I was very angry and sad to hear the decision of the High Court today on the case of Gary McKinnon, the Apserger-sufferer who faces 70 years in a US prison having hacked into government computers looking for evidence of UFOs.

Mr McKinnon has done wrong, but the massively disproportionate response sought by the Americans, and the cynical capitulation given in response by our government makes me ashamed of them.

Mr McKinnon is a vulnerable man with a misunderstood and often ignored condition, who admits to his crime but, like almost everyone else it seems, cannot understand the injustice that’s being perpetrated in seeking to destroy his life for it. His life is on the line, and if medical predictions that Mr McKinnon is likely to become suicidal if deported don’t come true, he faces the rest of his life behind bars.

The government have failed him, and they fail us by refusing to address serious weaknesses in the extradition treaty with the USA.

Here’s a man who’s confessed to his crime and, if tried here, could face five years in prison for it. A British court could hear the evidence and make up their mind as to a just punishment. But the Americans want to make an example of him, and seem keen on revenge for exposing security flaws.

He is being classed as a terrorist, something which he is plainly not. He has no convictions, no malicious intent, and a serious condition which affects his ability to make informed decisions and take note of their consequences.

Labour Home Secretary after Labour Home Secretary have looked at his case, and ignored both him and the basic tents of fairness. Now it is up to Alan Johnson to exercise his discretion. I plead with him to make the right choice, and put the fate of a British subject ahead of appeasing America on this occasion.

This isn’t just a Lib Dem thing, although I am proud to say that my party have been leading the fight against the unfair extradition treaty and this example of its unfairness. The government’s own terror advisor Lord Carlile has spoken out against it, as have numerous Labour and Tory MPs.

The Home Secretary can use his powers to stop an extradition and allow Mr McKinnon to be tried here. He can renegotiate the treaty and correct the huge imbalance it represents. If he does not, this episode will become the worst example yet in a sorry litany of examples of a government completely losing its sense of fairness.

Rick

I met with the man behind a new Bury charity the other night. Project 29 will provide media training, education and after school tuition, and health promotion in Bury. One of the first projects it’s going to launch is “Project Radio,” which will see a community radio station broadcast across Bury and down as far as Prestwich in August.

The radio station will broadcast for a month from mid-August, to coincide with the Muslim month of Ramadan. A lot of the programmes will be targeted at both Muslim and non-Muslim Bury residents though, and hopefully it will be a valuable local resource both for listeners and the many Bury people involved in making it happen.

I went down there to meet the people involved, and I think there’s going to be an opportunity for local people to hear from Bury politicians at some point during the broadcast, in particular a chance for listeners to ask us questions and find out our views on things. That’s quite exciting as the opportunity for Bury-specific discussions in the media is quite limited.

The radio station sounds like a great new service for Bury, and although it’s only broadcasting for a month at first, it’s hoped that eventually it may become permanent. Having been involved in hospital radio for years, I know that community radio stations give those involved the chance to develop lots of skills from programme making to confidence and social skills. They’re exciting, popular and worthwhile things to do and it’s great that Bury now has a community radio station.

The charity itself is also full of good ideas for Bury, and you can find out more by visiting the website on www.project29.org.uk

Rick

Organisers of the LovePrestwich Festival want residents to tell them what they thought of it.

Starting with the Clough Event and ending on Prestwich Carnival day, no fewer than 55 events were held over 35 days.

Feedback from local people and businesses is vital if the team is to plan an even better and bigger event next year.

The aims of the LovePrestwich Festival were: to bring people into Prestwich to support local businesses; to bring Prestwich’s diverse communities together; to provide an opportunity for local people to showcase their talents; to raise funds for local charities and community projects; and to create success stories associated with Prestwich.

Organiser David Curtis said: “I went to many events during the 35 days and received so much praise about the festival - so much so that I’ve been working on holding another Farmers Market on Sunday August 23 and on a Sunday at the end of November as part of the Christmas lights switch-on. We want to make the 2010 event better so please let us know what you thought of it all.”

Councillor Vic D’Albert, chair of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, said: “I was delighted to be involved with this, our first festival, and between us we got to as many events as we possibly could, although on some nights there were several events going on.

