Some weeks ago local Lib Dem Councillors were contacted by a resident of The Coppice unhappy that she and her neighbours on Church Lane had still not received their blue recycling bins. This was despite the Council promising several months ago that no house in Bury would be without one by the end of Summer 2007.

I raised the issue with the Council, and am pleased to report that the resident now has her blue bin, and that the new bins have now been emptied as well! So another success for recycling provision in Prestwich. I am glad to have been able to assist.

Rick

Today I have been chasing up a lot of issues on behalf of residents.

I have been in touch with the company developing Tulle Court to ask them whether or not they are going to renovate the unadopted road next to the development.

I have added some trees which are in need of pruning on Church Drive to the list which the Council has to prune back. Unfortunately this list is so long that the trees may well grow into mighty specimens, entirely overwhelm the district, and then die of their own accord before they are pruned back. But we can but try, and keep the pressure on.

I have also had some good news this morning about the road markings at the corner of Butterstile Lane and Bury New Road, which have faded to such a degree that I fear that soon locals may begin to see apparitions of the faces of deities in the road surface. Regardless of this development, it is dangerous at the moment, especially at night and in the rain.

I have also raised issues about brown bins today. The brown ones are for garden waste, and like the blue ones last year, coverage across Bury seems patchy at best. We should be encouraging recycling by providing adequate facilities for everyone, not just some people.

Rick

I received a very disturbing email today from a resident, who told me that he had been subject to a serious assault in Prestwich recently, and that despite reporting the incident, the perpetrator is still roaming the Village.

I have to confess that the email upset me. First of all I was upset the anyone could do that to another person, and live in the kind of moral vacuum that apparently exists there. What type of skewed moral plain do some people live on, how have they come to get there, and how can we get them back?

But I was also upset at how powerless I feel to sort it out. I would love to be able to ring a contact at the police, report the issue again, and get this man off the streets and away from the public he is harming. But I can’t. Of course there is due process and the collection of witness statements, the difficulties with positive identification, and stretched police resources. But when I get correspondence from residents clearly very upset at the lack of a positive response, it almost makes me shout out in frustration that I can’t do more and stop these types of things.

I have rung and left a message with Sgt Campbell at Prestwich police station to arrange an urgent meeting to discuss this and other anti-social behaviour issues that I have raised here of late. And I will try to attend the next Area Tasking Team meeting next week if I can get the time off work. But again I seem to go to lots of meetings whilst the crime continues and the perpetrators walk around like they own the town. And it is very frustrating. Hopefully we can get some kid of positive outcome soon. I share local people’s concerns (this attack happened on my own street) and I am trying my best. But these are difficult issues and sometimes I don’t know where to turn for a happy ending. I wish I did, and I’ll keep trying.

On the plus side - I did today get a positive response to an issue I raised. Some recycling bins had been filled with household waste by some residents moving out of their home. The bin collections weren’t emptying them because the wrong type of bin was used, so I asked the Council to treat this as a special case and actually act to empty them. I have now been promised that this will happen by the end of the week. So that’s good news at least.

Rick

I have been on to the council today about the recycling issue at Tesco. Their response was typically buck-passing, saying that it was part Tesco’s fault, and part Greater Manchester Waste’s fault. Well, the site is run by the Council, and GMW has a couple of Bury Council representatives on it, so you’d think someone might be able to give a more positive response than that.

I have asked for such a response. getting fobbed off like this is not acceptable and I won’t stand for it. The people I represent deserve better.

Also today, I have arranged for a Six Town Housing tenant to be re-assessed for home improvements after a referral I received last week. Hopefully the tenant will receive the improvements she needs to her home.

As well as this, I have been speaking to representatives from Six Town Housing about the possibility of more local community action days, like the one scheduled for Sherbourne Court in a couple of weeks. I think that these are great ideas for bringing people together, so we’ll see if we can get any sorted out for Carr Clough and Rainsough in the ward.

And speaking of Rainsough - I have finally managed to track down Cllr Connor from Salford, the man in charge of Housing there, to talk to him about the Rainsough estate and the shops on Chapel Road. We have arranged to meet on the 18th September, where we can discuss what plans Salford have for clearing up the eyesore that is this derelict row, and ideas that we in Bury have along those lines too. It has been great to see the work of the Tenants and Residents Association in the last couple of months, and I look forward to updating them on my meeting with Cllr Connor when the TRA next meets on the 20th. Rainsough is in a unique predicament - the tenants are looked after by Salford, and the properties are owned by Salford, but the roads, bins and other services are provided by Bury, and that’s where the tenants are registered to vote… So hopefully together we can work something out.

Rick