levy” that the Councils pay to the Integrated Transport Authority. This auspicious body, of which I was once a member, is nominally in charge of public transport policy in the region. In reality I think its influence is very small indeed, since it operates at the whim of the government on one side and the private transport providers on the other. But we all pay a whacking reat amount to it, and now we have to pay more. Lots more, thanks to the Bury Tories. And it’ll mean bigger Council Tax bills. Quite how much bigger remains to be seen, but it won’t come cheap.

So, we’re paying more tax, we’re giving up almost half of our community transport initiatives, and the government still aren’t giving us nearly enough of our own money back for transport improvements.

That’s pretty rubbish. But I’d be able to stomach it a bit more if we were getting something in return. Unfortunately, Cllr Bob Bibby, the Leader of Bury Council and the man charged with negotiating Bury’s deal on behalf of the 200,000 residents of the borough, has hardly done us proud. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the negotiations have completely failed. Because the list of “Priority Funded” projects that our sacrifices will pay for contains not a single one for Bury.

Oldham and Rochdale get the Metrolink through their town centres. Stockport get a lovely new by-pass. In fact, nine out of the 10 boroughs get at least one priority project. Nine out of 10 get something major and shiny and new. Which one doesn’t get anything? Bury. Thanks Bob!

We’re all paying the same amount more in levy, and all giving up the same percentage of our transport projects, and Bury has less to show for it than absolutely everywhere else. We still have rubbish buses, especially in the north of the borough. We still don’t have the major improvements we need, and we’re watching the rest of the region get better whilst we languish with nothing but higher bills. 

It’s not good enough, and I think the Tories in charge of Bury should’ve done much better in getting us the deal we need.

Rick

I took advantage of the Bank Holiday to get to grips with a particularly thorny local issue today - namely the gigantic angry shrub which lurks at the end of the garden backing onto mine, and which encroaches ever further towards our back door. Tackling it is like wading into uncharted jungle, and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if somewhere within it lurks Prestwich’s fabled lost tribe. The shrub itself resides at the back end of an incredibly lengthy garden, which begins at a house up a hill in the distance away from our’s. By the looks of it it’s not been touched from the other side of the fence in about 100 years, but every so often I have to prune it from this end to stop it from drowning my house.

And that was how I spent much of the last Bank Holiday for twelve weeks. That and mowing the lawn and strimming things, and saying “ouch” a lot as various sharp bits of horticulture punctured my limbs.

After I’d finished being green fingered I took a wander the scenic route to St Mary’s Park for an ice cream. The new pathways through Drinkwater Park have recently been laid, making the whole experience much nice now. It’s possible to walk from Rainsough through to Prestwich Clough on new paths through some beautiful woodland. It’s all part of the Forestry Commission’s work in the area which is slowly taking shape and will leave Prestwich with a fabulous nature resource.

And at the end of it of course is St Mary’s Park, a Green Flag park which was packed with families and children having fun in the sun this afternoon. A lovely site for the Bank Holiday, only slightly spoiled by one local idiot (me) spilling ice lolly on himself.

Rick

The Prestwich Festival rolls on, with another major event today - the Prestwich Farmers’ Market, which took place at the Longfield Shopping Area this morning and early afternoon. The photo above is of me there with my colleagues Cllr Ann Garner from Sedgley ward and Cllr Tim Pickstone from Holyrood ward.

The weather was much kinder this weekend than the Clough Day last weekend, and I have to say that the whole event was a great success.

There were hundreds of local people out taking advantage of the dozens of shops selling local and organic produce. I picked up some ostrich meat to have for tea later, as well as a lovely looking curry for tomorrow and a raspberry tart which I have just devoured!

Once again the Mayor of Bury was at the event to give it the official seal of approval, but it really was lovely to see so many people out enjoying themselves as part of the community. The musicians and entertainers meant that it was fun for all the family too.

The Festival has been incredibly well supported so far, and expertly organised. There’s still plenty of events happening between now and the end of the Festival which is Prestwich Carnival weekend 21st June. But today is all about the Farmers’ Market, which was a runaway success. The organisers and everyone who took part really do deserve a big pat on the back.

Rick

I’ve been writing a blog every day for three years now, all about my life as a Councillor. I occasionally get comments about the state of local services, and more regularly about the Lib Dems or the general non-Councillor activities that I mention on here. But the posts that have received the most comments by far have been about problems with enhanced CRB forms.

I first heard about the problem on TV when there was a programme about information being disclosed in these enhanced CRBs that was nothing to do with actual convictions. I then became aware of the problem first hand working on the Council’s Licensing Panel, where potential taxi drivers have all sorts of non-criminal things disclosed on their forms. I blogged about it, and have been besieged with people from all round the country who feel very strongly about this, many of whom have been victims of it themselves.

I continue to bring this up on here and everywhere else I can to try and raise awareness of the problem of people who have never been convicted of anything in their lives having unproven and often unsubstantiated allegations revealed, often having been the victims of malicious slurs. This is obviously a tricky area given the protection that is needed for vulnerable people, but I do feel that the law is currently unfair and needs changing. I know that a lot of readers are interested in this too, so I have found this article in The Guardian which explains the law and points out that it is about to be reviewed by the House of Lords for the first time. I hope that provides some clarity for those interested, and some comfort that we are not alone in finding the current law unfair.