“What people thought about LovePrestwich Festival is really important if we want to stage it again. You may have attended an event or many events and have tips for future events, you may be a charity that was able to raise funds at events, or you might be a local trader who saw increased custom.”

Feedback forms are available from Prestwich Library, or online - from www.iloveprestwich.com - soon. Alternatively, email c.o’grady@bury.gov.uk and request a form.

 I have a bizarre evening planned tonight, as I am going two meet two people for reasons I have yet to learn. Both rang me yesterday to ask to see me about issues they’re having with the Council, but neither would tell me what they wanted to discuss or why they wanted to discuss it… All very odd, especially in the wake of my traumatic near-death experience in Tenerife when a flying ashtray missed my head by millimetres (see this post for that story).

In all probability it will be very tame indeed, possibly something to do with a cracked paving slab or some other such James Bond-style international mystery. But there is a small chance that I am involved in a local government related re-telling of the film “FInal Destination,” whereby I have cheated death and now it’s wanting to catch up with me. Tonight’s blind dates may lure me to my grave.

Here’s hoping not eh?

I’ll let you know. And regardless, at least this is another insight into the oftentimes odd life of a local councillor.

Rick

Occasionally I get these 24 hour bug things which start off as sore throats before consuming me entirely in a headachey melee of sickness and groaning. One such event happened last spring, when instead of going somewhere exciting like a Bury Lib Dem social evening, I instead sat shivering in my pyjamas tapping away at my laptop and writing what subsequently became the basis for the Prestwich Plan.

The Plan is the list of priorities agreed by the Local Area Partnership i.e. the Council, Police, NHS, etc, all of which are meant to make Prestwich a better place. Obviously they’re constrained by finance, and can’t be priorities like “fill every hole in every road, and whilst you’re at it I’d like a solid gold roundabout in the park please.” But nonetheless they do pick up areas where we can make improvements, and highlight the areas where there’s been so much neglect that it’d take millions to put right (e.g. roads).

Once my early draft was emended and agreed, it had a three year lifespan, and we’re about a year into it now. So I’m looking ahead to the halfway point, reflecting on what’s gone well and what’s not. And the good news is that in the first year of its life, we have achieved or are on track with over 70% of the targets in the plan.

There’s lots going on in Prestwich that we know about, like the Prestwich Festival, and the new children’s centres. Both have these have happened in the last twelve months, but they’re only two of lots of exciting and positive things for the community that have been achieved as part of working together towards the Community Plan.

Achievements range from big to small and right the way across Prestwich. For instance, we now have an agreed regeneration strategy for the town centre, setting out what the community wants, and a planning application to go with it. That’s the first massive step towards full-scale regeneration for the town centre, and we’ve done it despite the economic problems.

Crime has gone down almost across the board. One of the highlights of any Local Area Partnership meeting is the Police’s report, because it almost always tells us that crime has gone down. Prestwich is safer than it was a year ago.  There’s also more homewatch schemes, regular meetings between the Police and Councillors, and less anti-social behaviour than twelve months ago. And there’s been “community payback” in the area, with offenders doing community work locally, with more to come.

Dozens of local people have received affordable warmth training, making them and their friends and neighbours safer and better off in the cold. For the first time ever, we have an idea of the numbers of young people in the area not in education, employment or training (so-called NEETs). This will allow us to target resources to help those most in need, and we’ve produced a leaflet to help them as a first step. Mapping of “NEETs” in Prestwich for the first time, with advice leaflet produced

Kids have new play facilities in Rainsough, one of the poorest areas in Bury. And they and their families can be healthier by using the new map of car-free things to do in Prestwich, as well as the ongoing improvements to walking school buses.

Families can enjoy the improved St Mary’s flower park, and will soon see big changes to Drinkwater Park after parts of it were transferred to the Forestry Commission for improvements as part of a wider scheme across the Lower Irwell Valley.

Of course it’s not all rosy in the Prestwich garden. We still have holes in some of the roads and litter on some of the streets. There are still too many cars going too fast and the air’s still too dirty. And there are pockets of deprivation and obvious areas for improvement. We’ve highlighted what they are and can now re-double our efforts to make those improvements.

