Here’s a question - would Sir Alan Sugar hire a man who, when set the task of firing three job applicants and narrowing the shortlist to two, in fact manages to only fire one applicant, thus leaving four?

Probably not. And yet Sir Alan himself did just that this evening, whilst hunting for his Apprentice on BBC1. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but tonight I ws forced to watch The Apprentice having been cruelly abandoned by Tamsin. She has gone to see “Sex And The City,” a movie so unappealing that I’d genuinely trade in my corneas for a medium popcorn at the cinema door rather than have to sit and watch it. So I was left with the television and the ironing.

Thankfully, the evening was for-shortened somewhat by the Developing Communities sub-group of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which I chair and which took place at the Methodist Church Hall after work, postponing my return to the empty house with its irnonig and television by a couple of hours. A surprisingly low turn-out this time after some staff shake-ups in the partner organisations over the election period, but there were still eight of us there to talk about some of the key issues in Prestwich.

There were updates on the Children’s Centres - the Sedgley one is all but done and we’re talking about the garden area and developing outreach facilities. The St Mary’s one is a bit further behind after the planning delay, but is still set for completion in the summer.

We also talked about a great new health project in Rainsough targeting men through football, and giving them the opportunity to earn formal qualifications and get health check-ups through participating in events put on by the local Primary Care Trust.

There were some frustrations, such as the ongoing saga with the Rainsough shops on Chapel Road, but on the whole it was a very positive meeting, giving groups the chance to talk to each other and build networks that can help us all. That’s one of the main aims of the group, and it works well.

It was also the first formal meeting where we could present our ideas as Councillors for the new Prestwich Plan, which I hope will form the bedrock of everything we’re doing for the next three years. It amalgamates early drafts, which accrued after conversations with partners, with our own ideas for a green, strong and thriving Prestwich. There are ten priority areas, and actions in each. We’re consulting on it with the partner agencies now, including representative groups of lots of different areas, faiths and interests. And once we’ve got comments, we can finalise and publicise the document and move forward achieving what we’ve said we’re going to do, in conjunction with the Council and everyone else.

Not a bad evening’s work, even if now I am bored and wondering how long that film she’s gone to see can possibly be…

Rick

Last night I went for a run for the first time in too long. I was distressed to find that it is still as difficult as it was last time I went. Having moved house since I last tried it, I now have an exciting new route to try, which takes me into hiterto unexplored parts of the ward such as Rainsough and Hilton Lane. Unfortunately the run confirmed what frequent leafleting excursions had suggested - namely that the entire area wasn’t down hill.

Today I am continuing preparations for tomorrow night’s inaugural meeting of the Developing Communities LAP sub-group. The new Prestwich Plan is taking shape, and so hopefully we’ll be able to get a good,solid meeting tomorrow.

Before that though I am meeting a local resident tonight to talk about how the Council provides services to the Jewish community in Prestwich. Sedgley ward in particular has a very large and growing Jewish population, and I am the only Jewish councillor across all the three Prestwich wards. So it will be an interesting meeting with a man whom I know is very well informed and interested about these matters.

And at the very least it gives me the perfect excuse not to go running again. Something that makes me ache this much can’t be good for me.

Rick

Last night I went to the Liverpool Sound concert at Anfield, headlined by Sir Paul McCartney, a man so dazzlingly wealthy and with a musical back-catalogue so ludicrously accomplished, that even a brief contemplation of the scope of his life makes my brain hurt.

Here’s a guy who’s more famous than The Queen, and has been since my parents were in short trousers (or, in my mum’s case, whatever young girls wore in the early 60s). Until I was about 16 I thought that “Yesterday” was a centuries-old folk song, and scientists have now proven that the tunes to “Hey Jude” and “Let It Be” are automatically woven into the genes of foetuses in the womb, along with the ability to see and cry.

I wonder, what does he do with his days? When you and I get up and go into the office, what does he do? And how can he do it, given that his appearance anywhere is fairly likely to cause hysteria? What is he doing right now, I wonder? And how does it feel to churn out a new album every couple of years for the entire duration of my life to date, only for everyone in every audience you ever play to to actually want to hear things from decades before?

I also wonder how he manages to be even anywhere on the “normal” spectrum after this much adulation for this long. I get light-headed and ego-maniacal for weeks after the odd occasion I get stopped in Tesco and asked about a planning application. Macca gets kings and presidents falling at his feet every day for 50 years, and other than his over-use of the thumbs-up and peace gestures, he appears at least as sane as most of the people I bump into daily.

Ah well, I comfort myself with the fact that I don’t need to think particularly long and hard about him. He seems capable of taking care of himself, and I have more pressing needs to attend to, such as the new version of the Prestwich Plan, which I have been working on over the weekend in front of an audience of 36,000 screaming fans.

This plan will hopefully become the document which drives forward the work of the Local Area Partnership for the next three years. The priorities within it have come from discussions with partners such as the Police, Fire and NHS, as well as being the priorities of the community as represented by the local Councillors who they elect.

Achieving the targets in the plan will also be the agenda for the two sub-groups of the Local Area Partnership. I chair one of them, the Developing Communities Group, and we meet for the first time this year on Wednesday. I suggested Wembley Stadium, but apparently the likely crowd demand has meant us booking Prestwich Methodist Chirch Hall instead. I spent time on the phone to the Local Area Partnership manager this morning, finalising the agenda for the meeting.

Also this weekend I chased up some very outstanding casework to do with Woodward Road. I wrote on here about some mysterious green sludge which had appeared there six weeks or so ago, and I had asked the Council to clear it up. Despite numerous promises to the contrary, the Council still haven’t sorted it out, and so today I asked them yet again to take a look. This is another issue to be brought up at the next Local Area Partnership meeting where Council officers will be there in person to answer residents’ queries.

Which just goes to show that whilst Beatle-mania and the adulation of millions would be nice, all I really want is for someone to replace the paving slabs on Woodward Road. Maybe that’s what Macca’s up to on his days off…

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

Rick

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rick 

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

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

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

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

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

Rick