Rick

I was shocked, saddened and very disappointed to hear the allegations of financial misconduct made against Bury North’s MP David Chaytor recently.

The inappropriate expenses claims made by MPs from across the country have made the entire nation angry. At any time the behaviour of these MPs would have been a shocking abuse. At a time of recession when jobs are going and money is tight, such reckless waste of public money is even more abhorrent. How dare our money be wasted on greed? How dare some MPs abuse the trust we have placed in them? I am incensed by their conduct. 

The office of MP for Bury North is one I have held in enormous regard my entire life. As a child growing up in Bury I admired my MP as someone to aspire to. Perhaps the biggest sadness of all in this whole saga is that today’s children are more likely to see MPs as on the take than as people to aspire to be. That’s a tragedy. Mr Chaytor has made a bad mistake and has let a lot of people down very badly.

I love this town, was born here and have lived here virtually my whole life. That’s why I’m standing to be the MP for Bury North. I favour a system that would expose all expenses claims to complete public scrutiny, see MPs rent rather than buy a place to live in London, and absolutely forbid “flipping” second homes.

I have been incredibly fortunate to have had the chance to represent the people of Bury on Bury Council. I don’t pretend that I know it all, but I have always tried my best whenever I’ve been asked to help local people, and although I’ve not always succeeded, the reason I am involved in local politics is to make Bury better. That alone is what being an MP should be about.

Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, has said that MPs who have broken the rules should face their electorate, and I agree with him. Mr Chaytor has broken the rules and is guilty of a mistake that is, in his words, unforgivable. He should do the decent thing and resign now, and let the people of Bury North have their say.

Richard Baum

Liberal Democrat parliamentary Candidate for Bury North

Tesco and the people of Prestwich aren’t the best of friends at the moment, after regeneration plans for the town were put on hold because Tesco had a problem with them. Now Tesco are refusing to give the go-ahead for a dangerous wall at the back of their big store to be repaired by the Council.

The wall is, for want of a techincal term, wobbly. It could fall down onto the pavement or somebody’s head in the next strong gust. The Council have been onto Tesco about repairing it for ages, but so far they’ve done nothing about it. I think it’s about time they did. As responsible retailers they should give the go-ahead for this dangerous wall to be repaired or demolished before it does any damage.

Rick

After the triumphant survival of the Prestwich Clough Day against the odds and despite the rain on Sunday, I did not survive the onslaught myself. Last night, when out doing a bit of European campaigning, my leafletting / surveying session was halted early after one downpour too many caused me to curse Lady Luck once again and head home defeated.

Whilst I was out though, I did notice a definite souring of the mood on the doorstep. Residents seemed to react to opening the door to a politician in much the same way as they’d react to opening the door to an angry skunk. Quite a lot of disapproval and a fairly swift retreat.

I don’t think this was to do with me in particular, or even the Lib Dems (opposition campaigners feel free to insert gag HERE). I suspect that a lot of it is to do with the expenses situation in general, and Chaytor-gate in particular, which has brought the saga close to home here in Bury. I’m used to canvassing and talking to people on the doorsteps. I’ve been doing it for years and I must have spoken to hundreds or even thousands of local people. Even when they wouldn’t vote for me in a million years, 99% of people are polite and tell me to leave them alone with a smile on their face.

Last night it was different. People just didn’t want to know any more. And I think it’s very disturbing for lots of reasons.

For one thing, there’s a big election in two weeks when we send our MEPs back to Brussells and Strasbourg. If people are so angry with the main parties that they won’t even speak to them, that’s a worrying sign not just for our prospects but in terms of the increased likelihood of extreme parties like the BNP doing well. I would hate for people to lose sight of the wider issues in the fog of the expenses disgrace, and send a BNP representative into Europe as a protest vote. These people are racists, and if people are angry with politicians then I would suggest a spoiled ballot is a better way to get rid of anger than electing a racist.

It’s also of great concern because, as many are now saying, all politicians seem to be being tarred with the same brush as the genuinely bad. I’ve never submitted an expenses claim in my entire time as a Councillor, and yet because I am politically active it’s assumed I’m on the take. There are some saintly politicians, just as there are some big sinners. It’s the same as in any other group of people. Everyone is right to be very angry, and I am myself, at how some MPs have let us down badly with this. But hopefully soon it will calm and that anger can be directed where it needs to go.

Even after the dust has settled, we still need people who are willing to fight for their beliefs, take Bury and the country in a different direction, and campaign and give their time for local and national causes. And they need to be listened to by people on the doorstep. Please, let’s not forget the good politicians despte our anger at the bad ones.

Rick

 I joined the Mayor of Bury and a host of local Councillors at the annual Prestwich Clough Day earlier.  As is traditional for this curtain-raiser for summer, it rained quite hard throughout. In fact, no sooner had I arrived than the heavens well and truly opened and unleashed a torrent of rain so powerful that I feared the Mayoral chains would rust.