But the evidence of improvement across Prestwich is clear, and there for all to see. The Prestwich Plan set out where we wanted to go until 2011, and it’s great that we really are moving in the right direction.

I think it’s something that everyone in Prestwich can be proud of.

Rick

A month-long Big Clean of graffiti and garbage starts in Prestwich on August 3.

A hit squad from Community Payback will be removing graffiti, cleaning alleyways and “grot spots”, litter picking and carrying out community projects. Community Payback is the scheme giving offenders the chance to pay back the communities they’ve offended in by doing some good local work.

This pilot project by the BurySafe partnership will start in Prestwich Village and then move to each ward in the town.

And organisers want local people to report problems now so that they can be dealt with.

Carran O’Grady, Local Area Partnership manager, said: “Over the last month the police, councillors and volunteers have been filling in Grot Spot sheets telling us where the graffiti and other grot is – we have had more than 100 graffiti reports alone.

“Community Payback are here for 30 days only, so if you don’t report it, it won’t get done.”

Community Payback officer Craig Sykes said: “We’re glad to be involved directly with what Prestwich residents want, where offenders can be seen putting something back into the community.

“We have had the pleasure of improving St Mary’s graveyard over a number of years which is a real local treasure and our work has made a big difference.

“We have a job sheet for the town centre and every ward has had forms on site for people to fill in if residents and businesses want graffiti removing when they see what we are doing. I hope that Prestwich residents and businesses will see what a difference Community Payback can make.”

Graffiti can be reported to Carran O’Grady at c.o’grady@bury.gov.uk or via any Prestwich councillor’s blog page, and forms are available at Prestwich library.

For further information contact Carran O’Grady on 0161 253 7245.

Rick

 Great news for everyone who enjoys paying £3.50 for a loaf of bread today, with news that the highly successful Farmer’s Market is returning to Prestwich.

The inaugural Prestwich Farmer’s Market took place last month during the Prestwich Festival, and it’s fair to say that the place was swamped with shoppers looking for fresh, local and organic produce. I was there myself, and ran home with a ton of meat and veg and bread. And I intend to be there again come Sunday 23rd August. The Market is on then at the Longfield Centre between 9.30 and 2.30.

Hopefully it will be just as popular and enjoyable as last time, with lots of late summer goodies to pick up from the stalls. There are also plans afoot for a third Market around Christmas time, and there’ll be details of that when they’re confirmed.

So mark the date in your diary now and remember to pop down to the Farmer’s Market! Another great sign that Prestwich is getting better!

Rick

The attractive sneezing man above can only signify one thing - yes, it’s a Swine Flu update from NHS Bury.

Obviously we’re all worried about Swine Flu. As a Jewish guy I’m doubly worried because as well as the health concerns I am also not sure it’s Kosher. The update below doesn’t turn its attention to that problem, nor do I suggest ringing the new national helpline to find out, but hopefully it will answer any other queries you might have about what’s going on locally with everyone’s favourite new pathogen H1N1.

So, here is the latest information from about the National Pandemic Flu Service, direct from the masked-mouths of NHS Bury:
As you will be aware, important changes have been announced to the way in which the NHS is managing the growing swine flu pandemic in England, this sees the launch of The National Pandemic Flu Service.

The National Pandemic Flu Service is a self-care service that will asses a patient’s symptoms and, if required, provide an authorisation number which can be used to collect antiviral medication from a local collection point. 

The service can be accessed online at https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/ and for those who do not have internet access, the same service can be accessed by telephone on 0800 1 513 100 (Minicom 0800 1 513 200).

For England, the online health resources remain as:

• Health information www.nhs.uk
• Public information www.direct.gov.uk
• Business information www.businesslink.gov.uk
• The Swine Flu Information Line (automated) can still be contacted on 0800 1 513 513.

Key messages are:

• If you have flu-like symptoms and are concerned that you may have swine flu:
• Stay at home and check your symptoms at the National Pandemic Flu Service at https://www.pandemicflu.direct.gov.uk/ or Telephone 0800 1 513 100.

