Remember that these revised plans include a massive 2.4m perimeter fence around the site, as well as further fenced off car-park, going up towards the reservoir.

This could well be our LAST CHANCE to save Heaton Park - this is the third time that Goals have submitted their plan, but the first that its actually made it to the agenda for a committee meeting. The recommendation from the Planning Officers is to “Approve” the report.

We’ve had a terrific response to the campaign so far: hundreds of people have sent in objection letters and emails; signed the petitions and written to the press. Thank you for everything that people have done so far.

We still need help to stop this application:

If you are available on THURSDAY afternoon, join us outside Manchester Town Hall (Albert Square side) at 1.30pm. We’ll be going into the Committee meeting (this starts at 2.00pm) together where we’ll be allowed one person to speak on our behalf. Its important that as many people as possible come along and show the strength of feeling against the proposal.

Its not too late to apply pressure to your elected representatives - MPs and Councillors. If you live in Manchester please email your councillor telling them how strongly you oppose the application and ask them to represent you. You can automatically email all your councillors by entering your postcode at this website.

If you live in either Bury South or Manchester Blakeley Parliamenary constituencies why not email your MP telling them how strongly you feel?

Bury South - Ivan Lewis MP (Labour):  ivanlewis@burysouth.fsnet.co.uk

Manchester Blackley - Graham Stringer MP (Labour):

Carry on keeping up the pressure:
- tell your friends
- if you’re on facebook copy this message to your friends
- if you use twitter - tweet about this!
- use any opportunity in the press, or in internet discussion sites to object to the proposals.

Keep up the campaign! For more information, including links to the planning report, visit www.saveheatonpark.org.uk

Rick

Nick Clegg will say:

“In the light of the charges brought by the DPP against a number of MPs and peers, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are suddenly falling over themselves to talk about political reform. Nobody should be fooled.

“Gordon Brown has been the obdurate obstacle to almost every attempt at political reform over the past 13 years, while the double-speak of David Cameron – who even now refuses to divulge the tax status of one of his party’s biggest donors – is simply breathtaking.

“Listening to the two of them anyone would think they were powerless backbenchers rather than the leaders of the two parties in Parliament which have proved to be the real roadblocks to reform. It’s like a couple of cowboy builders coming back to your house to tell you how bad their workmanship is.

“If they genuinely want political change, it is in their power to deliver it. So I challenge them to cut out the speeches and the rhetoric and get on with the job. They can do that today.

“If Gordon Brown and David Cameron can’t even sign up to the most minimal commitments, the public will see their rhetoric for the opportunistic party point scoring that it is.”

Rick

Rick

David Chaytor faces three charges under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 for false accounting.

The first count alleges that in May 2006 Mr Chaytor dishonestly claimed £1,950 for computer services by using false invoices.

The second count alleges that between September 2005 and September 2006 Mr Chaytor dishonestly claimed £12,925 for renting a property in Regency Street, London, when he was allegedly its owner.

The third charge alleges that between September 2007 and January 2008 Mr Chaytor dishonestly claimed £5,425, purportedly for renting a property in Bury from his mother.

This issue has been rumbling on for almost nine months now, and whilst Mr Chaytor remains innocent until proven guilty this issue is bringing much unwelcome publicity to Bury. Mr Chaytor has already said that he is standing down at the next election, but I repeat the calls that I have made since this whole thing started – Mr Chaytor should go now and give Bury North a fresh start

Rick

The extra officers for Bury will be funded by the savings from scrapping ID cards, and are part of the Liberal Democrats’ Safer Streets – More and Better Police manifesto commitment.

People are scared of crime. Expensive ID cards aren’t going to change that, but an extra officer walking down Bury New Road or more police in Bury on Friday night will.

The Liberal Democrats are committed to more police, and this is the only way to create safer streets.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg said:

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party that wants to cut crime by putting more police on the street.

“When only one in a hundred crimes ends up with a conviction in court, it is time for things to change.

“Labour and the Conservatives may talk tough but they are unwilling to make the crucial decisions to cut crime.

“At this time of enormous budget deficit, much spending will need to be cut. But in key areas of public policy where more investment is needed, the money must be found.

“That is why we have decided to prioritise a limited commitment to increasing police numbers by 3,000 over the course of a Parliament. We believe this is vital if we are to build a strong, fair and secure society as we emerge from recession.”

Rick

The proposed new charges, which have not yet officially been announced but which I have learned about from a source close to the Council, are planned to come into force in the new financial year, and are included in the budget which is to be presented to Council in a couple of weeks.

Charges will run until 3pm, meaning that morning and lunchtime shoppers will have to pay to use a car park that was free to use until now.

I think these plans are going to be hugely damaging for Prestwich, especially for businesses in the centre of town. It is a shocking indictment of the Tories at the Town Hall that they would potentially cripple Prestwich businesses like this, diverting cars onto residential streets or away from Prestwich altogether.

I will vigorously oppose this move which, alongside Tory plans to close the Longfield Suite, show the levels of contempt with which the Conservative Council is treating the people of my ward.

Rick

Maybe if I was a Hollywood A-lister and could pepper my tweets with juicy celebrity tit-bits like “just popped round to see Kirk Douglas” then people might be interested. As it is, I am barely a Prestwich F-Lister, and since starting out on Twitter two days ago the highlight of my life has been a pint of Diet Coke after work last night. I have decided that the world doesn’t need to hear about that, and so I have remained tweet-free.

So I’ll see how it goes, but if the next few days are anything like the last few, I may be abandoning my foray into micro-blogging before it’s really begun.

Such indecision marks me out less as a Liberal Democrat and more of a Conservative. The Tories are still in a bit of a murky haze about what to do to get us out of the deficit. Mr Cameron’s flip-flopping on the economy would make a dance champion’s head spin. As Vince Cable (our Shadow Chancellor) has said:

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party that has had a consistent approach.” There is an ongoing row between Labour and the Conservatives over how confused the other is on the economy and public spending, all of which would make for far more entertaining Twitter fodder than my mundane existence. Unfortunately for the other parties though, their argument isn’t being played out in front of my four “followers” but instead on the front pages of national newspapers. Vince continued by saying:

“Labour and the Tories are accusing each other of being confused and contradictory on the economy, and they’re both right.

“The fact that they insist on this political bun fight shows they have failed to understand that the British public and the markets want a clear picture of what the next Government will do.

“The Liberal Democrats are the only party that has had a consistent approach.

“We’ve been very open about the scale of cuts required and setting out where our priorities would be, while recognising that the timing must be decided by the strength of the economy. That is why we have set out five tests for when and how we start to cut.”

So there you have it. David Cameron seemed very clear on the merits of Twitter when he said he didn’t use it because “too many twits might make a twat.” However, he doesn’t know what to cut or when to cut it, and he’s certianly not telling us. I’m less clear on the Twitter question, but a lot clearer on the economy, and hopefully that’s going to be more important when it comes to the ballot box.

Rick

Today I am at work, but looking forward to the week ahead and safe in the knowledge that I now have TWO Twitter followers. At this rate of exponential growth I will be tweeting the entire world by the end of the week.

This week it’s full Council again, on Wednesday night. So tear yourself away from FC Twente v Heracles Almelo on ESPN and come down to the Town Hall to watch slightly more grown men than a Dutch football match behave even less rationally than a pair of Dutch football teams. The meeting is open to the public, and at the very least if you’re there you will be spared having to read my Tweets on the proceedings.

There’s an exciting debate on Police numbers which the Liberal Democrats have proposed, highlighting the fact that budget overspends means hundreds less Police in the area. I suspect that the opposition will trot out lines about Lib Dems being “soft on crime,” which is not only false but would also be hugely hypocritical given that the Bury Conservatives have so far done nothing after this shameful incident.

There will also be the regular opportunity to question the Leader of the Council on the work of his Executive, and to question the Council’s representatives on County-wide bodies like the Transport Authority. So we’ll be asking about bus services in Prestwich (currently terrible) and various other things.

As well as that meeting this week, I am meeting some residents and Council officers tomorrow to try and resolve an issue connected to Bury Market, and I have various other appointments with residents in the coming days.

I will keep you updated on anything exciting that occurs!

Rick

So I have created myself a twitter account and you can follow each and every thing I do (and choose to tell the world about) on www.twitter.com/richardbaum.

