For the last two days I’ve been attending the Bury Council and “Team Bury” strategic planning event. This is an annual event that brings together the Council’s Executive Committee, senior officers and the two opposition leaders. On the second day we were joined by the Council’s partners in “Team Bury” - the Police, Primary Care Trust (NHS), Fire service, Bury College and a representative of Bury’s voluntary sector.

It is really useful to spend time with these partner organisations, and there was a great sense of how things are moving forward in Bury though different organisations working together.

The conclusions of the event will be reported through the Council’s committee structure after the summer, so I’ll wait to see how that comes out. There were a few issues that dominated the discussion:

Rising Inequalities
Whilst many people are relatively “OK” in Bury (or at least we were until the recent cost of living increases….), there is a growing divide between the people who are doing OK, and people who are increasingly struggling. This can often be a number of things that are linked together - not working, poor health, poor education results, poor housing. We spent a lot of time looking at how the different agencies in Bury can work together to tackle this situation.

Local Areas
We also spent a time discussing how different organisations work together at a local level (e.g. in Prestwich). There has been a great deal of improvement in recent years, but we looked at how we could make sure that local priorities get the attention they need, and how this will be reflected in the bigger decisions that need to be taken at a Bury level.

Bury’s Image and “place in the world”
We looked at the image that Bury has. There is a lot happening in the Borough at the moment - new developments in town centres, new housing and new cultural facilities. We wanted to see how we encouraged the very best employers to Bury.

I’ll let you know more when the full conclusions of the event are published.

Tim

There is a national strike of many local government staff today and tomorrow which will have a significant effect on local services in Bury.

Services
The Council offices based at Whittaker Street in Radcliffe dealing with Council Tax, Business Rates, Sundry Accounts and Housing and Council Tax Benefits will be closed to personal callers. It is anticipated that normal service will be resumed on Friday 18 July

The council is advising residents who should have had refuse collected on 16 and 17 July are still advised to put their bins and bags out as normal as collection rounds will continue where possible.

Additionally, a leaflet will be delivered to affected households prior to 16 July advising them what to do if their collection does not take place.

The council plans to open administrative buildings, such as the Town Hall, despite some members of staff being on strike. Most libraries, cash collection offices and council information points are likely to be affected.

SCHOOLS:
The following schools in Prestwich will be fully closed tomorrow and Thursday due to strike action unless otherwise stated:

Heaton Park Primary School.
Park View Primary School.
Sedgely Park Community Primary School

Across Bury, the following High Schools are closed:

Bury C of E High School
Castlebrook High School.
The Derby High School - closed, but school trips going ahead.
Elms Bank Specialist Arts College.
Parrenthorn High School
The Ark
Radcliffe Riverside School
Woodhey High School.
Tottington High School.

Broad Oak High School will be closed on 16 July, but open on 17 July as a large number of pupils will be on school trips.

Trams will not run on the Bury Metrolink line on Sunday because of engineering work.

A replacement bus service will run between Bury and Victoria, calling at all tram stops along the route, according to the Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Executive. Passengers will need to buy their tickets at the tram stop before getting on a bus.

Tram services will continue to run as normal between Altrincham and Piccadilly, Eccles and Piccadilly, and Victoria and Piccadilly. Information about public transport services in Greater Manchester is available at www.gmpte.com.

Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP on our opposition to the Government’s ID Card Scheme

Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which brings together your local Liberal Democrat Councillors together with local partners and community reps, have agreed a number of grants for local projects and groups:

Agreed so far are:
£2,000 - Anti-Graffiti Kits to tackle the current spate of graffiti.
£2,143 - A Clean up and hanging basket project for the “Bent Hill” estate area
£2,000 - to fund the Prestwich Anti-Litter Campaign for one year
£3, 642 - to fund the “Health Kick” programme of health awareness programme for men in the Rainsough Area
£2,400 - to fund the summer scheme of activities for Young People in the Carr Clough area

We’ve also provisionally agreed to fund:
£1,000 towards the family health, skateboard and BMX summer festival in St Mary’s Park organised by Prestwich and Whitefield Methodists

Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which brings together your nine Liberal Democrat Councillors, together with representatives of partner bodies and community groups, have agreed a “Prestwich Community Plan” for 2008-2011. The plan sets out what the Partnership aims to achieve over the next three years to make Prestwich a better place to live and work.

