Nick Clegg has taken a strong stand on cleaning up Parliament and leading the call for a complete overhaul of our political system. Last week at Prime Minister’s Question Time he challenged Gordon Brown to reform our electoral systems. Now even Brown’s own ministers are echoing Nick’s call.

Nick is making the case to:
- Give people the right to sack MPs
- Stop all big party political donations
- Elect the House of Lords
- Make the voting system fair - so that governments can’t just get all that power and all that money with only a minority of you voting for them
- Put an end to self serving politics and put you back in charge
- But Nick can’t do it all on his own. He needs our help.

Oasis are performing in Heaton Park on Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th 2009.
The event management team are distributing this leaflet to nearby residents this weekend, but no doubt the concerts will affect everyone in Prestwich.

Prestwich is going to be VERY BUSY on the days of the concert - so please be prepared! Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any information or help.

The text of the factsheets is reproduced here, or you can download printable versions of page one here and page two here.

Oasis will be playing three concerts on the 4, 6 and 7 June and on each day there will be a series of road closures in place in and around the concert venue at Heaton Park.

Road closures will come in to place on the evening of each concert from 9.30pm onwards until the audience has dispersed and the roads can safely be opened, which is anticipated to be around 1am.

The road closures will affect:
• Bury Old Road between Heywood Road and Scholes Lane/Sheepfoot Lane;
• Sheepfoot Lane, between Bury Old Road and Middleton Road.

Read the rest of this entry.

Readers can pick up a bargain when Prestwich Library holds a sale of withdrawn items on June 13 and 14. A large number of adult non-fiction books are up for grabs, along with Jewish non-fiction, junior fiction books and a selection of DVDs.

The library is open from 9am to 1pm on Saturday June 13, and from 10am to 2pm on Sunday June 14. Telephone 0161 253 7214/7216 for further details of the sale or check our website www.bury.gov.uk/libraries for information on all library service

As part of Bike Week 2009, Love Your Bike.org are encouraging Bury council and businesses, schools and people in Bury to take the CycleGM Commuter Challenge.

Many people think that doing regular exercise is time consuming and expensive, but it does not have to be. Staff can incorporate exercise into their routines by cycling for 15-30 minutes (2 - 5 miles) to and
from work every day instead of taking the car. Over 50% of the car journeys in Greater Manchester are less than 5 miles.

The commuter challenge is simple, all people have to do is cycle to and from their place of work/study at least once during Bike Week (13th – 21st June).

People can take part in the Commuter Challenge on an individual basis. To enter, just visit this website during Bike Week and fill out the online entry form.

Or they can register as a business, organisation, school or college and challenge their staff or students to take part as a team. There are three £100 prizes for the company, organisation or education
facility who collectively cycle the most miles during Bike Week.

Cycling to work makes sense. Here are six good reasons to take part and try something different
* A chance to win £100 in the prize draq
* Lose pounds: 30 minutes of cycling 5 times a week will burn off the equivalent of 11 kg of fat per year
* be fitter and feel younger… well, regular cyclists do enjoy a level of fitness equivalent to someone ten years younger
* Get there quicker - beat the traffic congestion queues.
* reduce your risk of heart attack. Physical activity reduces the risk of developing major chronic diseases (e.g. coronary heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes) by up to 50%, and the risk of premature death by about 20-30%
* Reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution

Cycling is a fantastic way for people to improve their health, whatever their current condition. They will soon notice the difference.

Please encourage people to take the Greater Manchester Commuter Challenge. See this website for more details.

Last night was the regular termly meeting of the Governors of St Margaret’s Primary School on Heywood Road. This is one of the two local schools where I serve as a Governor.

Here are the main issues from the evening:

Buildings
The Buildings Sub-Committee (of which I’m a member) met up before the main meeting to have a “walk round” the school to look at building issues and ideas. We were able to take a look at the recent improvement to the staff toilet blocks, but also have a think about some of the things that could be done over the coming years to improve the facilities in school. We’re going to meet up again in September to take some of these ideas forward.

Budget
We agreed the School Budget for the 2009-2010 (academic) year. There has been a lot of discussion in Bury’s schools about “excessive balances” (e.g. Schools holding on or saving up money that they have been given by the local Council). The Council does have the power to take back excessive unspent money - fortunately this doesn’t apply to St Margaret’s.

