Well done to all the local students who will have got their GCSE results yesterday. I know our local schools are going to be proud of their achievements again this year - I’ll let you know more analysis when this becomes available.

In the meantime, the individual results for our local high schools are below:

Parenthorn High School
Prestwich Arts College
St Monicas RC High School

Across Bury, provisional figures indicate that 68% of students have achieved five or more A* to C grades, an increase of 5% on last year. Bury students have also excelled in the new benchmark of gaining five or more A*-C grades, including a C or above in both English and Mathematics. This year’s result of 56% is 3% above last year.

Well done.

The Post Office has confirmed that five post offices in Bury will closed. This is after its period of “consultation” with local people on which post offices to close in Greater Manchester. The Lib Dem team in Bury have campaigned against the post office closure programme consistently for a number of years, and were successful in getting Bury Council to agree a “no closure” policy at a recent council meeting.

The five post offices to close are:
Elton, 73 Crostons Road, Bury, BL8 1LB
Greenmount, 337 Holcombe Road, Greenmount, Bury, BL8 4BB
Limefield, 293 Walmersley Road, Bury, BL9 6NX
Rochdale Road, 98 Rochdale Road, Bury, BL9 7AY
Water Lane, 21 Ainsworth Road, Radcliffe, Manchester, M26 4DJ

Read the full story from the Post Office here.

Prestwich today is making national press (or at leas the Daily Telegraph online!), with the story of Bury Council threatening to fine local residents who don’t clean up graffiti on their property.

Click here to read the story.

BAAS Construction Ltd are commencing work soon on re-roofing many of the houses on the Polefield Estate. Re-roofing works to include new soffits, fascias, rainwater pipes, guttering, renewal of slate tiles and roof insulation.

Here are the details:
Commencement Date/Site Set-up - 25th August 2008
Completion date - 13 week contract
Site Foreman - Andy Jordan
Tenant Liaison Officer - BAAS - Helen Cooper
Capital Project Officer - Joanne McCabe
Emergency telephone number - Bradley Fold 0161 253 6606
BAAS Emergency Out Of Hours 0800 294 4770
Site Compound - corner of Polefield Hall Road/Polefield Circle
Site Office - 12 Polefield Grange

Nick Clegg MP, the Leader of the Liberal Democrats, has launched an exiting new vision for Britain, and is asking for your views. Nick says:

It’s time for a change in Britain.
Families are over-stretched. Things look bad for the economy. Schools and hospitals don’t seem to be improving despite all the extra money and hard work by staff. People don’t believe politicians care, or really listen.
I want to do things differently. I’ve always thought that if we want things to really change for the better, we’ve got to open things up. We need to make sure people get heard, and can make a difference to what happens.
I believe that Britain can be better. I want us all to have a fair society, where everyone gets real opportunities and chances in life. We can make that happen by taking power from government and special interests and giving it to people and communities.
You’re probably fed up with the way so many politicians sound the same these days. What you really need to know is what we believe, what we’ll actually do - and how we’ll pay for it.
That’s why I have launched “Make it Happen”, setting out our vision for Britain, which we will be debating at our autumn conference.
I’m asking you to take a look at our ideas. Tell me what you think – and if you’ve got ideas of your own, I really do want to hear about them.
It’s no use wishing things were different. We’ve got to make it happen.
If you join with me, we can.

Download a copy of the pamphlet here

Here’s an interview with Nick Clegg which appeared on the political website “Wardman Wire”:

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