It didn’t dampen the spirits too much though, and when the rain lightened later the crowds emerged from the tented displays to enjoy lots of community stalls and events. Amongst the highlights were PADOS -  local Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society, a stall on the Prestwich Festival - of which this was the first event, and my own personal favourite, the Bury Countryside Service and a selection of the birds of prey they help recover from injury.

There is a photo in existence, taken today of me striking my finest camp pose whilst rattling a fundraising bucket for next year’s event. Unfortunately th technicalities of uploading it temporarily escape me. So for the time being you’ll just have to take my word for it whilst I get over my ineptitude and work out what to do.

I hope everyone there had a great time today!

Rick

Don’t forget that today is the Prestwich Clough Day. This annual community event for the whole family celebrates the greenery of Prestwich and the fact that we’ve got some amazing woodland and parkland on our doorstep. There’ll be plenty of stalls, activities and things to see and do (and eat and drink) in St Mary’s Flower Park and through to the Church Inn. It’s brightened up outside so hopefully lots of people will be there, including the Mayor of Bury Cllr Sheila Magnall and your local Councillors.

I’ll have a walk up there in an hour or so, which will give me more time to think about the astonishing expenses revelations that have been made over the last 10 days or so. I’d been watching, saddened, shocked and angry, from the sidelines until this weekend, but it came home with a vengeance over the last couple of days when it was revealed that Bury North MP David Chaytor was accused of some of the most serious wrong-doing.

In a piece of ironic misadventure the like of which God loves to throw my way at these times, I spent all of yesterday in the 0.001% of the UK without any form of mobile communication reception whatsoever, training for a long distance hill walk I’m doing in the summer, and so I missed the several calls from the media asking what I though of the revelations here in Bury. I am told that the Sunday Telegraph has a greater readership than this blog (hard though that is to believe), so I imagine less people will read what I have to say know than they otherwise would have done. But the content is the same because my views haven’t changed after the revelations about Mr Chaytor, nor will they.

I remain incredibly saddened and disappointed that people elected to Parliament seem to have taken such advantage of public money set aside to help them do their job. I can see the immense good that MPs and Parliament can do and have done. As a Parliamentary candidate for Bury it is obviously an ambition of mine to be sent there by the people of my home town. The fact that people now sneer that I’m standing to make a quick buck and buy some fancy furniture on the taxpayer is heart breaking, just as it must be for candidates all over the country. 

The behaviour of so many current MPs has been reprehensible. There is no conceivable way that any right-thinking individual could claim thousands of pounds of our money for stereo equipment, bookcases and other trivia and think it within the spirit of the rules. There is just no chance that any right-thinking MP could think it right to switch between one “second home” and another just to maximise the amount that could be claimed to pay for them. It is just wrong, it makes me so angry, and the damage it has done to Parliament and the reputation of MPs makes me so sad. The people I’ve looked up to in the place I’ve admired so much, drowning in selfishness and greed, perhaps never to recover the standing they had before.

I got into politics to help the local community, to save local services and make people feel happier and safer. I’m fairly sure that the same thing motivated virtually every other MP and Councillor and activist I have met since, from all parties. But somewhere along the line a terrible thing happened with some MPs, who just forgot their roots and began to make the most egregious abuses of a system designed to help them. People are rightly incensed, and I am angry and upset too.

I just don’t understand the thinking of some MPs. When I claim expenses at work, which I do for car parking and mileage, I work out the distance of journeys to the last mile, and then I knock a few off just to be on the safe side. If I need to travel away with work, I look for the cheapest sensible option. Not because I’m a martyr to my employers but because it’s right not to take people for a ride. I work for the NHS and it’s the same public purse as the one that funds MPs. And yet some of them think it’s an inexhaustible source of cash to let them live in absolute luxury. It isn’t, and their actions have been shameful.

I can’t even imagine how any of them ever thought it right to buy a second home and pay for it on expenses in the first place. The logic just doesn’t stack up for me. Being an MP is only ever a temporary job, and the London element of it should only ever be a part time element. If I was elected, my first thought would be to rent somewhere that met my needs as a place to spend a few nights a week and work. I’d bung some cheap furniture in there if it wasn’t there already, and when I got voted out I’d give up the lease. And if I was elected, let me place on record that that’s exactly what I’d do.

I don’t understand how people could think that it was within the spirit of the rules, and the minds of the people who elected them, for their MP to buy somewhere, kit it out with the types of furnishings that virtually nobody else can afford, then flog it and keep the profits, all on the taxpayer. It’s crazy. The damage it’s done is enormous too, and I just hope that it can be repaired because so many people in politics are good and achieve good things. I feel so annoyed and aggrieved at the waste of money right now. The majority of MPs, those whose behaviour has been above reproach, must be as angry and upset as I am. But the real tragedy in the long term will be for Parliament and the country if these expenses claims have forever broken the bond between MPs and the people they represent.