Presently I am like a rubbish cult leader - I have absolutely no followers whatsoever. Maybe you can make history and be the first.

Rick

Bury Council has finally launched their formal consultation on the future of the Longfield Suite, Radcliffe Civic Suite and other threatened Bury Community centres.

Now is the time to act, whether you have signed the petition or not, if you care about the future of our local community centres then it is crucial that you complete a consultation form.

Forms are being circulated and are available in Council buildings and the Civic suites themselves. The consultation can also be completed online here .

Don’t forget to let Bury Council know what you think, don’t forget to tell all you contacts about the consultation.

Don’t leave the future of our community centres to someone else, act now!  

Today can be a particularly emotional day for those who survived the Holocaust or who lost relatives to the Nazis. I know that there are many such people in Prestwich, and you all have my good wishes and thoughts today.

My thanks go to all those locally involved in events to mark today, including the many schools which I know are holding events of their own today.

Holocaust Memorial Day continues to mark an important day to think about the wider issues that are related to the Holocaust. Genocide continues in the world today, and as the number of Holocaust survivors dwindles with the passing years, hearing their stories becomes all the more urgent. There is a short article, which I think is excellent, in The Guardian today about this which you might want to read here.

Rick

Digital Image copyright ©Bury Archives Service. All rights reserved. 

Lots unfamiliar too, like the big bus shelter and the building to the left, now long since gone. And of course the virtually traffic-free road! Sadly that’s a thing of the past now as well!

I find it fascinating to look at pictures like this, and wonder what the streets around Prestwich looked like 40 years ago and more. This was a long time before I was born but my parents were alive as I’m sure were many other people still here in Prestwich today. I hope this picture brings back some fond memories.

Rick

Courtesy of a cock-up at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and an equally momentous one by the company handling the payroll at work, I have had more than double the normal amount of Income Tax removed from this month’s salary, rendering it virtually worthless and meaning that I am plunged into the type of “heat or eat” dilemma faced by lots of other people. It’s like I’ve been elected an MP and cast in one of those “live for a week on a fiver” documentaries on ITV1 already.

The sorry tale was started by my own honesty, or stupidity, or whichever word comes closest to the describing the good deed I did a couple of months back in informing HMRC that they’d probably been under-taxing me. For reasons which I don’t understand, the fantastically complicated tax system in this country can’t cope with simple complexities like me having two incomes (regular job and significantly smaller Councillor’s allowance). As a result I did a bit of a calculation in my head, and managed to compute my tax liability better than HMRC’s mainframe in the process.

Being the good citizen that I am, I thought I’d better tell them, and having been on hold for twenty minutes and then having spoken to a confused man-child on the other end of the phone who agreed with me, I thought it was all sorted.

Oh, dear readers, how wrong I was.

There was plenty of dawdling, cack-handed administering, and dim-witted dullardness between then and now, including three months of total inaction and one mis-posted letter. The sponge-brained inadequacy culminated yesterday in me opening this month’s pay-check and analysing the bottom line to find that something was amiss. In fact, several hundred things were amiss, each one gold coloured and with The Queen’s head on.

After finding the right HMRC office (no easy task given that it isn’t the one nearest where I live or the one nearest where I work!) I discovered that HMRC had sent a revised tax code to the payroll people. Unfortunately, it only contained some of the necessary information, leaving the payroll people to guess the rest in some sort of high-stakes quiz game where there are no winners and just one tearful and impoverished loser (me). Payroll guessed wrong, meaning that rather than take a little bit of the extra tax off each month until the bill had gone, it was all taken off in one go, leaving me penniless for a month. Thanks guys!

Unfortunately my mortgage, car loan, and utility bills won’t take kindly to not being paid this month, and although David Blaine can go that long without food, I can’t. But despite me explaining this to various people, in tones ranging from calm to Mount Etna, we have reached an impasse where basically they still won’t pay me the money I’ve earned.

HMRC are blaming the payroll people for guessing wrong, and the payroll people are blaming HMRC for making them guess in the first place. I can tell the moronic half-wits in charge of these organisations one thing - Nationwide Building Society, N-Power and Peugeot all want money off me, and they’ll be blaming me.

It’s not all that bad - I have some savings, I don’t have kids to feed, and because of a generous employer (who has a stupid payroll supplier…) I have the time to ring round and chase this up. But for God’s sake, this would be a disaster if I didn’t have those advantages, and it is going to be unpleasant all the same. Most people in this country aren’t as lucky as I am. What would they do? Really, what would they do? 

There seems to be no system whereby in emergency situations, HMRC can with-hold excess payments under PAYE. There should be, so that people aren’t plunged into debt through no fault of their own. Grant an emergency month’s grace to sort things out, and even charge interest if needs be, but don’t just cut people adrift and let them sink. Similarly, there seems no compulsion (or even any will whatsoever) for the payroll people to make good what is obviously an error. Income Tax liability doesn’t just double in a month. They are providing a crucial service, and when they cock up they should have to put it right.

There are worse things than this in the world, sure. But there’s a principle here as well as my particular issue. This can’t be right, and I will have plenty of time to think it over whilst I eat cold baked beans this month, because I won’t have the money to do anything else!

Rick

I have just been fiddling around searching for “Prestwich,” “Sunnybank” (where I used to live) and various other things, and there are far more photos on there than exist on any other photo website I’ve seen. A really interesting glimpse back into the past. Just typing in “Butterstile” brings up ten photos of Butterstile Lane through the years, so there’s sure to be something of interest to anyone from anywhere in Bury.

There’s an amazing photo of how Unsworth Library looked in 1967 which I found personally very strange having grown up so close to it.

Take a look and enjoy this great collection of images.

Rick

There was a turnout so large that people had to spill out of the lounge / dining room combination (where Tamsin and I had lain on a spread) and into various other rooms, but I suppose this was a good thing even if it did confuse Mac the cat somewhat.

The pizzas were excellently supplied by Shandar (your local Councillor’s favourite Prestwich takeaway), and were eaten by the assorted revellers including Bury south Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Vic D’Albert, Burnley Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Gordon Birtwistle, and former Lib Dem Blogger of the Year Alix Mortimer.

There was lots of discussion, primarily about the origins of the pizza and the reason for the cat only having three legs. But occasionally it also lurched towards the political. It was lovely to see a large Burnley delegation, as well as some Bury folk rarely seen at Lib Dem gatherings (like Tam…).

Any local members interested in repeating the fun, look out for information about the next event called “food beginning with P and Politics” which will be happening shortly.

Rick

Mr Cable set out key Lib Dem policy commitments designed to sensibly reduce the deficit whilst protecting public services wherever possible. These included:

• A tougher public sector incomes policy, limiting any pay increase to a maximum £8 a week, and requiring discipline over two years, initially. And scrapping bonuses.
• The first steps in fundamental reform of public sector pensions, which could have an early impact through contributions rates; though this is a complex area requiring an independent review along the lines of the Turner Commision.
• Some cuts in welfare spending: tax credits for higher earners and scrapping future Child Trust Fund contributions.
• Axing much of the superstructure of the centralised British state from the command and control system overseeing local government and NHS administration.
• Cutting much of the RDA budget.
• Serious and substantial reductions in defence procurement: in the long term for Trident and for shorter term choices, axing Eurofighter and instigating a rapid defence review – within strict financial constraints – to determine priorities.
• Scrapping expensive Home Office projects like ID cards and the intercept modernisation programme.
• Rejecting arbitrary targets for universities and over expansion with an emphasis on alternatives in vocational training in FE colleges that are more helpful in achieving employability, as well as cheaper.

Mr Cable went on to contrast Lib Dem policy towards the economy with the policies of the other two main parties, who I see as being less than up-front about the scale of the problem or their likely reaction to it. The Tories make great noises about protecting the NHS, but are never specific about how they will pay to do this, or what services they will cut to reduce the deficit. Labour meanwhile, the architects of the policies which led to recession, have responded feebly and only last week did nothing to stop the takeover of Cadbury despite forming the government which largely owns the bank paying for it.

Vince Cable has led the way in his response to the economic crisis. If only more people had listened before it happened! If you get a chance, read the speech as I have done and see what you think.

Rick

Carran was a true champion of Prestwich, responsible for making the Festival happen amongst many other things. Sadly, the Conservatives running the Council decided to remove her from Prestwich and swap her with the Whitefield LAP Manager. I’ve got nothing against Rose De, the ex-Whitefield and now Prestwich Manager, but she like Carran had no wish to move, and the people of both Whitefield and Prestwich are angry that this swap has happened with no consultation and no good reason.