Admissions
There has been a particular problem in the next academic year as significantly more children wanted to come to St Margarets as their “first preference” than there are places. The school has become a very popular and successful school which is a tribute to everyone involved. Regrettably what this means is that some children in the school’s traditional “catchment” area are having to be offered their second preference, though many are going through the appeals process. If seems particularly ridiculous when children from Simister cannot get into St Margarets, as they have to walk / drive past to get anywhere else! I will be raising this with the Authority.

Traffic Safety
At the request of the Governing Body I met with Bury Council’s traffic engineer to look the chiccane and traffic calming measures that were introduced a couple of years ago to reduce the speed of traffic on Heywood Road as it passes the two schools. Some people have reported excessive waiting times at the chiccane at school opening/closing times. We had a good discussion about this, and I agreed to take back ideas about improving safety, particularly around the bend as Heywood Road passes the Parenthorn ‘estate’.

Please get in touch if you need to know more.
tim

Many residents have expressed concern over the Oasis concerts which are taking place in Heaton Park on Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June 2009. (There is no concert on the Friday).

As your councillors we have raised a great number of concerns to the event organisers and to Bury Council which is part of the event management group.

Whilst I’m sure we all wish the concerts to be a great success, we do have to live here as well! The Local Area Partnership in Prestwich has had two presentations on the plans, and what measures have been put in place to manage traffic, parking, litter, noise and local residents needs.

The event organisers have prepared this set of Answers to “Frequently asked Questions” to help local residents plan for the event.

Please get in touch if there are other issues you wish us to raise in advance of the event.

The Liberal Democrats have launched their manifesto for Europe: “Choose a different, better future”

Labour’s recession is hurting people badly.

- Unemployment is rising every day
- People are worried their businesses could go under
- Every week people are losing their homes
- Ministers are too busy fighting among themselves to govern properly

The Liberal Democrats will give people the help they need.

Read the rest of this entry.

The Love Prestwich Festival kicks off tomorrow with the Prestwich Clough Day on Sunday 17 June 2009, and then runs right through to Prestwich Carnival on 21 June. Between these two main events are no less than 55 other events that make up the first ever Pretwich Festival.

The Festival has been funded largely by the Local Area Partnership in Prestwich which brings together your local councillors with partners and community groups, together with voluntary donations and sponsorship. Its a brilliant way to celebrate the place we all live in, so why not go along to some of the events!

The full programme is available here.

“TRANSPORT FUNDING PROVES WASTE IN C-CHARGE DEBATE” SAY LIB DEMS

Bury Liberal Democrats have reacted to the news that £1.4bn transport investment in Greater Manchester which has been made despite the rejection of congestion charging in last year’s referendum.

Speaking after news of the investment was made public, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Bury North, Cllr Richard Baum, said “The fact that these improvements to transport are happening without a congestion charge finally exposes the pro-charge campaign’s key message as a complete lie. They said that there was no Plan B, but there obviously was and this is it.”

Bury Lib Dems led the fight against congestion charging, securing Council backing for their motion rejecting the charge. Cllr Baum continued “The whole c-charge idea wasted millions of pounds of public money for absolutely no reason. Not only was the proposal hugely expensive and riddled with flaws, it now turns out to have been totally unnecessary.”

Cllr Baum gave a cautious welcome to the extra money, but warned that there were still many unanswered questions to resolve. “£1.4bn into Greater Manchester is great news. But we should remember that this is our taxpayers’ money to begin with, trying to make up for decades of under-investment. This new package still doesn’t give Bury what it needs. We will still have an inadequate bus service, an expensive tram service, and little in the way of incentives for cycling and walking. The government are giving us back some of our money, but nowhere near enough.”

“I also have concerns about the deal that’s been done to get this funding. There will be Council Tax increases to pay for it, and all local Councils in Greater Manchester have had to give up a large part of the local transport grant which could have been directed to local schemes. The government are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. And none of this has come before Bury Council for a vote or even a discussion. Once again the people of Bury are being ignored by the government. Our Council Tax will pay for a bypass in Wigan and a busway in Leigh, and whilst these are welcome schemes, the Councillors of Bury have been denied their say once again.”

Last night was the regular meeting of the Prestwich Local Area Partnership. This is the meeting that brings together your nine local Prestwich councillors, together with community representatives and parter organisations like the Police and NHS Bury.