You should call your GP directly if:

• You have a serious underlying illness
• You are pregnant
• You have a sick child under one year old
• Your condition suddenly gets much worse
• Your condition is still getting worse after seven days (or five days for a child)

I hope everyone stays well, and if they’re unlucky enough to get Swine Flu, makes a speedy recovery.

Rick

Local residents who claim the single-person discount on their Council Tax may soon be receiving a letter from the Council asking them to confirm their eligibility (or confirm that they’re not eligible, and lose the discount).

Last year the Council sent out similar letters, and lots of people got a bit upset. This time round I hope we can avoid any upset, and make sure that everyone who is entitled to a discount gets a fair one, whilst making sure that everyone pays what they should pay as well.

The letter is going out shortly to over 2,500 households in the borough. It won’t go to every house with a single person discount, but if you do get one and it’s causing you any bother at all, please get in touch and I’d be happy to discuss it with you.

Rick

I hear on the Council grapevine that action is about to be taken to try to improve the ghastly shacks that used to be shops opposite St Mary’s Park on Bury New Road.

The row of shops starts nicely enough, with a few lovely outlets. Unfortunately about halfway along it turns into something out of a post-apocalyptic nightmare vision of Prestwich, as empty units lie crumbling into the road. When they’re not housing the district’s rats or making Prestwich look like the remnant of a forgotten civil war, these units are used to peddle illegal fireworks. So it’s good that the Council are now threatening the owners with enforcement action.

Apart from the dodgy use to which these buildings are sometimes put, they look awful. The owners have said they will re-develop them shortly, but given that we’re in the middle of God’s Own Economic Revenge, that might not actually happen for a while. So, whilst we wait to see, we can at least make them tart it up. The Council can (and now will) take enforcement action under Section 215 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to abate the nuisance and bring the properties back to an acceptable standard. This will mean that the owners will be required to take various remedial steps  such as re-painting and re-glazing.

It’s just a start, but it’s better than nothing, and hopefully perhaps a bit of a renaissance for that forgotten corner of town.

Rick

Great news for the residents of St Ann’s Road this week, with the news that two parts of public Footpath number 47 have been officially closed. The bits of the path run across people’s gardens, and it’s silly that the situation has been allowed to rumble on unresolved for so long.

I am now far too well versed in the process of closing public footpaths than I ever wanted to be, and it’s pretty staggering how hard it is to get them closed. I suppose this is a good thing given that most of them lead people through nice green areas from one lovely place to another. This one though led people over garden fences and washing lines, and it’s about time something was done. So well done to the residents for keeping the pressure on the Council, and well done to them for finally sorting it after years of dithering around.

Rick

I am back, bronzed and magnificent, from five days in Tenerife. The only thing separating my current physical condition from that of a marble sculpture is that marble doesn’t wobble alarmingly when you poke it in the belly.

This year I decided to forego any semblance of culture or intellectual development on my summer break, and instead laze by a pool reading books about musicians and comedians. I achieved this goal with aplomb, and now know more about the bass guitarist from Blur than I did a week ago, as well as having developed a tan to be proud of. The last couple of years I have let my unwillingness to fly get the better of me, and holidayed in the UK. This year I was finally dragged onto a metal tube to breath-in swine-flu infested air whilst hurtling through the atmosphere at 500mph, but at least I picked up a tan.

I do have some issue with the hotel I stayed at describing itself as “4 star.” At least two of those stars appear to have been garnered through serving anaemic chips with every meal. Still, I was staying “all inclusive,” which meant I could forget about the horrors of life in a blaze of obscure cocktails and gluttony-induced hallucinations. It’s remarkable how good Tenerefian house wine tastes after twelve glasses.

Food and drink weren’t all that was inclusive either. Guests also got near-death experiences added to the list, as I found out when a heavy glass ashtray fell to the ground from a balcony above my sun-lounger, crashing to earth millimetres from my head. Some would argue that it was an accident caused by the wind, but as a gigantically high profile local politician and probably one of prestwich’s top 500 most well-known residents, I don’t think political assassination can be ruled out. I notice that the CIA haven’t denied it… 

A few stray shards found their way into my discarded flip-flops, but it was a lucky escape both for me and the unfortunate voters of St Mary’s who really don’t need to go out of their way for a by-election any time soon I’m sure…

I had my vengeance on my would-be assassins though by breaking Tenerife Airport on my return journey.