Last night the LAP welcomed Roase, and paid tribute to Carran’s work over the past 8 years and then proposed the following motion which was passed overwhelmingly:

“Prestwich Area Partnership deplores the recent unwarranted interference in the management of Prestwich Area Partnership and believe the unnecessary rotation of Area Partnership Managers at this time will undermine the effectiveness of the Partnership at a crucial time.We insist that any future changes be introduced only after full and proper consultation with the Area Partnership.”

Once again, in acting completely without regard to the wishes of local people in this matter, the Tories in Bury have shown their arrogance. Their motives defy logic, which makes them all the more annoying. How anyone in Bury can consider voting for a Tory MP when the Tory Council is making such a spectacular cock-up of everything it touches is a mystery.

This is just the latest example.

Rick

If there’s one thing guaranteed to rile the Bury Conservatives, it’s some perfectly just criticism. So I expected a letter in response. I must say that what was published (read all about it here) was jaw-droppingly tame even by their standards.

The letter picks up on a mistake I made in claiming that all the Bury Conservative Councillors voted against 10:10. What I should have said was that all the Bury Conservative Councillors at the meeting voted against it, because as is correctly pointed out by the man himself, Conservative Councillor Bernie Vincent was recovering from a heart attack at the time, and wasn’t there.

I like Cllr Vincent personally. We’ve served on committees together and he seems a genuinely nice guy. But his letter doesn’t do that justice.

He doesn’t clarify which way he would have voted had he been present, but having weighed up the evidence I think I can deduce his likely intentions.

I suspect that he would have followed the line towed by every single one of his colleagues, and voted against 10:10. he would not have been the single Tory Councillor in Bury to recognise the importance of the campaign or the issue it supports. No Tories in Bury ever break rank, and he wouldn’t have done if he’s have been well enough to vote.

Cllr Vincent’s letter ends though with something which betrays the Tory view on Climate Change even more. He says “To finish on a lighter note, if Richard looks out of his window he will see global snowing, not global warming.”

Well Cllr Vincent, it’s not a lighter note, it’s a serious note. It’s serious that your Conservative Group has received a lot of criticism about the snow, and it’s even more serious that an elected Councillor thinks that the harsh weather disproves climate change.

The truth is the opposite. A symptom of climate change is more extreme weather, and the snow outside our windows was just such an example, as was the extremely hot weather endured at the same time elsewhere in the world. Just because it was cold here for a few weeks doesn’t alter the fact that temperatures overall have risen across the globe steadily for decades and particularly very recently.

The science is there, and it’s clear. Lib Dems in Bury gave the Tories ample chance to sign up to a campaign which would’ve put the weight of the Council behind combating Climate Change. The Tories blocked it, and despite his not being there to participate in that block, had he been well, I have no doubt that Cllr Vincent and his blinkered view on climate change would’ve contributed to that block.

Anybody in Bury concerned about the environment and climate change should not vote Conservative.

Rick

They have hired a few “Councillor Columnists,” and I am one of the select band in the first cohort. A bit like the John Glenn of the Councillor world, I like to think.

You can read my first effort here, all about snow and grit.

For some reason the word “remains” is missing from the middle of the eleventh line, rendering one sentence devoid of meaning. But don’t let that put you off.

Rick

On the day that new statistics show the number of young people unemployed for more than six months has doubled in two years, Nick Clegg will announce the party’s plans using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The proposals would ensure young people do not spend more than 90 days on Jobseekers Allowance before they get more training, education, an internship or a place on a work programme.

Today’s announcement forms the next step in the Liberal Democrats’ economic stimulus and job creation package. The plans will invest almost £900m in increasing the number of further education places, giving students financial support to return to college and creating a paid internship scheme.

Nick Clegg said:
“Young people feel cheated by this recession. Everyone knows someone who has recently left college or university with hopes of starting a career only to find they cannot even get on the lowest rung of the job ladder. We must help them now or they will be left behind in any recovery.

Our promise of more training, education, an internship or a place on a work programme will give hope to the nearly one million young people who currently can’t find a job. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter play just as important a role as TV or newspapers in young people’s lives. Politicians can’t ignore new and social media if they want to connect with the next generation of voters.”

More information on the plans below:

This plan forms part of the Liberal Democrats’ economic stimulus and job creation package. In our first year in office we will redirect over £3.6bn of spending to creating jobs and building up Britain’s infrastructure. In the following years this money will be redirected to other Lib Dem spending priorities and reducing the structural deficit.

We will invest almost £900million in creating opportunities to help young people who are unemployed gain the skills and experience to move back in to work.

The 90 day promise
Under our proposals a young person would not claim Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) for more than three months without taking up training, a job or an internship. If they did not, they would be fast-tracked onto a welfare-to-work programme such as the Flexible New Deal. At the moment a young person waits 12 months before being referred to a back to work programme which is too long.

Paid Internships
We will support young people while they get valuable work experience by paying anyone undertaking an internship a ‘training allowance’ of £55 a week (£5 more than JSA). This will help employers who want to offer young people work experience but cannot afford to pay them. We envisage that young people will do this for up to 3 months and receipt of the allowance will be dependent on attendance.

We will work with employers in the private and public sectors to ensure that there are a wide range of opportunities available.

More foundation degree places
We will fund up to 15,000 more college-based foundation degree places over the next academic year. Foundation degrees focus on a particular job or profession and are the equivalent of two thirds of a full honours degree. They are fully flexible qualifications which allow students to study part-time or full-time to fit their lifestyle.

Financial help to go back to college
We will increase the Adult Learning Grant which is a means-tested benefit for 18-24 year olds studying their first level 2 or 3 qualifications (GCSE or A Level equivalent). We will increase the payments by £15 a week to £45 to provide young people who are eligible with a real choice between improving their skills and claiming Jobseekers Allowance.

Funding
The economic stimulus package to create a fair and balanced economy with sustainable growth is funded by redirecting government spending. This includes removing Tax Credits from higher earners (£700m), scrapping the intercept modernisation program (£150m), restricting growth in the Train to Gain budget (£375m), scrapping the Child Trust Fund (£370m), cutting the Highways Agency Major Improvements Budget (£1,080m) and the introduction of a 10% banking levy (£1,000m). In the first year of the new Parliament, the party would redirect this £3.6bn of spending to create jobs and build up Britain’s infrastructure. In the following years this money will be redirected to other Lib Dem spending priorities and reducing the structural deficit.

Rick

As well as presentations on key local issues (this time a road safety scheme) there is a general update from the Local Area Partnership Manager, and your chance to ask the Partnership members anything you want in the open forum. There’s also the chance for 1-1 chats with your local Councillors who will be there.

It’s at 6.30 at Sedgley Park School on Bishops Road, which, incidentally, my Mum went to in days of yore. Little did she know that decades later her son would be there, bored, trying to get a cogent response to legitimate residents’ grievances but being met by an immovable wall of silence known as Bury Council.

You may want to ask about the Council’s recent response to the ice and snow, or about roads, parks, bins, libraries, civic halls, or anything else. Here’s your chance. Come on down and say hello.

Rick

Hear ye! Hear ye! The Prestwich Farmer’s Market is back for a fourth time, pushing the envelope of potentially-over-doing-it to new and exciting levels!

For those starved of expensive bread and ostrich burgers recently, here’s your chance to mooch absent-mindedly around some obscure food-retail tents once again before returning home with a goat curry in a tupperware box and a wholly unnecessary lump of cheese. 

“When’s it on?” you are doubtless screeching. Well, let me tell you: It’s on Sunday 24th January 2010, between 9.30 and 15.30, and it’s at the Longfield Centre, Prestwich Village.

As well as the usual stuff, there will be a free giant raffle, the worryingly named Squeaky the Clown, and a Town Cryer. Which town though, I do not know…

In all seriousness, these have been great community events until now, so there’s no reason why this one will be any different. It’s great to see hundreds (nay, thousands) of local people enjoying the fun.

I will be there spending money on stuff I don’t need and barely even want, so I suggest you do the same.

Rick

Mother Nature has given Bury Council a nice late Christmas present, and it’s up to us to let the Council know exactly what needs patching up and exactly how perilous it is to drive around local streets now that they resemble the lunar surface.