Rick

The MP for Bury North, David Chaytor, has been suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after revelations in the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper disclosed that Mr Chaytor had claimed £13,000 of Parliamentary expenses to pay a mortgage he had already finished paying. The paper also claimed that Mr Chaytor had “flipped” his second home on six occasions.

The news is obviously moving quickly, and Mr Chaytor has admitted to making an “unforgivable error.” I asked earlier on for your ideas for questions you’d like me to put to Mr Chaytor if he accepts the invitation I made in the Bury Times this week to join me in a debate with local people. Thanks to all that have responded on this site and elsewhere. Please keep your ideas coming in. There is clearly a lot of anger in Bury, as shown by some of the comments in the Bury Times and from the Mayor of Bury.

At a time when the people of Bury are struggling with the recession, rising bills and rising unemployment, it is a colossal disappointment that the local MP appears to have pocketed so much money in this way. He has agreed to pay it back, according to the papers, which is a good thing. But his mistake was, in his own words, unforgivable, and the fact that it could be made at all shows the endemic problems with MPs allowances, expenses and second homes.  

Rick

The Liberal Democrats have launched their manifesto for Europe: “Choose a different, better future”

Labour’s recession is hurting people badly.

- Unemployment is rising every day
- People are worried their businesses could go under
- Every week people are losing their homes
- Ministers are too busy fighting among themselves to govern properly

The Liberal Democrats will give people the help they need.

We will cut income tax bills by £700 for the vast majority of people, and close
loopholes exploited by the wealthy

No one earning less than £10,000 will pay income tax at all
20 hours of free, quality childcare a week from 18 months to five years old
The European Parliament election is a big choice for Britain.

Labour’s arrogance has messed up Britain’s relationship with other European countries

The Conservatives and UKIP think that on its own Britain can face the economic storm, climate change, international crime, people-trafficking and terrorism

Liberal Democrats know effective cooperation creates prosperity – more than 3 million jobs in the UK depend on trade with other EU countries.

Liberal Democrats are working with our European neighbours to protect Britain and catch terrorists and criminals who operate across national borders.

Liberal Democrats know that countries have to work together to tackle climate change.

Vote Liberal Democrat and make a difference

As many will know, the band Oasis are coming to Heaton Park to play three shows between 4-7th June. I am distraught to discover that due to the Radcliffe West by-election count on the 4th, and the Euro Election Count on the 7th, I can’t go except on the 6th, which is sold out.

However, lots of local people will be going, and lots more will be a bit concerned about how to deal with 70,000 people per night having fun in the park. Well now the answers to lots of frequently asked questions can be found here. Unfortunately they don’t deal with the two most pressing questions I have about the gig, which are:

1) How can I get a ticket for the Saturday without paying a ridiculous amount in the dubious secondary market?

2) If I find an answer to 1), how can I then get anywhere near the stage without getting crushed or covered in beer or liquids I’d like to be covered in even less than beer?

If anyone can answer those, please do let me know.

Otherwise, I hope the answers to the FAQs provide some comfort to everyone. If you have any more queries, please give me a bell.

Rick 

David Chaytor, MP for Bury North, is at the centre of allegations this morning relating to his expenses. According to the Daily Telegraph he has claimed for £13,000 of “phantom” mortgage payments on a flat where his children lived. The paper also claim that he “flipped” his second home on a number of occasions.

I am the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Bury North, and I’ve been looking forward to taking on Mr Chaytor at the ballot box ever since I was selected to fight the seat. In fact, I have challenged Mr Chaytor many times since my selection, including on his voting record in the past couple of weeks in the Bury Times. I thought Mr Chaytor’s response to my letters was not what the voters wanted to hear, so just this week I asked Mr Chaytor to stop the sniping on the letters page and join me in a public question time. I want people to have the chance to hear us debate, rather than just read our weekly letters to each other. You can read my invitation to him here.

Mr Chaytor has been away since the Bury Times was published, so I haven’t yet received a response to my invitation. But when I do I hope that Mr Chaytor will agree with me that it’s time for local people to have their say to both of us about who they want representing them in Parliament. I have lots of questions I’d like to ask Mr Chaytor. I wonder what questions you’d like asking? Please let me know. My contact details are on the right of the page.

Rick

The Daily Telegraph reports that the Labour MP for Bury North, David Chaytor, has made illegitimate mortgage claims of £13,000. The paper also reports that Mr Chaytor has “flipped” his second home on a number of occasions. Mr Chaytor, currently in the USA on an official parliamentary trip has, according to the paper, admitted to making an “unforgiveable error.”

You can read the article here.

Rick

The first ever Prestwich Festival will begin this weekend, with the annual Prestwich Clough Day in St Mary’s Flower Park on Bury New Road from midday. Hopefully the weather, which looks pretty ominous, will come good.

The Festival, which has been organised by the Prestwich Local Area Partnership, now has over 50 confirmed events taking place between the Clough Day and the Prestwich Carnival on 21st June. over 35 days there’s something for all the family across Prestwich, from a Farmers Market to tea dances, and from the Prestwich Has Got Junior Talent competition to sports tuition from FC United of Manchester.

