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

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

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

So, my birthday is over. There’s only one thing more depressing than contemplating a birthday and seeing another year fly by. And that is contemplating the day after a birthday, and realising that it’s a whole year until the next time anyone gives you cake with candles in it and lots of presents. That is essentially where I am today.

However, I am keeping the howling wolves of Time’s unstoppable force from my door by dabbling in some case work.

Now that we’re out canvassing, it means that rather than ring me up to ask for things to be sorted, local people can just stay at home and wait for me to knock on the door.

I have chased up a couple of things this morning on behalf of local residents who I’ve spoken to on the doorstep in the past couple of weeks.

There is an issue in Rainsough at the moment with the new roofs being put on the leased houses. A lot of the privately owned houses in the rows are being affected by the works, although obviously aren’t getting a new roof. So I have been making sure that the construction workers are considerate in removing the debris and keeping the disruption to home-owners to a minimum. It’s great for the tenants to be receiving home improvements, but the people who own their own home mustn’t be inconvenienced if at all possible.

Also today I have been working with the Council to get a patch of Woodward Road cleaned up. Yesterday a resident of that road pointed out the very bizarre green slime that has accumulated, and is creeping down the road due to what I presume is a drainage issue beneath the pavement. I hope it’s that anyway, or else we have been invaded by a strange alien life-form, which I could do without at this election time. In any event, I have been told that the street care inspectors and the cleaning team will head down to take a look at it later, and take whatever action is needed, such as a mechanical clean or engaging Ghostbusters.

I will keep you informed.

And we’re out again somewhere tonight (I don’t do the organising, and am not told where we’re going to canvass until about half an hour before, like it’s a secret gig of some sort at a dank underground nightclub). So there’ll probably be more issues tonight. Assuming the slime doesn’t get us all first.

Rick

Yesterday I was leafleting and saw a man allow his dog to foul the pavement twice within about 50 yards, whilst the dog was on a lead about four feet from the owner. One of the two occasions was actually right outside the man’s own door.

I could barely believe what I was seeing, and would have challenged him were it not for the fact that his dog looked a bit growly, and he himself looked like he could kill me with a single blow, and wouldn’t hesitate to show me how.

People get so fed up with dog dirt on the pavements. And it’s no surprise. It is one of the most unpleasant acts of vandalism that I can think of, and I can’t believe that anyone would let their dog do that without immediately cleaning it up. Apart from the general unpleasantness it is also obviously a major health hazard. If we had people just squatting down and doing that on the pavement, rather than dogs, there’d be outcry, so why do some people find it acceptable to let their dogs do it?

If the dog was a stray, or the owner wasn’t looking, then I could accept it a bit more – carelessness rather than malice. Yes, it should be sorted, but worse things happen. This guy though, was right there in front of his animal, and just walked away, leaving the mess behind for someone else to deal with (and lots of other people to step in).

I despair sometimes that people can treat their community with such shocking disrespect. Where’s the morality in saying to your neighbours “I value you so little that I will let my dog crap outside your house, and just walk away and leave it there. It’s someone else’s problem, not mine. I have better things to do.”

Lots of people complain to me about dog mess, and I sympathise. We have asked for more patrols, more enforcement, and more warning signs. We have got a lot of it, and we’re getting more. And this guy will get a prosecution letter through the post because I grassed him up this morning. But it will never be solved without the message getting through to the thoughtless minority of dog owners that they owe us all the courtesy of cleaning up after their animals.

It’s the same mentality for litter-bugs. We need more pride in our community, which is one of the reasons why our candidate Mary D’Albert launched her “Pride in Prestwich” campaign for these elections.

I feel bad that I didn’t challenge this man, but he will get his comeuppance, and we need all the good people to make sure that all the bad ones get their’s too. So if you see dog-fouling, or litter dropping, then let me know. We can work together with the Council to get more enforcement, fine and punish the culprits and make it clear to everyone that we want pride in our local area.

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

After five years of Labour inaction, and three months of Lib Dem pressure aimed at the action-free Tory Council, the promised “Deep Clean” of Prestwich Village finally began on Sunday night. It is due to finish in the next day or two.

Quite what they’ll unearth beneath the grime is a mystery to me. The Lost City of Atlantis may well be found under The Retreat. Rumours that Lord Lucan was spotted dusting himself down and heading into Hampson’s for a pie were unfounded. They thought they’d discovered an ancient Roman mosaic, but it was in fact the splintered remains of a dustpan and brush bought in 1976 from the fancy goods store next to Cunningham’s.

I just hope to God they don’t find where I stashed those 4,000 election leaflets I said I’d delivered last May…

But the important thing is that it’s done. We got it done. Labour had five years and did nothing, and were almost smug in their happiness that it took a while for us to make the Tories do it. The Tories themselves were one step away from needing a cattle prod to make them do anything. But that fate was avoided, and all it took was three questions to Council and a front page news story. Another Lib Dem success story, looking after Prestwich.

It’s done.

Rick

The word “elections” seems to be cropping up more and more in my conversations these days, which is worrying. It only seems like five minutes ago that it was last time, and now it’s next time already.

But, somehow, the world does not grind to a halt as the spectre of Bury’s local election’s begins to loom. And safe in that knowledge, I have once more been chasing up some casework today.

I have been in contact with the Council’s Environmental Services Department once more, stressing the importance of the St Ann’s Road junction improvements that have been promised by the end of the financial year. This is now barely more than a month away, so it is vital that we ensure that we keep the pressure on the Council to live up to their promise and get on with the removal of the dangerous second set of lights.

In addition, the continuing saga of the dirty streets in Church Drive carries on apace. We had some success last week when the troublesome trees were cut back. Now there is some confusion over whether it is the responsibility of the constructors at nearby Tulle Court, or the responsibility of the Council, to keep the streets clean. My argument is that both should be doing it, but neither seem to want to. So once again I posed the question today and await a proper response.

