Last night was the meeting of Bury Council’s Executive Committee. As one of two Opposition Group Leaders on the Council I sit on the Committee alongside the portfolio holiding members from the largest Group.

It was a very long and full agenda, with a number of important issues. The full agenda, together with all the papers for the meeting can be viewed here.

Important issues included:

- policies around anti-social behaviour - the authority has now agreed a set of policies and procedures around dealing with anti-social behaviour which is welcome. On a minor point, I asked about how the alley-gating policy would be developed which I was assured would be part of the budget process for next year.

- policies for looked after children - the council agreed new policies to ensure that we best meet the particular needs of children who are in the care of the local authority - again a welcome move.

However dominating the whole meeting was the important decision about the future of the proposed new high school on the site of the East Lancashire Paper Mill in Radcliffe. Originally the school had been proposed as a 900 capacity school, however in recent years there has been a significant drop in pupil demand at the school, so the proposal from the Conservative administration was to build a 600 capacity school, with the capicity to extent this to 900 at a later date if demand rose.

The view of the Liberal Democrat Group has been consistent throughout these discussions. We desparately want the school to be built - firstly because every town in Bury deserves a good high school or schools and to not have a high school in Radcliffe would clearly be wrong. Secondly, because the new school is at the heart of an important regeneration initiative - ”Regenerating Radcliffe” which is vital for the future development and prosperity of Radcliffe.

On that basis I supported the proposal to build the school, at 600 places, but sought assurances from the Conservative administration that the school could be expanded as demand grows, as I hope that it will.

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you want more information on this or any other issue.

Tim