For instance, I have this morning reported a cavernous legion in the road at the junction between Butterstile Lane and Hilton Lane. If it got any deeper we could send a team of frog-men in to search for ancient cave drawings. There’s also a couple of nasty cracks appearing further up Hilton Lane, which I’ve also asked to be looked at.

I need your help though. If you’ve seen a crack in the road or a pothole, let us know. The Tories who run the town hall decided to ignore our proposal to increase road maintenance funding by a half at budget time, and it’s coming back to haunt them now as the roads don’t take kindly to being frozen for a month.

Let’s get these holes reported and then the Council will have no excuse for not acting. It’s about time we sorted out the roads.

Rick

The figures, contained in Parliamentary answers, show:

•  
  • 487,340 profiles have been added to the database since the ruling
  • This includes 101,367 innocent people –a rate of 282 a day
  • In that same period, just 400 people have been successfully removed from the database
  • For every innocent person that managed to have themselves removed from the DNA database under the ‘exceptional case system’ since the ECHR ruling, a further 253 innocent people have been added.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, Jenny Willott said:
 
“It is appalling that the Government has taken the DNA of 100,000 innocent people since they were told the practice is illegal.

“By the time an innocent person manages to get their DNA removed from the database over 250 others will have been added.

“Despite the Government’s promises to abide by the European Court’s ruling, they are still doing everything they can to avoid it.

“Labour’s cynical proposals will create a half-guilty class of people with their most intimate personal information held by the police for six years - even though they have done nothing wrong.

“This is a gross distortion of one of the fundamental principles of this country – that you are innocent until proven guilty.”

Here in Greater Manchester, a quarter of a million DNA profiles are held by the police, tens of thousands of which are for people never convicted of a crime. Even since the European Court ruled the practice illegal, Greater Manchester Police have taken 5,000 more DNA profiles of innocent people.

I have been campaigning on this and similar issues for some time now. The allied issues of the DNA database and CRB disclosures now both affect lots of people who have never been convicted of anything. Just two days ago I had a tearful lady from Leeds on the telephone speaking to me about accusations of theft which have haunted her for years. She had DNA taken, and the allegations appear on her CRB form every time she goes for a job, despite her vehemently denying them and despite the accusations being dropped by Police before she was even charged. This poor lady, wondering where else to turn in life, is just one of dozens I have spoken to trapped in this situation which has been entirely caused by the government.

The situation is a disgrace, and needs to be changed.

Rick 

Obviously that’s an exaggeration (as anyone living as a subsistence farmer anywhere where it never rains will tell you), but it’s nowhere near as bad an exaggeration as Alistair Darling’s growth forecasts so I am relatively OK.

Unfortunately the melting snow has revealed some extremely dodgy ice underneath, which actually meant it was more difficult getting to work today than on any of the other days in this whole cold spell. I hadn’t had cause to curse the snow particularly vocally before, but as I slid to a halt some yards beyond my intended resting place at work this morning, the air turned a mild shade of blue.

Hopefully the temperatures will stay on the right side of “Oh My God it’s so cold” and the ice will melt shortly, revealing the spectacular site of concrete and soil which I have missed so much recently.

The forthcoming weekend is a busy one for me. Tonight I am going to choose my wedding suit once and for all. I think I have a number one choice (the “Lingfield,” from Moss Bros), but when I told the Bride-to-be that I had made that decision based purely on looks and not as a result of fannying about in a changing room for half an hour, I was met with wedding-threatening stares. So I have to try it on tonight, and then hire it when, lo-and-behold, it fits.

On Saturday I am watching Everton 2-0 Manchester City on a channel so obscure that despite having about 900 Sky channels I still can’t get it at home. And then on Sunday I am devoting myself entirely to the Bury Liberal Democrat Focus leaflet distribution operation. Although, if the pavements haven’t defrosted by then, I may suffer a significant fall in my number of unfractured limbs. 

I hope the weekend is fun for all.

Rick

The event will outline the budget position facing the Council, which may or may not be set to the tune of the Death March in a room lined with blankly-staring corpse-like figures dressed all in black and carrying scythes. 

The budget itself will be finalised by a full meeting of Bury Council on February 24th (7pm), which you are welcome to attend too if you wish.

As part of the exercise officers will outline the options facing the council and provide an opportunity for residents to comment on possible council tax rises, spending priorities and savings options. As always the Council is being asked to provide even more services (for instance looking after more vulnerable older people, filling the cracks in the road caused by the cold snap etc) with not much more money. So we need to work out what gets continued and what gets cut, all the while trying to keep Council Tax down.

This is a perfect opportunity to find out more, and answers to questions like “why can’t we grit all roads?” “Why are they thinking of closing the Longfield Centre?” “Why is the Youth Service being cut?” and “Why does my Council Tax bill keep going up?”

Although this is billed as a “consultation,” in reality the best chance you will get to have your say about spending priorities will be at the ballot box. Happily, there’s an election coming just weeks after increased Council Tax bills from the Tory Council land on your door mat, and just a similar number of weeks after a Labour government come up with a wrong-headed budget which will affect the whole country. So hopefully people will remember and vote accordingly.

Come along!

Rick

It’s a bit warmer this week, but still not warm enough to melt the snow! I haven’t seen the grass in my garden for 23 days now, although one of the advantages of all this is that I can easily track the movements of Mac, our cat. I had always wondered where he went during the day. Now the snow, combined with the fact that he’s hardly a master spy when it comes to hiding his tracks, means that I know exactly where he goes. Disappointingly for someone who imagined him getting up to all sorts of adventures with lady cats or something, it turns out he just goes to the shrub at the end of the garden, lays there for a bit, and comes back.

Last week’s pair of Council meetings were both postponed due to the weather, which means I’ve been more or less meeting free since the week before Christmas. I almost miss them, it’s been so long, although last night I did have to go to the Town Hall to sort out a small matter on behalf of a constituent.

It’s not as though I’ve been idle though, because we’ve had the new Focus newsletter to write, which will hopefully be hitting doormats the ward over from next week. So look out for that. We’ve also been doing a great deal of lobbying to the Council on your behalf to get grit bins, more gritting, and bins sorted out. Happily things seem to be getting back to normal bin-wise, although obviously the ice and snow continue to be a problem.

I was supposed to be starting a jogging regime post-Christmas. So far this really hasn’t happened, but I put it down to the icy pavements rather than a lack of willpower. Although I must say, thinking of having to go for a run is one reason at least why my wishes for warmth aren’t perhaps as strong as they might other wise be…

Rick

At present the efforts of bin collection staff are focusing on the collection of general waste (black) bins, to get rid of any backlog. The advice is to leave out your black bin on the normal collection day.

The Council are allowing two extra black bags together with a full bin. I think this is an inadequate amount, given that for many people there hasn’t been a collection for three weeks or more.

If you’re due for a blue bin collection this week this will probably not take place as the teams will be focusing on the lack bins - but please put your bin out if your are due a collection, in case it is possible to empty them.

There are no brown bin or paper collections at the moment, to allow for the teams to concentrate on black bins.

Rick

The Liberal Democrats have made four key pledges to deliver a fairer society. These are:

1) Fair taxes - a commitment to make the first £10,000 you earn tax-free. People earning less than £10,000 will pay no income tax, and everyone paying the basic rate will receive a £700 per year tax cut. This will be paid for with a mansion tax on properties worth above £2m, and by taxing income and capital gains at the same level.

2) A fair start for all our children - We will cut class sizes and introduce a “pupil premium” which will mean an extra £2.5bn to help improve discipline and provide extra tuition where needed. This will be paid for by stopping tax credits for higher-income earners.

3) A fair and sustainable economy that creates jobs. We will make Britain the world leader in the green economy. We will save £3.5bn on current expenditure and invest in public transport, home insulation and social housing.

4) Fair, transparent and more local politics. We will introduce a fair voting system to end “safe” seats. We will return powers to local communities and councils, and ensure that MPs can be sacked for breaking the rules. We will stop tax avoiders standing for Parliament, sitting in the Lords or donating to political parties.

The party has also committed to recruit 3,000 more police officers, scrap university tuition fees within 6 years, increase pay for the armed forces and restore the link between pensions and earnings. We will pay for these things by scrapping ID cards, cutting back on Defence bureaucrats, and abolishing Government Offices in the regions.