Every house in Prestwich should have received a programme of events through the post. In addition to what’s in there though, there are other events which have been confirmed. Details of these can be found here.

The Festival is going to be a great time for Prestwich, and hopefully the first of many exciting summers for local people, bringing the community together and making the area a better place.

I hope to see lots of you at the Clough day on Sunday.

Rick

I was veryinterested to hear the news that £1.4bn transport investment in Greater Manchester which has been made despite the rejection of congestion charging in last year’s referendum.

The fact that these improvements to transport are happening without a congestion charge finally exposes the pro-charge campaign’s key message as a complete lie. They
said that there was no Plan B, but there obviously was and this is it. 

Bury Lib Dems led the fight against congestion charging, securing Council
backing for our motion rejecting the charge. The whole c-charge idea wasted millions of pounds of public money for absolutely no reason. Not only was the proposal hugely expensive and riddled with flaws, it now turns out to have been totally unnecessary.

£1.4bn into Greater Manchester is great news. But we should remember that this is our taxpayers’ money to begin with, trying to make up for decades of under-investment. This new package still doesn’t give Bury what it needs. We will still have an inadequate bus service, an expensive tram service, and little in the way of incentives for cycling and
walking. The government are giving us back some of our money, but nowhere near
enough.

I also have concerns about the deal that’s been done to get this funding. There
will be Council Tax increases to pay for it, and all local Councils in Greater
Manchester have had to give up a large part of the local transport grant which
could have been directed to local schemes. The government are giving with one
hand and taking away with the other. And none of this has come before Bury
Council for a vote or even a discussion. Once again the people of Bury are being
ignored by the government. Our Council Tax will pay for a bypass in Wigan and a
busway in Leigh, and whilst these are welcome schemes, the Councillors of Bury
have been denied their say once again.

Rick

Well, I take it all back. I put my unnecessary cynicism back in its cage, and apologise to the Leader of Bury Council. Today’s State of the Borough debate at the Annual Council meeting wasn’t the political mud-slinging contest that I thought it might be when I wrote on here yesterday.

The Leader’s speech was a celebration of all that’s good in Bury (and there’s lots of that), and he barely mentioned political parties once. The Leader of the Lib Dems, my colleague Cllr Tim Pickstone, managed the same trick, although did point out that not all is rosy in the Bury garden, what with rising unemployment and shrinking revenues for the Council. The new Labour leader, Cllr Mike Connolly, almost managed it too, although did lapse into a bit of “you wouldn’t be this good without Labour putting in the groundwork” talk.

But despite that, it was all remarkably calm. So calm, in fact, that it was quite dull.

However, Annual Council is never completely boring, mainly because of the spectacular hats worn by the ladies of the Conservative council group each year! And today was, thankfully, no exception. 

I must pay tribute to their millinery, which brightened up my day considerably. It was like the municipal equivalent of Ladies’ Day at Ascot, as each bit of headgear out-did the last in terms of feathered-ness, precarious balance, and, in some cases, uncanny resemblance to the nesting place of an exotic bird.

Does this happen everywhere, I wonder? Or is it just a Bury thing? I am genuinely intrigued by this ritual. The hats come out, once a year, without a word of warning. And are then put back for twelve months, again without a word. Tory lady heads go un-adorned for the entire year and then, oh, out come the magnificent hats once again.

As someone who is planning a wedding, I suppose I should get used to the site of ladies in wonderful hattery. I am not used to it, and am always delighted to remember each Annual Council that, amidst the faintly gloomy prospect of sitting in the chamber listening to a dull debate, there will be the pleasure of ruminating on quite how those hats came into existence, and then came to be bought from a shop. They all look marvellous and there are times I wish I could get away with wearing something like that myself. Unfortunately it’s not the done thing for someone of my gender. And besides, I have learned from bitter and repeated experience that I have been cursed never to look remotely good in any form of unusual clothing whatsoever. I look, without putting too fine a point on it, like an idiot. And would look like even more of one were I to wear a hat.

Never mind.

Rick

I had an interesting discussion with a recently pregnant work colleague today about how she’s going to handle the time when her as-yet-unborn child asks how babies are made.

We agreed that the response depended on the age and circumstances when the question was asked. A four year old screaming the question out loud in the middle of Sainsbury’s could probably be fobbed off (and silenced) with tales of storks and cabbage patches. A genuinely anxious 11 year old asking in the privacy of the family home may well get the whole story until it wished to God above that it had never asked.

But one thing we agreed would probably never ever happen, was the child asking how the Mayor of Bury is made. And yet, were the child to ask that very question, it could be yanked to the Town Hall and shown first hand tomorrow. For tomorrow is the annual Mayor making ceremony, when the Borough’s first citizen dispenses with the chains of office and hands them over to someone else.

The outgoing Mayor is Cllr Peter Ashworth, who has covered just about every inch of the Borough on official engagements over the last twelve months. He will now become the Deputy Mayor for a year, and be replaced in the hot seat by Cllr Sheila Magnall as from tomorrow afternoon. I wish her luck for her year in office.