There are three overall themes, and within this ten priority areas:

GREEN PRESTWICH
1 - Improve Parks and Leisure Facilities (play areas, parks, green spaces - including the Phillips Park development)
2 - Achieve a reduction in car useage in Prestwich (walk to school, community bus routes, cycle routes etc)
3 - Reduce air pollution in Prestwich (particularly addressing the M60)
4 - Improve the Prestwich environment by reducing litter and graffiti

THRIVING PRESTWICH
5 - Vision for the Redevelopment of Prestwich Village Centre (the URBED study)
6 - Support local Prestwich businesses
7 - Create better facilities for the most deprived areas of Prestwich

STRONG PRESTWICH
8 - Make Prestwich Healthier (working with the local PCT and others)
9 - Make Prestwich Safe (working with the Police and others to reduce crime and the fear of crime)
10 - Create a Prestwich for people of all ages (focus on young people and older people, and a sense of community pride).

The plan sets out an exciting vision for how we want Prestwich to develop over the coming years, people’s views and ideas are much appreciated. You can download the full plan from this link.

Last night was the regular meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, this brings together your nine local Liberal Democrat Councillors together with representatives of partner agencies like the Police and NHS, and community group representatives.

The main issues that came up were:

Area Manager’s Report
Included in the report of the Area Manager was news of Prestwich’s bid to the £1 million that Bury has been awarded for play facilities. These are:
- Ballzone at St Josephs Playing Field
- Improvements to the Kersal Road playside
- Natural play area behind the existing childrens play area on Kings Road.
(I did ask about the St Jospeh’s play area, as we need to check that it doesn’t adversely affect residents there who have already had some issues with the existing football ground.)
I asked about the discussion at the last meeting on closing the cash office at Prestwich Library - apparently this will be coming back to a meeting in the Autumn.
I also asked about the issue of graffiti, and asked that the numbers that people can ring are widely published, but that we monitor the effectiveness of some of these agencies in clearing up graffiti.

Youth Manager Update
We received an update from James Perkins - Prestwich’s Youth Manager on some of the excellent activities that are planned over the summer months for young people in Prestwich. The local Youth Action Group has also got off the ground again and we asked James to help make sure that there was a good “two-way” communication between young people and the area partnership.
We also heard about an excellent “Health Kick” scheme (part funded by the Area Partnership to raise health issues in the Rainsough Area. Its targetted at 16-25 and over 50 men, and involves football sessions leading into health awareness and promotion sessions.

Funding Bids
The Partnership agreed a number of funding bids for local projects -I’m going to report on these in a separate entry.
Prestwich Heritage Society asked for some money to help with the heritage exhibition at Prestwich Library, we said we would consider in detail.

Open Forum
Open Forum is the part of the agenda (45 minutes) set aside to hear issues and concerns from local residents in Prestwich. These included:
- concerns on fencing on Ludlow Avenue
- concerns about youth nuisance on Ogden Street
- concerns about the closing time noise of a local pub
- good news about the recently funded Simister Wetland site
- discussion about the opening times of Prestwich Police Station

Prestwich Community Plan
Richard Baum, who chairs the Developing Communities Group, presented the proposed Prestwich Community Plan for 2008-2011. The plan was agreed, and I’ll report on its contents separately.

The next meeting of the Area Partnership is on Thursday 4 September 2008. This will be a special meeting to discuss the URBED proposals for Prestiwich Village Centre. 6.30pm at the Longfield Centre.

Any questions please ask. Tim

Last night was the regular meeting of Bury Council’s Executive Committee. This is the Committee that brings together the “portfolio holders” in the ruling Conservative Group, myself and the Leader of the Labour Group get to go as non-voting members.

Last nights meeting was an unusually packed agenda, with some very important issues agreed:

East Lancashire Railway Commuter Services
The Executive Committee noted the progress of the study that has been going on into the possibility of running “normal” passenger services on the East Lancashire Railway - without detracting from the heritage service that is currently offered. A number of options are being considered - running trams up the metrolink line and then onwards to either Ramsbottom or Rawtenstall; or running “heavy rail” services from Victoria to Heywood, and then onwards to Bury and Rawtenstall. The studies are in an early stage, but it would be very welcome money was ever available to make it happen.