Most airports are, in my experience, the types of fairly solid constructions you would expect from buildings designed to house thousands of people and dozens of inter-continental flying machines. Unfortunately “Tenerife Sur” appears to have a small weakness in that it can be brought to a grinding halt by a sun-guzzled tourist (me).

The check-in process was proceeding as normal. I noticed that the Spanish-speaking check-in operative had written down the English versions of triflingly-unimportant queries like “Did you pack this bag yourself, or did that strange man you met in Afghanistan do it for you?” and was reading them out phonetically. I gave a response using ludicrously flowery english which clearly went completely beyond her, and I thought my fun was over. Sadly, it had only just begun, because when I plonked my suitcase on the conveyor belt, I immediately regretted doing it with quite so much gusto… A strange whirring noise was heard, and then the type of sound normally associated with when power stations close down - a kind of whine, the pitch of which grew menacingly low.

“System broken,” she said, looking at me as if I’d burned the Tenerifian flag in front of her face. I’m not quite sure how she deduced that my action caused the problem, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure that it did… But after the assassination attempt I wasn’t taking anything at face value.

Whatever the actual cause, the facts couldn’t be denied. At the exact moment that my over-exuberance with luggage had seen my suitcase land with an undue thump, the check-in system had frozen. And not just the system on that particular desk. All the systems. Check-in at the airport had been suspended outright. My suitcase’s weighty fall onto the conveyor belt had plunged the airport into meltdown. Like the kid in school who’s naughty and makes everyone miss playtime, I was now the guy who’d done the same thing on an international scale. No-one leaves Tenerife until this gets sorted.

Cue some anxious looking Easyjet-uniformed technical types, who tinkered and prodded and looked at me angrily. And there was quite a lot of tutting from the people behind.

I was rescued by a strange mixture of competence and incompetence. The people who run Tenerife Airport are clearly no match for a suitcase-wielding idiot in the short-term, but after 40 minutes of phone-calls and re-booting things, the system started to work again. At the same time, the plane meant to be taking us home was actually nowhere near Tenerife, since Easyjet still haven’t learned that you can’t squeeze six five-hour flights using the same aircraft into an 18 hour period. So we were all going to be delayed anyway. All I’d done was transfer the enduring of that delay from the duty free shop to the check-in queue.

We got away in the end, and so, assassinations and international incidents behind me, I am back here in sunny Prestwich. I say “sunny,” but of course I mean “rainy.” And it’s not even sunny in my heart unfortunately, because I’ve just seen the Prestwich and Whitefield Guide. Not only does this normally-excellent newspaper this week disgrace itself by not having a single article about me in it, but the letters page is strewn with anti-Lib Dem things. So I’d better stop writing this, and start writing to them.

Rick

Obviously, because I am continually teased by fate, something urgent crops up exactly one second after I write saying I’m on holiday. So here it is…

A committee of MPs reports today that it is “shocked” at the treatment of teachers subject to false allegations of abuse. I have been campaigning for a while for better treatment for teachers and others falsely accused of harming children. At the moment these allegations can continue to affect employment and family life through Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks even after they’ve been dropped or dis-proved. Now the Children’s, Schools and Families Committee in the House of Commons has also joined calls for a fairer balancing of the need to protect children with the need to allow innocent people to remain so until proven guilty.

You can read more about the report from the BBC here.

Anyway, back to holiday mode…

Rick

 I am taking a few days away from the blog to enjoy a little summer holiday, so there’ll be nothing new on here until the end of next week. At that point I will be able to update you on my bronzed, God-like body and the bevvy of Mediterranean beauties clinging to me on my return. But until then, it will all go quiet. Anything urgent can be picked up with my ward colleagues Cllr Mary D’Albert or Cllr Donal O’Hanlon. Just click on their links on the left of this page.