Unfortunately, the current economic crisis has meant that we have had to move away from some of the things we’d like to do. The abolition of tuition fees will now take place over 6 years rather than straight away. Extending free childcare, free care for the elderly, and a citizens pension will also have to be put on hold. We still want them, and we’d prioritise them if we could afford them, but we can’t.

We are being honest where the others aren’t You know what we stand for and what we want. You know what we’ll do, and what we would do if we could afford it.

Labour have failed in 13 years - the economy is broken and politics remains unfixed.

The Tories can’t be trusted - They promise fairness but in fact offer tax cuts for the rich. They pretend to care about the environment, but they ally themselves with climate change deniers in Europe, and here in Bury every one of the Tory Councillors voted against the 10:10 campaign. They pretend to want to change politics, but they have tax avoiders standing for parliament. Who knows what they stand for? We’ll find out, but only 50 days after they’ve been elected when they hold their first budget!

This is the start of a long campaign, but one I am proud to be standing in as a Liberal Democrat. We are the only party that can give Britain the fair start it needs.

Rick

What the article doesn’t say (although I hope the TV programme elaborates more) is anything about the context of these licencees and their behaviour, or much about the steps that Councillors take to preserve the safety of the public.

I am one of a dozen of so Bury Councillors on the Licensing and Safety panel which looks at taxi and private hire license applications. All applicants submit to CRB checks, and are required beforehand to tell us of any convictions. Failure to tell us results in a referral to the panel for punishment, although in every case the CRB check is performed regardless.

Where applicants have a criminal record, their application is judged by the Licensing and Safety Panel. It is our job to decide if the applicant is a fit and proper person to be given a license. This doesn’t mean that anyone with a criminal record will be automatically barred from having a license, and I think that this is fine. Even where there have been crimes of violence, sometimes the applicant has been conviction-free for many years and it’s our view that they should be given a second chance.

We are guided by Home Office guidance which suggests a minimum term since certain offences have been carried out - it is normally the case that applicants have to be conviction-free for many years. So often we see applicants who were naughty in their teens but who have been free of convictions for very many years and now ask for a license to help support their families. I think in these cases we should consider the cases on their merits.  In simple terms the test I use is whether or not I’d be happy to let my friends or relatives travel alone in the applicant’s car. There is always a democratic vote on whether to grant a license, and it is always taken very seriously.

Where licensees commit an offence, or where a complaint is reported, again they appear before the panel. We have to decide whether the licensee remains a fit and proper person, and again we are guided by the facts of the case and by official guidance. We have the power to give official warnings, or to suspend licences or to revoke them altogether.

I think it is right that having a criminal record should not automatically bar people from doing anything. Taxi driving is no exception. We need to make sure that they are fit and proper people to do the job, and where this is the case there should be no more to it than that.

Rick

Some say that David Cameron, whose face peers down at us all from on high, has been airbrushed to make him look even smoother than he already does.

I haven’t studied the picture that closely myself (I think there’s something really off-putting about his eyes), but to me a much bigger concern is that the designer of these posters has left a massive expanse of white space around his head, which is just perfect for passers-by to daub messages reminding Mr Cameron of their personal thoughts about him and his party. The Great British Public have, as ever, taken up this opportunity to showcase their artistic endeavours, and with some gusto.

Admiring the handiwork of these advert-customisers (who are probably committing some kind of criminal offence, so don’t do it yourself) has become a favourite past-time of mine these past few days. The poster in Prestwich Village remains pristine, but there are plenty of special-edition versions in the area. Near the Boddington’s brewery (or rather, near the car park that is all that remains of the Boddington’s brewery) there is a lovely version potted with what looks like about two dozen handfuls of mud flung towards our potential future PM. perhaps this is in honour of the man who promised an end to mud-slinging politics but who has done precisely the opposite? 

Further up Bury New Road somebody has clearly used a step-ladder and some paint to remind any would-be Tory voter to “remember the miners”. Whilst the method of communication is a trifle unorthodox, the message, I must say, rings true.

Mr Cameron today reminded us all that he wants to cut the deficit as quickly as possible. In fact, the message on his posters is precisely that - “we will cut the deficit, not the NHS.” Well Mr Cameron, I’m all for deficit reduction, and I’m all for the NHS. I suspect that the vast majority of people are. But supporting those two things doesn’t really explain how you’re actually going to cut the deficit or support the NHS, does it?

If you’re leaving the NHS untouched, and you aren’t raising money through taxing the very wealthy, and you keep giving tax breaks to millionaires, and you still want to cut the deficit really quickly, that means you’re either going to out taxes up for most people or, more likely, that you’re going to cut cut cut cut cut until really there’s no public expenditure at all except for the NHS and your own salary.

And if you’re slashing services left, right and centre, and you aren’t doing anything with taxation, how do you preserve the NHS and keep it growing and innovating? 

The Lib Dems have been more honest, and propose policies which are more sensible. We have promised to cut non-priority spending so as to preserve key services, and have already earmarked savings on nuclear arms, government computers and ID cards. We will also raise more money in ways that the Tories won’t - through ensuring that the very rich pay a bit more so that services can be protected and so that everyone can earn £10,000 before paying any income tax at all.

The Tories have made no such commitments. They are, as they always have done under Mr Cameron, promising to deliver without saying how. They are trying to stay whiter than white but, like their posters, it’s not that easy to keep the dirt off.

I think it’s about time Mr Cameron was honest about where his axe is going to fall.

Rick 

As regards missed bin collections, the Council have confirmed that there were difficulties with completing the full rounds from the Prestwich area in the run up to Christmas. We were unlucky that it started snowing on the day our bins were due to be collected.  The service was affected by snowfall and certain areas could not be accessed safely.  Other areas however were OK and collected as normal. And for some houses, one bin was emptied and one wasn’t, as the snow started mid-round which meant one truck made it round and the other didn’t.

The Council tell me that they are currently coming up with proposals to deal with the backlog of bins, and that these will be communicated soon.  They tell me that, broadly speaking, the aim is to collect additional bags, number yet to be agreed for black bin waste only. They are still working up the position with regard to additional materials in the recycling bins.

I have urged the Council to be generous with the black bag allowance, since I know that for some people there hasn’t been a bin collection for over three weeks, and that there’s been Christmas and all the additional waste that generates to deal with too. I also think that the Council should collect recyclable waste in black bags, since it’s nobody’s fault but Mother Nature’s that recycling bins are full right now.

In terms of gritting, the Council tell me that because they are having to focus on priority routes, then it is likely the Longfield area will not have been gritted. A number of people have asked me about this. I don’t know how such a popular area for commuters and those accessing the NHS Centre and chemist is not deemed “priority,” and I will try to find out. It’s certain that the roads and pavements round there are not pleasant to try to get around at the moment, although Bury New Road is OK.

I am told that grit bins are being refilled by the street cleansing teams as they become aware they are empty. If you have an empty one, please let me know. The conditions are such that they are emptying faster than the Council can refill them.  None are seen to be higher priority than any others but some may be more difficult to access in order to restock.

If you have particular bins which are a problem, let me know and I can look at it further.

The Council have said that at this time it is not possible to distribute additional grit bins.  This is something that I will be asking the Council to look into when it gets a bit warmer, since it’s clear that there aren’t enough, and even in a typical winter with just a few icy days there should be more to help people rely less on gritting trucks.

The Council do grit according to agreed priority routes, and simply don’t have the capacity to do other roads at present. This means that even roads with schools on, or which are on some bus routes, won’t be being gritted. Unfortunately, during the current cold snap, there’s nothing that can be done here. Having said that, I think the priority routes either need expanding or changing in future, because some key roads and areas aren’t being done (like Kings Road and Sandy Lane).

My thanks to the Council for providing this update. I hope people find it useful, and I will try to get more when I can.

Here’s to a thaw this weekend (although I’m not holding my breath!).

Rick

I heard one Tory MP on the radio today suggesting that a sensible way to deal with the current cold snap would be to “invest in more nuclear power stations,” which may well be a reasonable idea in theory but which probably won’t boost capacity this week!