Pimhole Renewal Area
The Executive Committee made a commitment to invest a further £5 million over the next five years in regenerating this area of east Bury.

CPA Improvement Plan
Following the successful CPA (Comprehensive Performance Assessment) of Bury earlier in the year a number of “areas for improvement” were identified. The Executive Committee agreed an “action plan” to address some of these areas. I asked about the need to support Councillors in their roles, and raised a concern that this was currently limited to the Executive Committee and Scrutiny Panels in the plan.

JAR Review Report
The Executive Committee noted the JAR (Joint Agency Review) report on Children and Young People’s services in Bury. The report was disappointing, with Bury only being marked as “adequate”. Staff are now devising a comprehensive action plan to improve services.

Youth Offending Team Inspection Report
We received a report on the inspection done into Bury’s youth offending team.

Review of Residential Accommodation
This was one of the most important items on the agenda. The Council is now proposing to review the residential accommodation that it provides to elderly people, and is now beginning a consultation process. The “recommended option” would make a very significant change for Bury, with the Council ceasing to be a provider to “standard” residential accommodation for older people, and only provide specialist residential accommodation for people with particular needs. I raised a concern that this major policy shift hadn’t been through the Council’s scrutiny process, and also asked for assurances that the review wouldn’t just look at residential accommodation, but also at the community and housing services for older people. For me its clear that people should be helped to live in their own homes and communities, but we need high quality community services for this to happen.

Moving Bury’s Tourist Office to the Fusileers Museum
The Executive Committee agreed to re-locate Bury’s Tourist Officer from its current location (with the “Met”) to the new Fusileers museum.

Alternative Service Delivery Options
We received an update into the review of different ways of providing some of the councils services - this seems to have been going on for ages, but hopefully things will begin to move forward on something soon.

Manchester Multi-Area Agreement
We received a report on the Manchester Multi-Area Agreement (normally called “MAA”s). This is a set of targets that Greater Manchester would agree with Government. The MAA has seven priority areas including reducing unemployment, improving housing and encouraging business expansion.

Local Safety Schemes
The Executive Committee approved over £1/2 million for road safety schemes this year. There are three schemes in the list in Prestwich:
- finishing off the Scholes Lane/Bury Old Road junction
- work at the junction of St Anne’s Road and Bury New Road
- a new scheme to make Heywood Road between Bury Old Road and Scholes Lane safer.
These schemes will now be consulted on before anything happens. I’ll be particularly asking for more information on the Heywood Road scheme, as this passes right rough our area of Prestwich.

Sorry for such a long report! Copies of all the papers for the meeting are available on the Bury Council Website here.
Any questions please ask!
Tim

The next meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership takes place this Thursday, 10 July 2008 at St Monica’s RC High School.

All members of the public are very welcome to attend and have your say about what happens in our local area. There is a “business meeting” from 6.30pm - 7.30pm, then at 7.30pm we have time for the public “open forum” where you can ask or raise any issue you need to.

The main business item for the Partnership meeting this month is the draft Prestwich Community Plan for 2008-2011.

Young people are being encouraged to sign up to a two week action packed calendar of sports, dance, arts, street wise or wild card events as part of the Bury and Rochdale Active Generation Scheme (BRAG).

The program, which is now in it’s eighth year, is aimed at young people aged between 11 and 15 years old, takes place between 28 July and 8 August at several venues across Bury. The two week programme costs just £9 and five sign up sessions are taking place across the borough to encourage young people to take part. Participants will receive a BRAG pass, details of the activities taking place and a free bus pass. Youngsters will receive a sticker after completing each different activity and this will allow them to compete for a Golden Ticket for the bonus week events taking place between 11 and 15 August.

The program is designed to encourage young people to be organised and plan their own schedule to ensure they get to the different activities on time. For further information about BRAG you can contact Adam Greenhalgh on 0161 253 6660 or information is available on the Bury Council Website.

The sign up session for our local area will take place at the following times and venues:
22 July, 4pm - 6pm; Shuttle Centre, Albert Road, Whitefield, M45 6NH
23 July, 12pm - 2pm; Pheonix Centre, St Mary’s Park, St Mary’s Road, Prestwich, M25 1GG