With any luck it will be as positive as the trees response last week.

Rick

The speech below was to second the Lib Dem amendment to last night’s Budget motion. The Lib Dem amendment ensured £350,000 of extra funding for Children’s and Environmental services whilst keeping the Council Tax rise at 3.4%. Cllr Pickstone’s speech dealt with the Children’s element of the proposal, and mine with the Environmental side.

“Mr Mayor, once again this Council comes together to set a budget.  It’s an important thing that we do.  It should not be treated with disrespect. 

My colleague Cllr Pickstone has made it very clear that although the proposed budget has some positive elements, having studied it the one emotion that affects me more than anything else is that of frustration.

Mr Mayor, every year we ask the people of this Borough to put up with less, and to pay more for it.

Even tonight, a Labour amendment that purports to do the reverse has, I think, been unmasked as the lie that it is.

In proposing their deeply irresponsible amendment, Bury Labour stoop to the type of playground politics I suspected was beneath even them.

Their populist, petty, and preposterous proposals play politics with the future of this Borough at the expense of the neediest.

It’s not what any of us were sent here to do.

Money for disabled adults – Gone.

Money for vulnerable children – Gone.

Our reserves – Gone.

Common sense gone too. And in its place, gimmickry and cheap headlines.

And all for party political gain and a desperate clinging to seats in this chamber.

They should be ashamed. 

Mr Mayor, the people of Bury must not be fooled.

This is serious business and should not be treated this way.

Mr Mayor, Labour claim to have provided an easy answer. But there is no easy answer because, as Cllr Pickstone has said, every year the government ask us to provide more, but to do it with less.

Call it efficiency if you like. I am all for efficient public services.

But we aren’t some out of control organisation. It’s not like we’re The Home Office…

The axe that is being wielded tonight isn’t because there’s money wasted all over the place.

We are an efficient organisation.

The Audit Commission say that we’re performing well in every measure of how we use our resources.

Mr Mayor, the reason we’re setting a budget that has to make cuts is because the government’s settlement for the people of Bury is unfair, unrealistic, and woefully inadequate.

Three quarters of our money comes from central government, and once again they haven’t given us enough.

I think it’s worth repeating that the Borough of Bury is 15% worse off in real terms now than it was when Labour came to power in 1997.

15% worse off.

This is a disgrace, during a period when Council Tax has more or less doubled and services have been cut year on year.

Others have plenty Mr Mayor, whilst the people of this Borough have anything but.

The government chooses what it spends its money on, and once again I find myself standing here and saying that they haven’t chosen to spend it on us.

And this year Mr Mayor we have been hampered by political game-playing of the worst kind, from those falsely using the issue of congestion charging to push for an elected Mayor in a referendum that is as irresponsibly based as it is worryingly short sighted.

As Cllr Redstone remarked earlier, a six figure sum has been put aside to pay for the Mayoral referendum and the Mayoral election which may follow.

That’s before we start paying for the Mayoralty itself, which will be another six figures every single year.

The people calling for this referendum should know that mixing the issue with congestion charging means that their actions are dishonest, disingenuous and damaging.

They should know that the money put aside for this vote, forced through on the most flimsy and dubious of grounds, means that there will be less money for the children of this Borough, less money for vulnerable adults, and less money for our environment.

They should reflect on what they’ve done.

Mr Mayor, our amendment this evening seeks to ensure that the environment of this Borough remains as clean, green and safe as is possible.

I’m sure my inbox is no different to each and every one of the Members in the Chamber tonight.

The people of this Borough want cleaner streets, green space and safe places for their families.

And the Liberal Democrat group will ensure that as much as possible is done to give them what they want.

Mr Mayor, our proposals tonight are to invest in parks in this Borough to ensure that every community has a well-managed place of peace and greenery to enjoy.

In my ward, St Mary’s Park is a shining example of all that this Council does well.

It is an oasis which should be treasured, and when it is full of families and children and joggers and games of football it really is a sight to see.  A triumphant beacon lighting up lives and showing the glorious things we can achieve together.

It makes my heart sing Mr Mayor, and we want the same all over Bury, and we propose money be allocated for more Green Flag Parks so that the Council’s ambition of having twelve is realised.

We also want our streets cleaner.

Too often the lives of local people are blighted by the simple things.

Things that can be remedied with nothing more than a bit of money and effort.

Street cleaning is one of them.

I’ve led a relatively sheltered life Mr Mayor, and have never seen the aftermath of an explosion in a fast food wrapping factory.

But my sister is well travelled, and she tells me that the front gardens of my neighbours and me on a Saturday morning is a fairly similar sight.

It’s like a shrine to the God of Kebabs.

But it’s no good Mr Mayor, and we want rid of it. Which is why we propose more street cleaning including Saturday morning cleaning of streets in our commercial centres.

Too often it is too long between cleans, especially when weekend litter accumulates and it becomes difficult to tell where the bins end and the gardens begin.

We are proposing the funding to try and stop that.

And our streets need to stay clean Mr Mayor, which is why we are proposing further funding for enforcement of dog fouling, and increased investment for our dog wardens to work more efficiently.

Enforcement Mr Mayor. Not just of dogs, but litter, fly-tipping and so on, is vital to keeping Bury clean and green.

Mr Mayor, this Council faces difficult choices.

Desperately let down by the Labour government again, and facing local difficulties of its own with the Mayoral referendum, we have to face the people of this Borough and explain why they are, once more, paying more and getting less.

This amendment tries to make things better in the services people care most about. Our streets, our parks, and the many benefits improvements to these and the wider environment will bring.

And I am delighted to second the amendment.”