And then the BBC forums, always a source of blood pressure-raising madness from various know-nothings given a licence-fee funded chance to offer their opinions on the issue of the day, contained the fabulously worrisome question from one panic-stricken contributor: “What will we do if the cold snap lasts for three or four weeks?” Well, it won’t, but nothing will make us feel better than imagining how awful it would be if it did. Maybe we should send a reporter out onto the streets of somewhere to ask some people about it? Yes, that’ll bring us 90 seconds closer to the end of the news… Anyone who thinks that Britain is the only country having a rough time of it should read this (and anyone who despairs at the Have Your Say forums and wonders if there’s anyone with sense left in the world should read this)

Having said that, there is some pretty well-founded criticism of the Council’s efforts to keep us all safe and moving, which is growing now here in Bury. I am full of admiration for the staff who’ve kept the main roads gritted and the town centre pavements snow-free. But a lot of questions are going unanswered about why certain roads remain untreated, why grit bins remain unfilled, and what (if any) changes there have been to priority routes as the cold snap wears on. Old people’s homes, schools, and other key places remain in a dangerous condition, and the speed at which the Council is answering queries from its Councillors is not acceptable, despite the hard work I know that they’re doing. We have a standard response to queries, which explains the limitations on gritter capacity and rubbish collections. This is fine, but most people know about it now, and it does nothing to answer the genuine questions they have about specific problem areas.

It looks like we’re in this for the next few days at least, so I hope that the Council listen to the people who need their services most, and consider a better response to residents’ queries. This needn’t be specific action - nobody can seriously expect every street gritted and every bin emptied. But what we can expect, I think, is better and specific information about certain streets, and a variation of gritting routes if it is found that current routes and covering everywhere they need to. That’s not happening now, and it should.

I have been to work in Ashton every day this week, from my cul-de-sac here. So I know how difficult driving conditions in the area are. This morning the temperature gauge in my car read -13 degrees. It has always been something of a highly strung thermometer - last summer it told me that it was 44 outside - but this morning it may well have been bang on the money. It was certainly colder than I’m comfortable with at any rate! I know that things would be a lot worse without the Council’s work, and I thank them for it. 

Rick 

Obviously there are lots of side roads and pavements which haven’t seen any grit, which is making navigating them a bit like a fun-free version of Bambi on Ice. I’ve found getting to work these last two mornings  an adventure, that’s for sure! I am like Captain Oates in a Peugeot 207. The deep snow has meant no bin collections which, due to Christmas and the snow fall then as well, has meant that some people have gone three weeks without a grey bin collection and six weeks without a blue bin collection. This is unpleasant but, unfortunately, unavoidable.

I am trying to get answers to specific questions such as whether certain areas will be prioritised for bin collections, whether there’s any advice for residents with rubbish piling up, and what’s going on with grit bins. Getting specific answers to those questions out of the Council is proving annoyingly tricky. I know that they’re busy keeping us all safe, but part of that, in my view, is answering these questions, and they aren’t doing that. Residents are asking quite pertinent questions to which I have no answer, and it’s irritating.

What we do have from the Council is the following statement, updated today:

Due to a national shortage of grit the council has to prioritise the roads which are treated. In order to keep traffic flowing through the borough, main arterial routes and bus routes are the only roads which can be treated with current resources. The prolonged nature of this period of cold weather has clearly had a significant impact on many residents for which we apologise.

This is a link to our webpage which details our priorities - http://www.bury.gov.uk/TransportAndStreets/RoadAndPathwayMaintenance/RoadGritting/default.htm

If your road is not on the priority list and has not been gritted previously, there is little prospect, given the extent to which current resources are being stretched, of it being gritted. 

Staff who are unable to carry out their normal duties i. e. refuse collection; street cleaning; highway maintenance; gardeners are being deployed on clearing snow and gritting on the most used pedestrian areas around the town centres, hospitals etc however with some 1200 kilometres of footways within the borough only small areas can be cleansed and gritted particularly when the conditions are as severe as we are currently experiencing.

Please rest assured that the Council is doing all that it can within the resources that are available to it to at least keep all the main routes in and out of borough open to all traffic.

Unfortunately there has been some disruption to bin collections and the teams are finding it impossible to navigate through some of the borough’s streets. We understand any frustration that residents may have and will clear the backlog as soon as the conditions allow.

Obviously this level of snowfall, and the prolonged sub-zero temperatures which have been going on now for over a fortnight, are placing a strain on Council services. Today in particular the situation is bad due to the levels of snow.

Gritting has taken place, but obviously its effects are limited due to the large volume of snow which has fallen so quickly. My advice is to only go out if absolutely necessary, and of course to take extra care.

It’s unfortunate that Prestwich’s bin collection will be missed again today. Although this is a shame, I hope people understand why this is. It was almost impossible to get my little Peugeot out of my street this morning (I did get to work, 11 miles away, in an hour and forty minutes) so it is obviously going to be impossible to manoeuvre bin lorries around the streets as well. The Council have agreed to my idea of allowing for extra black bags when the bins do get emptied, and I know that the Council will be doing their utmost to make up for lost time when the weather improves.

The Council have released the following statement:

“Owing to the continuing severe weather conditions the council is only able to run very limited services today.  The refuse collection service has been suspended.  People wishing to contact the council should only do so if it is an emergency. 

Due to a national shortage of grit the council has to prioritise the roads which are treated. In order to keep traffic flowing through the borough, main arterial routes and bus routes are the only roads which can be treated with current resources.”

I will keep you posted if I learn more.Rick 

Sat there as I was, the first day back after Christmas, the thermometer in my car indicating -8, that was pretty much the most disheartening Monday morning thought in a long litany of disheartening Monday morning thoughts.

By then I’ll be 68 years old, which is apparently the new retirement age, so at least come the first Monday of 2050 I will have rest to look forward to. Today all I had to look forward to was an ice-ridden journey to work, during which the thermometer rocketed to a balmy -6. I’d have opened the window, were it not frozen shut.

My continued thanks both to the people of St Mary’s who are putting up with the ice, and to the Council staff trying to get rid of it. I read today that this is the longest cold snap in 20 years, and I know it’s unpleasant for local people to still be slipping and sliding about all over the place two weeks after the first snow fall. It’s a tough one really - the Council have done a pretty good job in my book keeping the main roads clear. But in doing so they’ve left out the side roads and pavements, which have been pretty dangerous to walk along for ages now.

What I do know is that the Council are trying their best, and that when it gets a bit warmer I’ll get to the bottom of where there were problems - with grit bins, missed rubbish collections and the like. These are difficult and more or less unprecedented times, and it’s good that the community is still largely getting out and about despite the snow and ice.

Rick

That appeals to my inner geek, but is a bit alarming because I realised it on the last binary date, the eleventh of November 2001, 111101, which was over eight years ago but feels like it was a week last Sunday.

On that day in 2001 I was presenting my regular student radio show, and remarked on the oddity of the day (I hadn’t realised at the time that the day before had also been a binary date. As had the first of that month, three days in the previous month, and about ten further occasions in the previous 18 months. As you may be able to tell, my radio show was neither particularly revelatory or successful. But it was fun!).

I said at the time that there wouldn’t be another one until the year 2010, somewhere so far in the distance that we may as well not even bother thinking about it because we’ll all be being massaged by attractive female robots and scooting about the solar system on hovercrafts by then.

As it turns out, here we are today, and all that seems to have happened is that mobile phones now have cameras in them.

But the geekiness of caring about binary dates remains. And, whilst there are a few more over the next couple of years, after the eleventh of November 2011, there won’t be another one for over 80 years, by which time, solar hovercrafts or not, we’ll all be dead.

Now I know that we have to cheat a bit by ignoring the fact that it’s 2010, and just saying that it’s “10.” But it’s no use having statistics unless you can fiddle with them until they tell you what you want.

One set of statistics with which I am not fiddling are the ones related to this blog, which continue to please me and entertain any other geeks who may be reading. 2009 saw over 355,000 hits to this site, which is amazing. My thanks to everyone who reads, comments and contributes. It’s very much appreciated. That takes the total ever up to nearly 625,000, and is a 51% increase on last year’s total for the year.

Monthly unique visitors continue to rise too, which is a relief to anyone like myself who thinks that all 655,000 of those hits come from my family and the Bury Labour party. Last year we were averaging just over 4,000 unique visitors per month. This has increased to nearly 6,000 per month this year, and the totals have been up above 7,000 for each of the last three months, every one of which has been a record.

The most popular posts by miles are about CRB checks, and my campaign to get the government to reconsider the rules related to disclosing “soft” information. I am glad to have been able to talk to dozens of people over the last year who’ve come to me for advice or support on this issue. As a result of the work we’ve done, this has now been taken on by national media outlets and politicians in parliament. I hope 2010 brings some positive developments.

