Ballot papers will be arriving this week in the Greater Manchester wide referendum on the TIF Bid and Congestion Charging.

Liberal Democrats in Prestwich and across Bury have been campaigning for a “no” vote in the referendum. All of us are part of the “Stop the Charge Coalition”. Find out more about how the charge will affect you, and download more information, leaflets and resources here.

Bury Council has given go ahead to issue £50 Fixed Penalty Fines to litter louts

Prestwich Anti-Litter Campaign is raising the stakes to tackle litter louts throughout Prestwich and now has Environmental Wardens employed to issue fixed penalty notices in our hotspots.

Prestwich Anti-Litter group has spent the past six months raising awareness of fixed penalties for fly tipping, promoting the work of Bury Council’s street care teams and improved it, installed more bins where needed, worked to encourage schools, residents and businesses to sign up to the Bury Street Care Pledge, leafleted all local businesses about their Duty of Care to legally dispose of their business waste.

Now it’s time to take action to those people who think throwing litter anywhere is ok. The Council has contracted NCP Services Ltd Environmental wardens working throughout Prestwich so don’t be mistaken that it’s only a parking fine that you can get now. Environmental Wardens will be patrolling reported hotspots in Prestwich to catch the culprits and are authorised to issues £50 Fixed Penalty Notice Fines at anyone age 10 and over.

If you know a litter hotspot in Prestwich and when it is littered please contact 0161 253 5353 and the matter will be investigated.

Cllr Vic D’Albert said “We are particularly pleased that Prestwich Anti-Litter Campaign so far has made a positive difference to the area. There are still a number of litter hotspots to tackle and the only way to do this is enforcement. We hope that the patrol of Environmental Wardens make people take responsibility themselves to discards rubbish more responsibility themselves. We are all responsible for keeping Prestwich clean” Executive Member for the Environment Cllr Dorothy Gunther is pleased to support this project and is working towards further initiatives to improve local environmental quality

Prestwich Anti-Litter Group will make every effort to let residents, schools and business know about the Environmental Patrols.

For further information contact Carran O’Grady, Prestwich Local Area Partnership Manager. Tel: 253 7245 c.o’grady@bury.gov.uk

Details of the postal ballot on the Greater Manchester Congestion Charge have been announced.

24 November - Ballot packs will start arriving on door steps
28 November - Individuals should have received ballot packs - if you haven’t you need to contact the Council.

11 December - last day of voting. If individuals have not posted back their ballot papers they will be able to drop them off at key points around the borough

12 December - Count at Manchester Central (GMEX) and results

Prestwich Advertiser reported on our campaign to get the Council to tackle Graffiti in our area. Still waiting for a response from the Council itself!

Bury Council is looking for nominations for Bury’s Music Achiever of the year award 2008.
Do you know an individual musician, group, choir or band that are…
Inspirational?
Contributing to the community?
Achieving great things?
Then nominate them for Bury’s Music Achiever of the Year 2008 Award!

Anyone can nominate an individual, group, choir, band of any age for this Award. The nominee must reside or attend music training/ practice in Bury. There is no limit to the number of separate nominations that can be made by one individual or organisation. For more information and a nomination form simply email Farrell Renowden.

Deadline for application: 31st December 2008.

Please forward this to anyone you think maybe interested in this opportunity.

In the press last week as new studies show that 1 in 3 would have to pay the proposed Greater Manchester Congestion Charge.

Last Thursday was the regular meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership. This brings together your 9 local Liberal Democrat Focus Team Councillors, together with representatives of local service providers (Police, NHS etc) and community groups.

Highlights included:

Prestwich Cash Office - Consultation on Proposed Closure
Bury’s Director of Finance Mike Owen gave a presentation on the consultation on the future of the cash desk at Prestwich Library. The Council is currently considering whether or not it is financially viable / practical to keep the cash collection facility open, or whether to spend the money on staff who focus on “customer contact”. Mike reported that the number of cash transactions had reduced significantly, and that a number of other options (post offices, and shops that take cash payments for things like bills etc).

Many people at the meeting expressed concern about the loss of service for local people, particularly many elderly people who don’t have access to other payment means. The Council will take these views into their fuller consideration on the issue in the coming months.