Rick

The redevelopment of Prestwich town centre moved a step closer today after an application for outline planning permission to redevelop the Longfield Centre was received by Bury Council.

Every new construction in Bury needs planning permission, whether it’s an extension to your house or the massive redevelopment of a shopping centre. This is the latter. It includes knocking down much of what’s in the Longfield Centre now, and replacing it with a large new food retailer, non-food retailers, a restaurant, a new library, offices, 36 flats, a 70 bed hotel, and a new entrance area for the Longfield Suite.

If the plans get the go-ahead there’ll be 384 new care parking spaces, and works to the roads including an extension to Rectory Lane.

Follow this link and enter reference number 51465. On the subsequent results page, click on the underlined number again to find the detailed reports. 

Let me know what you think.

Rick

It started when I turned to my friend cross-eyed, with my fingers pulling at the sides of my mouth and my tongue poking out. Admittedly, the church probably wasn’t the most appropriate venue for my astounding “funny” face, but when the Priest has told the congregation that he can see them all smiling, it takes a more mature man that I am to resist reacting like that.

I am at the wedding of the friend of a friend. I don’t really know the bride or the groom. All I know is that I’ve never been able to fully control the urge to dive head-first in to hysteria when I’m at events designed to be solemn. Weddings, funerals, Council meetings. I can’t help looking for ways to break the tension. God how I hate minute-silences. Every time I have to stare into the middle distance and think of anything, ANYTHING, not to laugh. I know I shouldn’t, and I have no excuse, but like some people can’t help tucking into cakes when they’re trying to lose weight, I can’t help thinking about funny things when everyone else is trying to be silent. The demon in me comes knocking when all I can hear is the silence of others.

And now that my face has been greeted with a snort of laughter from my friend, it really is game over. She tells me we shouldn’t laugh. Under normal circumstances this would help. If she told we shouldn’t drink bleach and paint, I wouldn’t. But she tells me shouldn’t laugh, and I simply must. Like the urge my heart has to beat, it is beyond my physical control.

I am immediately lost. Completely beyond redemption, tumbling into a whirlpool of utterly uncontrollable laughter. It starts with a chuckle, and when she returns it, it grows to a roar. A helpless, back-arching, stomach-clenching, head-rolling cataclysm of utterly inappropriate hilarity. There is nowhere for me to go. This is only heading in one direction.

On the harsh wood of a church pew, in this holy place, surrounded by the images of Christ’s journey to the cross, I am in hell.

People now turn to look at me as I make seal noises in a really very bad attempt to stay silent. Every gasped breath sounds like a wounded animal crying for help. I try to suppress the noise, but I am gone. Lost to the madness. Tamsin, my poor, poor fiancee, stands next to me with a facial expression heartbreakingly combining shock and mortification, but I am at the mercy of a force greater than my body can handle. She hits my back to make sure I’m not choking on something. My spluttering, gutteral cries are sadly nothing to do with that. 

My friend has escaped. She too couldn’t contain herself, but she could get out, to the end of the row, to the back of the church and to the safety of the noisy world beyond, with its buses and sirens and birds. I am beyond redemption. I was too slow, blinded into inaction by the tears in my eyes. Others have really begun to look at me now. I pray for a hymn, something to drown out my gasps.

The Priest calls for silent meditation.

Oh God, why hast thou forsaken me?

I cannot be silent. I can only meditate on the sight of my mouth, wide open and gasping for breath as I cling to the seat, juddering.

I am ruining the happy couple’s day not through meditation but through laughing so hard that my back shakes. I am so hot now, sweating with the pain of keeping it all in. I am so embarrassed that the shame alone should stop me. I think of dead relatives, of war and lost love. Nothing helps. It’s all funny when you think about it… The bride and groom haven’t noticed. But her mother has, and she wants me dead.

I want to scream out so much. I simply cannot stop. I can’t breath, let alone stop. I’ve forgotten what it is I was laughing about in the first place now, but everywhere I’ve turned fresh amusements have replaced that first one anyway. The organist’s crazy playing; the choir and their average age of 143; the man in front who really does look like Fester Addams. I have been led into temptation. And I have succumbed.