One of the least enjoyable tasks of being Mayor (I suspect) is having to chair meetings of Full Council, when 51 grown men and women come together and bawl at each other like it’s the grand final of the World Playground Argument Championships, occasionally lapsing into serious debate and getting real answers to questions, but usually not. Mayor Magnall will be spared this dubious honour for now, but the last act of Mayor Ashworth will be to be slung head-first into the mire when he chairs the “State of the Borough” debate just prior to the Mayor-making.

Any avid watcher of “The West Wing,” or student of American politics, will be aware of the State of the Union address, when the President ascends to oratorical levels not seen since ancient Greece, and outlines achievements and plans that make the world seem so rosy that it’s actually made of petals. Unfortunately, in my experience the State of the Borough debate in Bury doesn’t quite reach those peaks of brilliance. Admittedly we’re starting from a challenging base. Whereas Presidents Obama and Bartlet can talk about billions of pounds in projects and aid to fight disease and spread freedom throughout the world, the Leader of Bury Council has the development of The Rock shopping precinct at the top of his list. And whilst this is nothing to turn one’s nose up at, even Pericles would struggle to retain an audience with material like that.

Regardless though, the following two things are absolutely certain to happen:

1) The ruling Conservative administration will, through its Leader Cllr Bob Bibby, attempt to take far more credit than they deserve for anything good that has happened in Bury in the last twelve months, whilst blaming anything bad on either the government or the previous Labour administration in Bury.

2) The Labour group will counter that anything good that has happened in Bury in the last twelve months is in fact down to the exceptional stewardship of the Council when they were in charge, whilst blaming anything bad on the staggering incompetence of the Tories. 

And I suspect that the whole thing won’t restore the faith in politics that has disappeared down the plug hole of a Tory MP’s moat this past couple of weeks. In fact, I am surprised and disappointed that the State of the Borough debate has never been referred to as “The Borough’s in a State” debate. I only hope that someone from an opposition party making a speech tomorrow reads this post and makes this gag, because it’s a good one and it’s long overdue.

The truth, in my view, is that politicians from all parties have sought to do good for Bury this year, and in most cases what successes there have been have been because of their combined efforts, plus those of the Council officers and the good people of Bury who’ve helped along the way. Obviously sometimes there are things that one party or another should crow about because it’s genuinely been something good of their making. But I bet we don’t see the list retained at just those things in the speeches tomorrow.

And so one municipal year ends, and another begins. The merry-go-round of meetings and debates, of decisions and plans, and of victories and disappointments, begins again. I hope that next time we make a Mayor, Bury’s a better place.

Rick

A great day for Bury today, as the Borough celebrated some of its most successful citizens by bestowing the Freedom of the Borough on them.

First up Zoe Robinson, Paralympic gold medallist, whose achievements in Beijing made front page news and whose sporting success has been a great credit to Bury.

Next were the band “Elbow,” who finally hit the commercial big-time this year with their album “The Seldom Seen Kid.” After years of critical acclaim but slow-burning sales, they got their just rewards this time round with the Mercury Music Prize and now the Freedom of the Borough to go with it.

And finally, perhaps the biggest star of all, the film director Danny Boyle. His movie “Slumdog Millionaire” swept the boards at the Academy Awards, picking up 8 Oscars. Truly an achievement of global scale. And a cracking film to boot!

Unfortunately I couldn’t make the ceremony itself, because I was at work (in fact, at a meeting at Tameside Hospital at the time…). I was pretty gutted actually because it would have been a privilege to meet all of the recipients. I even bought the “Slumdog” soundtrack the other day in preparation. But, alas, it was not to be.

I have come home now to attempt to get over the disappointment by watching the Newcastle game on Sky. Unfortunately I have discovered that it’s on Setanta, a channel I haven’t subscribed to. I am so annoyed by this that at the moment I discovered the wretched news I almost inflicted permanent damage to the TV screen. Competition is all well and good, but how can it be better for football fans when now we all have to subscribe to two channels to get all the good games?! Grr…

Rick

I have just spent the evening at the theatre, watching the odd site of Trigger from “Only Fools and Horses” treading the boards as Sartorious in “Widowers Houses” by George Bernard Shaw. Obviously it wasn’t actually Trigger, but Roger Lloyd-Pack, the man who played him for twenty-odd years. Despite his putting on a fine turn in this role, I half expected him to cast a far-off glance into the distance and start talking about his evenings down the Nag’s Head with Dave and Rodney at any moment.

I find trips to the threatre very enjoyable. I don’t know much about drama beyond the basics, but I see half a dozen or so plays a year and it’s all good fun. But The Royal Exchange spoil the experience for me by trying to be helpful and putting up information on the walls about the play and its writer. Having read it, I always leave the theatre thoroughly depressed that the authors have been, without exception, so utterly brilliant and successful that the chances of me ever emulating even 1% of their achievements is hugely unlikely! I suffer the same sense of utter despair when I wander into a bookshop and realise that if I lived a thousand lifetimes I’d never read half the volumes on the shelves.