I would write stuff even if nobody read it, because it is a great way of staving off the inevitable stress-related circulatory problems which I would otherwise suffer from. But the fact that people read it makes it all the more worthwhile. With any luck there are at least some people out there now more interested in Bury, Bury Council, local government, politics and the good we can do if we put our minds to it. That’s what I hope people get when they read this, as well as an uncomfortable window into my mind.

I hope I continue to make it worth visiting here in 2010. Thanks a lot, and a Happy New Year.

Rick

My own decade has begun in inauspicious circumstances, having spent most of its first day stuck in the giant roadwork which I hear is officially known as the M6. Speed restrictions and narrow lanes were left in place over the holidays “for my safety,” although after five hours crawling through them there was a significant danger to both my sanity and the safety of those to whom I was close. Thankfully I was un-armed and therefore unable to take my frustrations out on anyone.

Last night, New Years Eve was spent in mandatory happiness at a “house party” in Clapham. The term “house party” is used by people who are too cool to admit they’ve just stayed in. We did just that, swapping overcrowded public transport and the freezing cold for an overcrowded living room and the pleasant warmth. And a ring-side seat for the fireworks, blasted towards me from the oversize TV hung on the wall. I tell you one thing, the government may not be able to think of anything that doesn’t involve an unworkable database or an ID card, but it can’t half throw a mean fireworks display. If Labour scrapped Trident and used the money to throw a massive fireworks display in every town and city in Britain the night before the election, they’d win 600 seats.

We counted down the seconds until midnight, and the beginning of a new decade. There had been much conjecture as to what we should call it. I’ve never been a fan of the “noughties,” and was always confusingly referring to the “two thousands.” Now my “with it” friends will be talking about the “teenies” apparently, whilst I’ll be talking about the “twenty tens.” When George V was on the throne nobody talked about the teenies, so I don’t know why we should change it this century just so it sounds a bit more like something you’d find on CBeebies.

Everyone seemed so happy, but I really do struggle to share there fervour in welcoming a new year. It’s all lovely of course, and I have no complaints whatsoever, but surely being forced to watch a clock ticking should make people feel desperately worried that yet another of the small number of years we have alive has gone by? Everyone’s cheering, and I’m just thinking about getting old.

Sometimes I think there’s something wrong with me, deep down in the core of my soul.

But I put it to the back of my mind most of the time, and just concentrate on other stuff instead. I suppose it’s one of the reasons people have jobs - to stop them thinknig themselves to death.

I have two more days of rest now before Council resumes and I am also back at work. As if designed solely to prod me reluctantly back towards responsible living, the papers for next week’s scrutiny arrived today. So I will give them a read over the weekend, appreciative of the fact that the Council has just as little spare cash on the first day of this decade as it did the last.

Anyhoo, at least the ice has melted.

Rick

Here is the New year’s Message from Nick Clegg, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats:

“I have a confession to make: 2009 tested my belief in politics to breaking point.

I remember once looking round the House of Commons during another Punch and Judy session of Prime Ministers Questions. In the real world, youth unemployment had just reached its highest level ever, our brave soldiers were facing extraordinary dangers in Afghanistan, the bankers were still gorging themselves on bonuses, and the economy was in the middle of the worst recession in generations. And what were the politicians doing? Yelling and guffawing at each other as if the world outside didn’t exist.

So I don’t blame anyone for feeling a sense of despair about our clapped out political system. You are being taken for granted by the people in charge. Big money is hollowing out politics with some rich donors not even bothering to say whether they pay full British taxes or not. And to top it all the expenses scandals exposed some MPs as spivvy property speculators and tax evaders rather than public servants.

This whole set-up has to change. That’s what 2010 should be all about.  Big, permanent change for the better.

People’s  faith in politics may be dented, but I still believe in our ability to learn from the mistakes of the past, and set things on a new course.

2010 must be the year we press the political reset button.

But that will only happen if we do things differently.  More of the same won’t produce anything new.
Of course both Labour and the Conservatives have learned to parrot the language of change. But where’s the proof they mean it? Despite all the hot air about fixing politics they have both voted against giving people the right to sack MPs who’ve seriously broken the rules. Both have refused to clean up the rotten system of party political funding. Both refuse to give you your say by introducing  fair votes to the House of Commons. And both refuse to shake up the City of London, so that bankers can never again play Russian roulette with your savings.

Some people say, what’s the point of voting when the same old parties always win? I say: vote for what you believe in. If you like what the Liberal Democrats stand for, vote for it. If you want real change, not phoney change, vote for it. If you think things should be different, vote for it.

At the end of the day, politics should be about what you believe. What kind of Britain do you want to live in? What kind of world do we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in?

So as the countdown to the next General Election finally begins, I have a simple question for the other party leaders: what do you believe, really believe?

People don’t want leading politicians clinging on to power for its own sake, or just telling people what they want to hear. There’s got to be more to it than that.

I have one belief above all others: a belief in fairness.  Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats have been working on new ideas to make Britain the fair country I believe most people want it to be. We want to raise standards in all of our schools by giving specific help to the children most in need, and by making class sizes smaller. Soon we will be publishing new ideas to turn our economy away from its over dependence on the City of London to a new, green economy where hundreds of thousands of new jobs will be created as we rebuild our transport, energy and housing infrastructure. Above all, we are now the only party with a detailed plan to make taxes fair – removing all income tax on the first £10000 you earn, paid for by asking people at the top to pay a bit more.

If we as Leaders want people to turn out to vote at all at the next General Election, we have got to show people our convictions, not just dividing lines, our beliefs, not just soundbites.

I hope in the coming months even more people will get a chance to find out what I believe in, and the beliefs of the Liberal Democrats. If enough people share our convictions, our beliefs, then 2010 really can be the beginning of something new.”

With this in mind, I asked last week if the Council would suspend the prohibition of additional black bags for collection. The original plan was for the Council not to collect black bags, in an effort to try to minimise post-Christmas waste. Now though, after my request, they have agreed to allow extra black bag collections this week.

So if you are due to have your bin emptied this week and have generated a bit more rubbish than will fit into it, due to no collection last week, then don’t worry because this will be collected.

In other ice-related news - I have asked for several local grit bins to be re-filled, so hopefully this will happen soon too (although I hope the ice melts even quicker!).

Rick

Mr Cameron says that there is now “a lot less difference than there used to be [between the Tories and the Lib Dems] on how to create a fairer Britain.” He is quite wrong, and he knows it.

For one thing, the Lib Dems are the only party promising a big tax cut (£700 per year) for low and middle income families. Mr Cameron’s Tories are promising to make it easier for millionaires to pass on their estates in inheritance. That doesn’t really strike me as a similar policy, nor does it suggest anything to make Britain fairer.

The Lib Dems want to make the electoral system fairer - giving people whose vote currently barely counts the chance to have their voices heard. The Tories don’t. They want the current, unfair system, to carry on.

And the Lib Dems want to end the culture which began under the Conservative government which says that individual greed comes before civic responsibility. Lib Dems have been at the forefront of campaigns to stop rewarding bankers and others who preside over failures which we all pay for, from pocketing big bonuses for their work. The Tories have been light years behind. Again, there’s a big difference between our “fair,” and Tory “fair.”

Don’t be fooled by Mr Cameron. He is playing clever games. He wants people disenchanted with Labour to think that is’s a two horse race. It isn’t. Look at Lib Dem policies set against the Tories. There is another alternative to Labour - one which looks after the poorest whilst protecting civil liberties and the rule of law. It isn’t the Tories. It’s us.

Rick

In addition, rubbish collections, already out of kilter due to Christmas bank holidays, may still be suffering in some areas due to the ice and snow.

The Council has only been running emergency services over Christmas, but tomorrow the non-emergency stuff starts happening again too. I have already asked about re-filling grit bins and rubbish collections. As soon as I know more, I will update readers of the blog.

In the meantime, thanks for your patience with the current difficult conditions. I know it’s frustrating and can be difficult. If you can’t get around and need to, emergency help can be made available. Unfortunately though, because priority has to be given to main roads, tricky conditions look set to continue until the weather warms up a bit.