Prestwich Village Centre Consultation
The meeting received an update on the consultation on the future of Prestwich Village. Around 300 people have responded so far, broadly 85% or so were in favour of the proposals and its broad themes which include:
- the vision for Prestwich Village
- making Bury New Road more like a real High Street
Particular concerns were raised about the proposed “narrowing” of Bury New Road and the historic frontages on that road - particularly some of the older pubs.

Update on Police Issues
Sgt Ian Campbell from the Prestwich Police Team reported on some recent good news on tackling graffiti in the local area and on a new scheme where police will be looking out for people who are suffering as a result of fuel poverty. Sgt Campbell asked for people to let him know of neighbours who we are worried about because of fuel poverty.

With Greater Manchester’s transport referendum three weeks away, a new survey reveals one in three Bury households would pay the congestion charge regularly.

Details of the congestion charge element of the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) bid were explained to 500 Bury residents, they were then asked whether their household expected to pay regularly, 33% said yes.
The results directly challenge repeated advertising claims that nine out of ten people won’t pay the charge.

The survey was carried out for the Stop the Charge coalition of MPs, council leaders and 260 businesses by independent polling company Populus.
Bury Lib Dem Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone is a part of the Stop the Charge coalition”This survey makes it absolutely clear one in three households will be hit by the congestion charge. It is common sense that many will pay twice, if more than one person drives at peak times. One in 10 Greater Manchester residents will also pay the full charge of £1,200 a year.

“Hard working families will have to find up to £1,200 a year, that’s 8% of average take home pay for people in Great Manchester. Even paying £3 to cross the outer ring will be £700 a year, equating to 5% of the average salary - this would require a huge pay rise just to break even. This will also clearly have a strong knock on effect for our whole economy, leaving a lot less money in people’s pockets.

“Liberal Democrats in Bury are steadfastly committed to improvements to public transport and to tackling environmental damage. But this charge of working families is simply not a fair way to achive what needs to be done. I urge everyone to vote no in the referendum.”

Monday night was the Annual General Meeting of Bury Liberal Democrats, and also our candidate selection for the Bury North Constituency for the next General Election. Members considered the success of the party at a local level in the last year, and elected new Officers for 2009.

In 2008 I’ve been chair of the Local Party, a great job, but one that I was very happy to pass on to our new chair for 2009 Nissa Finney. I’m sure Nissa and new team of officers will do an excellent job taking the local party forward in the coming year.

Bury Lib Dem’s new Chair Nissa Finney congratulating our new Parliamenary Candidate for Bury North Richard Baum

We also held the “hustings” to select a Parliamentary Candidate for Bury North Constituency. Local Councillor Richard Baum as the was unanimously voted in by members. Richard is 27 and a mental health services manager is a life-long Bury resident and has been a Councillor for St Mary’s ward in the Borough since May 2007. I’m sure he will be an excellent standard bearer for the Lib Dems in Bury North next time - you can read about what he says about his selection here.

I asked a question to Full Council on 20mph and traffic safety outside schools - here’s the answer.

Question 3 submitted by Councillor T Pickstone
Could the Leader report on how many Schools in the Borough are sited on roads with a 20mph speed restriction, and how many are not? Could he also inform Council how many casualties have resulted from accidents outside schools in the last five years?

Answer:
There are currently 16 schools sited on roads with a 20mph speed restriction including 12 Primary, 3 Secondary and 1 other school.
The remaining 75 schools are all located on roads with a 30mph speed limit. These include 54 Primary, 13 Secondary and 8 other schools.
In the last 5 calendar years (2003 to 2007 inclusive) there have been 105 collisions recorded in the vicinity of entrances to schools in the borough. These have resulted in 144 casualties in total including 1 fatality, 14 serious and 129 slight.

The majority of these collisions occurred outside those schools which are located on busy Class A and B roads. Only a few have happened at school opening times and can be associated with school activities.

Collisions involving school pupils were recorded outside 11 of the 91 schools in the borough.

The number of school pupils injured in collisions outside school premises is 14 with 4 of these being classed as serious injuries. One of the pupil casualties was a car passenger and the other 13 were pedestrians. Two casualties were aged 8; the remainder were aged 11 or older. Not all of the collisions involved pupils attending the schools at the same location, since children of secondary age have been involved in collisions outside primary schools.
I can also inform the Member that the Economy, Environment and Transport Scrutiny Commission’s Highways Sub-Group is, as part of its 2008/09 Work Programme, examining the possible introduction of a 20mph speed limit in residential areas. Many of the Borough’s schools are included within such areas.