Last night was the meetings of Bury Council’s Executive Committee. This is the meeting that brings together the eight portfolio members from the ruling Conservative Party, together with the two opposition party leaders including me from the Lib Dems.

The main issues of interest were:

Choice Based Letting

The Council agreed to extend “Choice based lettings” from 50% of its “council house” stock to 100%. We very much welcome this move to allow greater choice for tenants of the council (6 Town Housing).

Partnership with the PCT

The Committee received a paper outlining how it is going to work more closely with the local health authority Bury Primary Care Trust (PCT). Again this report was very welcome as it formalises better joint working between two key local providers of services. The report also noted the appointment of a joint Director of Public Health between the Council and the PCT which is a brilliant move.

Review of Local Area Partnerships

A review was announced of the six “Local Area Partnerships” which took over from “Area Boards” this May. I made it clear that it was perhaps too soon to have a full review of the system as we’ve only been going for nine months, and sought assurances that any changes would be incremental. Certainly in Prestwich we’re very proud of what we’ve achieved through people working together in the Prestwich Local Area Partnership, and it would wrong to lose that so soon.

Local Area Agreement Performance Targets

This was the regular quarterly report on how the Council is achieving on its targets under the “Local Area Agreement”. I asked two specific issues - one relating to the availability of childcare places in our ward (Holyrood) which were reporting a 20% decrease, and one on the seeming reduction in achievement at GCSEs for looked after children (children in the care of the local authority). Both questions are getting a fuller written response from the Executive Director responsible.

Mayor 2008-2009

We agreed to nominate the Conservative Councillor from Moorside Ward, Cllr Peter Ashworth as Mayor for the year starting in may 2008. I’m sure Peter will make an excellent Mayor and we wish him well in his term as Mayor.

Grants to Voluntary Organisations

We reviewed the grants that are given to voluntary organisations (charities) in Bury and reviewed the current partnership that Bury has with the Greater Manchester Community Foundation to help give the grants fairly. This item (and the next) were in the “private” part of the meeting - so I can’t report on them(!) - but I did ask why they were confidential given that it was grants using public money. I was assured that the grants would be announced to the public after the meeting.

Please feel free to contact me if you require any further information on any of these items.

Tim