Rick

My gift haul this year continues the disappointingly shrinking trajectory that has accompanied my reluctant journey into adulthood. I am forced to get excited by ”Outnumbered” Season 2 on DVD which, whilst amusing, is hardly a shiny XBox360 or some other such wild gizmo that I’d probably be getting were I 12. As well as that I received a hugely exciting metal detector, which I shall be using to uncover dropped pennies in the woods a few times before getting bored with it. And I received a clock, which is ticking as I type, affixed to my wall as a constant reminder of my slow, unceasing march towards the grave.

Thankfully, said march is interrupted now and again by moments of joy, several of which will hopefully come my way in 2010. The most obvious is my wedding, which is now alarmingly close. Gone are the days when my nuptials seemed about as relevant as the burning out of the sun. Now they are almost upon me (well, within 8 months) and so today I had to lurch blinkingly into a formal hire shop and stare in confusion at various types of suit.

I shan’t name the outfitters, suffice to say that by all accounts the company is connected to two brothers, one or both of whom had the surname Moss. And what struck me about their wedding suit collection was that they have named all the outfits after famous racecourses. There’s the Kempton, the Ascot, the Sandown. I could have shopped around, but I decided to get mine from there, and picked the Lingfield, after realising that there really was no more suitable place for me to hire my wedding suit from than somewhere which gleefully names its grooms’ outfits after places where men go to ruin their lives by taking massive gambles.

I returned from town, with its seventy six billion bargain hunting shop-a-holics, to my own ice-bound cul-de-sac. Fair play to the Council for keeping the main roads clear, but it’s been a week now, and judging by my mailbox and my own feelings, the pavements could do with getting some attention now. My attempts to walk anywhere resemble a Torville and Dean gag reel at the moment. Of which more in the post above.

Rick

I will be taking a few days off the blog over the weekend, whilst I unwrap presents, eat myself into an early grave, and watch Manchester City 3-3 Stoke on Boxing Day.

If, though, there are any emergencies for which you need the help of your local Councillor, please do get in touch.

I hope everyone has a peaceful, happy and enjoyable Christmas.

Rick

“Far from putting everyone in a festive mood, the snow has led to a repeat of the hand wringing at the state of the UK’s infrastructure that we saw back in February when similar wintry scenes brought the country to a virtual standstill.

Certainly, it seems crazy that in one of the world’s biggest economies, our rails, roads and airports seem incapable of coping with a bit of bad weather.

But are we prepared to sacrifice other public services in order to ensure the UK doesn’t grind to a halt on the rare occasions blizzard conditions strike?

Take roads. According to the Local Government Association (lga.gov.uk), there are 240,000 miles of local roads. You would need around 180,000 tonnes of salt to grit them all once (assuming a rate of 0.75 tonnes per mile). As it costs in the region of £25-£30 per tonne of salt, it would therefore cost around £5m to grit all the roads once and £15m to grit them three times.

Currently, councils only grit around 40% of local roads (96,000 miles) during severe weather. It would therefore cost £1.8m to grit all 96,000 miles.

So keeping 40% of local roads ice free has been expensive enough. The LGA has estimated that since the cold snap started, local authorities have spent £8.1m on salt to grit 1.1m miles of road.

And that’s just the cost of the salt. The LGA says councils spent £185m on the winter maintenance budget in the year to April 2008 (the most recent date for which data is available). The biggest expense is not the salt, grit and lorries, but the cost of storing sufficient stockpiles to be prepared when the first snow flakes fall.

As the pre-budget report showed all too plainly, the Treasury doesn’t have any money to fund more gritting. Neither do councils.

But local authorities would need to find another £462.5m to grit all local roads, which would equate to £50-£60 added to council tax bills. If they wanted to keep all the pavements clear as well, that would send the costs spiralling further, perhaps even as high as £600m.

According to the LGA, £600m could pay for 69,930 home-care placements, 120,000 school places or 14,446 miles of road resurfacing.

Do we really want to divert such large sums away from frontline public services just to ensure that every local road and pavement is kept free from snow for only a few days each year?”

In addition, Council administrative buildings will be closed from 1pm, and will not re-open until 29th December.

Emergency services will continue to operate as normal.

Rick

I have another update for anyone wondering about gritting and bin collections in the borough - Last night the Council’s gritters were called out at 18.30 and each did a full grit.  They went out again at about 21.00 and again did a full grit each.They were called out again at 3.30 this morning, doing another full grit.  They went out again between 5.30 and 6.00 and did another grit.

Four gritters are out again at the moment (10am) across the borough.

196 tonnes of salt have gone out in total, on top of the hundreds of tonnes so far distributed in this cold snap.

In terms of rubbish collection, all collection crews have gone out again, but with a delayed departure, with a brief to collect as much waste as they safely can.  This will inevitably mean that a lot of work is not completed. I don’t know about others, but the bins in my street were emptied yesterday despite it being an ungritted cul-de-sac, so well done to all involved in trying to keep the borough’s services functioning.

Rick

I have received a further update from the Council regarding gritting.

Gritters were out all weekend and 535 tonnes of salt were spread on Saturday and Sunday alone.

Today all Street Cleaning staff are employed on gritting duties including in town centres and refilling of grit bins.

All 5 gritting vehicles are also out at the moment.

Refuse/recycling collections were severely disrupted on Friday in the Ramsbottom/Tottington area due to snow and ice.  The Council have vehicles in the area today mopping up missed grey bins as best they can, but if anything conditions will be worse than they were on Friday.

Brown bin collections are effectively suspended today with contents of bins frozen solid in any case.

This morning it was debatable as to whether the service should have been suspended or not on grounds of Health & Safety.  A decision was taken not to suspend the service, however all collection crews went out late and combined with the road conditions it will inevitably mean that not all of today’s work will be completed.

The Council is doing its very best to get all collections made before Christmas in very difficult circumstances. I have asked whether it might be possible to suspend the “no black bags” rule, given that for many people there will not be a collection this week because of the weather.

Rick

The party’s federal policy committee has agreed a way to deliver one of our most important policies, the scrapping of unfair tuition fees. We’ve developed a plan to phase out tuition fees over the course of the next six years, to ensure this vital policy is affordable even at this time of economic crisis.

Labour and the Conservatives refuse to address the issue of fees and there is a real danger that both of them would lift the cap on fees which could mean even more debt for students when they leave university. We think that is wrong and our policy will prevent it happening.

It’s simply wrong to penalise people who want to make the best of themselves by saddling them with enormous mortgage-style debts from the day they graduate - especially when we know the root of the current economic crisis was too much debt. And it’s clear that people from disadvantaged backgrounds are far more likely to be put off going to university if it costs them tens of thousands of pounds. In a fair society, university admissions should be based on your grades and intelligence, not the wealth of your parents. You should decide whether going to university makes sense for you - and you shouldn’t have to make the decision based on your bank balance.

We were right to oppose tuition fees from day one, and have been right to continue to oppose any lifting of the cap on the limit of fees. The government has been obsessed with artificial targets for how many people should go to university, while putting barriers in their way in the shape of fees. Our priority is making degrees affordable, and that means scrapping these unfair fees, including for those who study part-time. This is vital, because it tends to be older or poorer students who can’t afford a full-time degree, but under current rules they have to pay up-front, while everyone else is allowed to defer their payments.

Of course, at a time of economic crisis, when the government has got the public finances into a mess, it is extremely important to be responsible about making a big financial commitment like this. Students want to be treated like grown ups; they know money doesn’t grow on trees and that big spending committments like this are only affordable over time. That’s why we have agreed together to lay out a financially responsible timetable to scrap fees, step by step, over the six years after the General Election.

Final year tuition fees will be the first to go. Too many people drop out, often put off by the huge costs. We’ll make it easier to stay on, because no student will pay any fees to complete their degree. In 2011, we’ll get help to part-time students, regulating the fees they pay (a vital step towards abolishing them). In 2012, part-time students will be able to access the same loans as full-time students. In 2013, we’ll extend free tuition to second year students. In 2014, we’ll extend that same free tuition to part time students. And in 2015, as the public finances are recovering, we will be able to afford to abolish all remaining fees.

Labour’s recession has made it more difficult to find the money to fund our priorities. That’s why we are right to adapt our plans for big spending commitments and why it is right that our General Election manifesto will focus this time on a smaller number of key commitments. But our message to students is clear: we remain the only party that believes fees are unfair, and the only party with a plan to get rid of them for good.