Tonight’s display involved a selection of quotes from Shaw’s writings, displayed alongside scenes from the play (of Trigger, mainly). Every single one of the two dozen or so quotes on show was at least fifty times more insightful, witty and relevant than anything I’ll ever say in my life. Which was very depressing indeed!

Perhaps everything that it’s ever been possible to say with original wit has already been said. That would be a bit of a comfort, in a very selfish way. At least then I could stop worrying.

What is clear though is that there is certainly a lot still to be said without any wit whatsoever, as readers of the Bury Times letters page will attest. This week’s page contains, at its core, two bile spewing letters from prominent Bury Labour people directly firmly towards me like arrows pointed at my face. I made the silly error of criticising one of them a couple of weeks ago, and the response has been a typical over-reaction spewing forth so much bile and energy that I really do wish we could harness it. It would probably power the borough for a year, although I do worry about its toxicity…

Hopefully next week’s letters page will be full of congratulations for Bury Football Club. After heartbreak on the last day of the regular season, missing out on promotion to League One by no points and just one goal, they are now involved in the play-offs. After a 1-0 away win at Shrewsbury last night, they face the second leg at Gigg Lane on Sunday knowing that a win or a draw will see them to Wembley and the final. The team has only ever played at Wembley once before, and I was there back in 1995. That game was fairly forgettable, but the semi final that got us there really wasn’t. We won the first leg 1-0 away that time too, and in the second leg won the tie with an absolute screaming last minute goal from Tony Rigby that had thousands of Bury fans going the type of mad that only football goals can make people.

I was privileged to be at Gigg Lane that night, and was chuffed to find the goal itself lurking on You Tube. Here it is! Hopefully that might spur the team and its supporters on for Sunday. It’s a shame the tape cuts out where it does because 30 seconds later the final whistle sounded and there was a pitch invasion led by a 14 year old me! I might try to be more restrained this time. Good luck, and Come on Bury!

Rick 

Nominations have now closed for the elections for the European Parliament on 4 June 2009. This is the full statement of persons nominated.

Liberal Democrat list is headed up by our existing Member of the European Parliament Chris Davies MEP. Chris is a great friend to our area and has been to Prestwich on many occasions. Here’s his campaign website.

Meanwhile Prestwich residents are being encouraged by Bury Council to “vote early” or vote by post” with the following message:

Prestwich residents are being encouraged to vote early, or use a postal vote, in the forthcoming European elections.

The poll is held on Thursday June 4, the same day as the first of three Oasis gigs in Heaton Park.

The concert means that two main roads bordering the park – Sheepfoot Lane and Bury Old Road (south of Heywood Street) - will be closed to traffic at 9.30pm, half an hour before polling stations close. This means that some residents who leave it to the last minute to vote will not be able to drive close to their station.

Elections officers in Bury say that one way to avoid any potential problems would be to use a postal vote – the closing date to apply for one is May 19 at 5pm. Alternatively, some people might choose to go the polls a bit earlier. The polling stations open at 7am. For a postal vote, or to make sure you are on the electoral roll, contact Bury’s elections office on 0161 253 5224 or email electionservices@bury.gov.uk

You can apply online to vote by post - this site fills in your form, but you do need to print it off to sign and send off to the Council

Manchester has been chosen as the pilot city for the government’s ID Card scheme. The trial will allow us Mancunians the chance to get our hands on the ID Cards that the government want everyone in the country to have, at quite some cost to the people (at least £30 per card) and at gigantic cost to the government (billions of pounds). It’s a silly, costly and ineffective scheme, and the local Lib Dems oppose it.

I think this scheme should be scrapped now. The fact that the Government are intent on pressing ahead with this discredited scheme just shows they are in complete denial about the cost, the value and the flaws of this scheme.

At a time when Government finances are in a mess, during the biggest recession since the 1930’s the last thing we should be doing is spending an extra £5 billion on ID cards. If this Labour Government is so concerned about security why not plough that money into more Police or a proper border police to fight illegal Immigration and trafficking?

The cost of introducing ID cards would amount to £83 for every man, woman and child in the country. Arguably it would be better spent by just sending everyone a cheque!  

My advice to anyone in Manchester would be to boycott this scheme, it’s not needed, it’s a waste of money, and it won’t stop crime or terrorism. But it will eat billions of pounds of our tax-payers money and enable the Government to store and possibly lose more data on you and your family.

There is no surer sign of spring approaching than the sight of rain pouring rapidly from the sky towards my head. Apart, perhaps, from the yearly delight that is the Annual General Meeting of the Bury Liberal Democrat council group, which happens each May at the turn of the Municipal Year. And having been soaked by the rain, I am wiling away my evening at the AGM tonight.

The year ahead promises to be an exciting one, as we face the run up to local and national elections that may well happen on the same day next May, and fight European elections and a council by-election in Radcliffe in just a few weeks on June 4th.

Tonight gives the 9 Lib Dem councillors in Bury the chance to come together and talk about these challenges and the opportunities they present (such as the opportunity to design, print, stuff, label and deliver more leaflets than I care to think about).