But I have to pretend it’s not laughter. I try to splutter a cough, but I break out into a giggle. Hauling it back in, I make a noise like a seagull diving for a fish. It makes it worse. Now I use the tears to my advantage and pretend to cry. Can they tell I’m crying with laughter? Yes, of course they can.

A man now comes up to speak at the alter. Will his words drown me out? I don’t know, because his accent is so ridiculous to my hyper-sensitive humour that his every utterance sets off another jerking spasm of laughter spewing from my sweating face.

And then they go to sign the register, and I am done. Murmurs begin in the aisles. One or two look my way. My friend returns. I fan myself cool with the order of service. We don’t look at each other. We just smile at the happy couple as they come back of the aisle. The bride asks why I look like I’ve been crying. I tell her I always get emotional at weddings.

Rick

Prestwich Local Area Partnership has launched this “Be Active in Prestwich” pocket sized map.

The map shows promotes walking, cycling and jogging in Prestwich, with suggested cycling routes from Rhodes to the bottom of the Clough, public footpaths, ideas for health walks and heritage walks.

The map can be picked up from the Library, or you can download a copy here.

This week saw the regular meeting of Bury Council’s Executive Committee. This brings together the nine “Executive Member” from the ruling Conservative Group on the Council; They’re the only Councillors wielding any real power in Bury, effectively they’re the “cabinet” of Bury, and whatever crumbs the real cabinet chuck down to Councils are gobbled up by them. All back-bench councillors like me get left with is hot air to spout and blogs to write. And the occasional bin to get installed…

But sometimes the Executive do things I like, and this week they did because they adopted the Prestwich Village Regeneration Strategy

For over a year now, the Council and its contractors have been consulting on the future of Prestwich Village. This was finally presented to the Executive and has now been agreed as “material planning guidance” which will determine what the centre of Prestwich looks like in the future.

In summary, the Longfield area of the Village centre will be redeveloped: a new supermaket and shopping area; existing and new community facilities (the Longfield Suite), Hall, Library and Health Centre; above the shops/supermarket would be some apartments, a hotel on Bury New Road and some (not too high) multi-story parking. In addition work will be undertaken to improve the A56, including restoring the opening of Rectory Lane onto Bury Old Road to improve traffic flow.

This is the result of lots of lengthy consultation with local people, who vetoed ideas like high rise flats, and added in some things too. This is, I think, a good proposal. All we need now is someone to build it!

More information here.

Full details of draft development strategy, and its supporting background documents, can be downloaded from www.bury.gov.uk/prestwichregeneration.

Rick

Today saw a small success in my ongoing battle to keep Prestwich’s streets the right side of filthy, when a dumped sofa was removed from Harold Street in Prestwich Village.

It had lain there for a while, but after some pestering of the Council by me, it was removed.

I don’t know why people fly-tip at all, especially not in Prestwich Village when there’s a tip so close by. And bulky waste is irritating, but the Council will remove it for you if you ask them, so there really is even less of an excuse to dump it. It’s a shame that there aren’t enough enforcement officers about the place to catch the offenders and fine them, because this type of thing really isn’t acceptable in my book.

Other than that, I don’t have much to report from a “News of the Ward” point of view. Much of my thoughts about the Council over the past few days have been to do with the news that we might be in big financial trouble after losing a court case about back pay to staff. The details are still a bit sketchy, and the ruling has yet to go through every legal avenue, but if the Council end up losing then it might mean big tax rises and big service cuts. And it will certainly mean massive questions to answer about how we got into this mess.

More details will emerge in the coming days. I hope it isn’t as bad as it seems, because the last thing the town needs is big job losses, fewer public services on offer from the Council, and higher taxes.

Rick

Many thanks to local resident Guy Dickinson for this information

Lodging a planning application objection will take you 2 minutes.

You must lodge an objection by 20th July - go and do it right now!