There’ll be plenty of issues for us to get our teeth into too. The economy continues to worry a great many of us, and the government’s response is often not what the country needs. As Lib Dems we have serious, practical alternatives to suggest, and we need to carry on campaigning for them to happen. Locally, Radcliffe schools, Heaton Park, and the regeneration of Prestwich will all continue to be big news over the coming weeks and months. It’s going to be a privilege to be involved in making sure good things happen in Bury.

Tonight is also the time when the Council group nominates who is going to sit on what committee, and who is going to lead it in the year ahead. I don’t know which way the cards will fall this year in terms of what I’ll be doing, but whichever committees I sit on and areas of responsibility I end up with, I know I’m working for local people passionate about their area, and as part of a Council group dedicated to the best for Bury.

Here’s hoping it’ll be a good year.

Rick

What better way to spend a bank holiday weekend than ploughing through a head-high pile of European election leaflets, appending an address label to each and every one until your hands wear away to leave nothing but stumps behind?

It’s a good job I’m saving for a wedding and thus financially unable to leave the house, because that’s exactly how I’ve spent this bank holiday weekend, sticking labels to more Euro leaflets than there are people in the North West actually likely to vote in the European elections.

If the Labour government have suffered from “lamentable failures in communication” (copyright H. Blears 2009), then the European Parliament’s failure to communicate its role and purpose to anyone except those elected to it is probably just as bad. It’s a great shame, because it and its members have done some tremendous work. And yet, for some reason, very few people are bothered enough by this to vote in European elections, the turnout for which hovers at or below the turnout for local elections. MEPs get paid the same as MPs and have the potential for gigantic influence. Councillors don’t. And yet the same levels of people vote for the two groups.

Another oddity of course is that Europe has traditionally been a massively controversial issue. Nothing vexes my mother-in-law to be more than the types of drivel the Daily Express print about the “crazy laws” coming from the EU (straight bananas etc). The Tories were wracked by divisions over Europe for years, and probably still would be if it weren’t for their overpowering collective glee at the prospect of power here next year. Labour and us Lib Dems got into all sorts of bother over the Lisbon Treaty, and farmers, fishermen and truckers all have plenty to say about the EU too. And yet nobody votes in the elections to the European Parliament.

I doubt it’s because of a massively developed understanding of the EU decision-making structure. I don’t think people sit at home on Euro election day and think say “Do you know what dear? I’m not going to vote today because actually real power in the EU resides with the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, rather than the Parliament.” Only a few hardcore and insane politicos know the arcane ins-and-outs of it all. Most people seem not to vote for other reasons. And I wonder why.

Maybe it’s because the EU seems distant. But it can’t be that because, as I’ve said, the papers go on and on and on about it.

Maybe it’s because MEPs represent gigantic constituencies, like my one which stretches from Gretna Green to Stoke-on-Trent, and so there’s no way people could find out who they are. But I don’t think it’s that either. If I wanted to contact one of my MEPs I could find out how in about two seconds on Google.

Maybe it’s a mixture of reasons. But at the heart of it lies the EU’s own “lamentable failure” to convince a great many people that it’s a good thing and that its parliament is its democratic heart. 

Lots of people don’t understand how the EU works, what laws are made where, and why you might seek the help of an MP rather than a Councillor. It’s the same problem at a local level too. Many people contact me when they really should contact the local MP, and vice versa. It’s a great shame that the EU hasn’t engaged with its citizens well enough to show them that these elections are hugely important.

They’re not just important because the European Parliament has influence in our lives. They’re also important because the EU itself is important. When the economy is both up the spout and down the chute simultaneously, as it currently is, we need close relations with Europe more than ever. And when global security is constantly under threat from forces aimed at destroying the western way of life, it’s worth remembering that the EU has kept peace in Europe for a longer continuous period than anything else managed in the previous 2000 years. We should celebrate the EU for its successes. And its Parliament has been crucial to many of these. Yes, the odd law has come about that irks people, but then so has the right to travel freely, get equal pay if you’re a woman, get four weeks paid leave a year, study abroad, fly cheaply most places in Europe, make cheap calls when you’re there, and take advantage of cleaner air and water and safer food across an entire continent.

But the elections are also vitally important here at home. Fair enough Labour will still be in charge come June 5th, but the message we can send to Westminster by the people we send to Brussels and Strasbourg will be enormous. There’s no better chance this year to tell Gordon Brown what you think of him than the Euros. I hope you do that by voting Liberal Democrat, but he’ll hope you do it by voting Labour. One way or another, it could be a bounce or a bump which carries all the way to our own general election.

And of course the European elections and their different system of voting to normal gives fringe parties like the BNP much more of a chance of winning a seat and a voice than local and general elections. If for no other reason, we should use our votes to stop racist extremists like them from gaining undue exposure.

But the biggest single reason people should vote in the European elections is this: God did not grant me a bank holiday weekend so that I may spend it in the company of 4,000 election leaflets for no reason. Were my fingers still flexible enough do do so, I would now clasp them together and beg you, for the sake of my aching hands, not to let my efforts go to waste, and use your vote on June 4th.

Rick