1) Go to this page (it redirects to the Mancs Council planning site) - http://tinyurl.com/leuakn

2) Fill in your details and then carefully select the various options:

3) COMMENTATOR TYPE: Neighbour (obviously if you live near the park, you’re a neighbour)

4) REASONS:

(hold down the ctrl key to select multiple reasons.) You might want to choose:
Ecology
Light
Loss of trees
Noise or Disturbance
Parking
Traffic
Visual Amenity

5) MAKE SURE YOU SELECT THE OPTION “Inform the Authority that you object to the Planning Application.”

6) COMMENTS:

As I understand it, planning decisions apply more weight to objections/concerns over traffic and pollution, parking and environmental concerns. Your objection is likely to carry less weight if you simply object on grounds of aesthetic or tradition.

As an example of what can be written see this site, which you may wish to use as a template.

Another week begins, and so does the countdown to its end on Friday evening, when I can cast off the workaday shackles and make the most of the weekend worrying about Monday morning.

Rick

Hundreds of local people staged a “Save Heaton Park” rally on Sunday in protest at plans to create a large commercial sports centre on part of the park. It was great to be there and see so many passionate people taking time out to save a treasured local park.

Over 150 local residents were joined by six local Councillors (including me) to make clear their opposition to the proposed Goals Soccer Centre which is planned to be built near the St Margaret’s Road entrance to Heaton Park. The message was clear: Save Heaton Park!

There are plans to build dozens of football and tennis pitches, all of which will be commercially available at a fee for users, on what is now open parkland near to people’s homes in Prestwich.

Cllr Tim Pickstone, the Liberal Democrat Councillor for Holyrood ward, has been helping to lead the protests. He addressed the crowd, and said “More sports facilities are great, but this is in completely the wrong place. The park has been here for the people of north Manchester and Prestwich for over 100 years. It’s open parkland where people can play football, have a picnic, walk the dog or play in the sun. All of this will be lost forever if it is a £40 an hour soccer centre.”

St Margaret’s Road resident Paul Toner, who helped organise Sunday’s rally, said “None of us are opposed to sports facilities, but the impact of this development on the local area would be terrible - parking, traffic, illuminated pitches.”

The scheme will be decided on by Manchester City Council, who own Heaton Park despite it being bordered by Bury land on three sides. I urge local residents to send in letters and emails of objection to Manchester City Council before the deadline for comment on 20th July.

I really do think that this is completely the wrong place for a development like this, and that Manchester City Council should look again for a more suitable location.

Rick

As may may know, Heaton Park is threatened by a large “soccer centre” which people want to build near the St Margaret’s entrance off Bury Old Road.

Last night I attended a meeting of the committee of Rainsough Tenants and Residents Association. These meetings are often frustrating, because Rainsough is unfortunately placed right on the border with Salford, thus blurring the lines of responsibility for action between Bury and Salford. Although all the people who live there are officially Bury residents, half the houses are owned by Salford, as is the estate’s biggest eye-sore, a derelict block of shops on Chapel Road. Since Rainsough people don’t vote for Salford Councillors, Rainsough is right at the bottom of the priority list, and it’s not very fair.

Last night’s meeting was particularly annoying because Salford Council and their “arms length management organisation” Salix Homes are refusing to give a decent response to tenants’ and residents’ reasonable requests to tart up the shops as a temporary solution before we finally decide what to do with them. They won’t even provide a few tins of paint, and instead we’re going to have to go begging to B&Q.

The whole idea of Arms Length Management Organisations, or ALMOs as they’re known, has done little to improve things for tenants. As far as most are concerned, they’re still Council tenants, and despite the best efforts of Councils and ALMOs, most people really aren’t sure who to call or what the difference is between the two bodies. And this can lead to a fair bit of official buck-passing too, as Councils and ALMOs blame each other for the increasingly desparate situation a lot of tenants find themselves in in terms of nuisance neighbours and minor maintenance.

It’s not all bad, as the new roofing and kitchens in local Council homes demonstrates. But when it comes to the little environmental things that can cheer up an area, like tins of paint and waste bins, it does seem a lot harder to get the wheels in motion with an ALMO than it does with a Council. I only hope that Salford Council and their ALMO see sense and realise that a few tins of paint can really make a big difference to local people in Rainsough.

Rick