Cllr Ann Garner was out with neighbours on Glebelands Road for three hours today, helping the driver of an articulated lorry who’d taken a wrong turn to get up the hill and back on his journey. The driver had been heading to pick up sandwiches from the busy food outlet to take them to Asda, however he ended up blocking Glebelands Road instead. Apparently the team used sand from children’s sand pits and spare bags of grit to after clearing snow away to enable the lorry up the hill. All in all an opportunity to moan that we don’t have any grit bins on our street!

Earlier that day many thanks to the unnamed boiler contractor who spent an hour digging and pusing my car out of a rut at Prestwich Hospital - thank you!!

Snow on the phone lines, 8am on 5 January 2010

Bin Collections cancelled…..


Al fresco living in the back garden, and Upper Wilton Street, 2nd January

A Christmas poem, presumably sent to all Councillors, from the people at the Save our Suite campaign.

Merry Christmas Dear Councillors and a happy New Year too.

You all went to the Mayors Ball and enjoyed the Longfield Suite didn’t you.

This wasn’t a one off, you must appreciate, next year you will be wanting to go again about the same date.

So lets end the suspense and pointless chatter come on committee decide on the matter.

For all to benefit both young and old the pleasures of the Longfield Suite just have to be told.

We don’t want it to become a memory, so listen to the Longfielders and hear their testimony.

I work in Hebden Bridge, which is part of Calderdale Council.

This was the scene arriving at work on 23 December 2009, you’ll notice I work on a steep hill, but you’ll also notice the refuse collection lorry collecting recyclables.

This is was the scene back at home - this is the view near Heaton Park Congregational Street on Bailey Street. (Actually a day later, but the weather hadn’t changed.)

KEEP FIGHTING FOR OUR HERITAGE
SAY NO TO FORTRESS FOOTBALL
SAY YES TO JUMPERS FOR GOAL POSTS

For the second time in three months Goals Soccer Centres have been
forced to withdraw their planning application to build a sports centre in
Heaton Park. When will they get the message that a huge number of people
do not want their park fenced in and covered with concrete and astroturf.
As a result the Planning Committee Meeting to be held at Manchester
Town Hall on the 17th December 2009 has been cancelled.

Goals need to realise we are against their plans to build a sports complex in
the park. We say no to traffic congestion, parking chaos, noise and light
pollution, having 8 acres of our beautiful park covered in concrete and
astroturf, protected species such as bats threatened.

Thank you for your continued support.

Goals Soccer Centres planning application to build a five-aside
centre in Heaton Park

It’s time to turn up the pressure - we need your help.

Write to the Manchester Evening News
Lots of people have started to write to the Manchester Evening News. This
has raised the profile of the campaign and kept the pressure on
Manchester City Council
Write to:

Postbag,
Manchester Evening News,
1 Scott Place,
Hardman Street,
Manchester,
M3 3RN.

Or email them at postbag@men-news.co.uk

If you do email your letter please follow the following guidelines.
Please send plain text only and do not include attachments.

It doesn’t have to be a long letter. You could mention all or some of the
following, traffic congestion, parking chaos, noise pollution, light pollution,
air pollution, loss of historic parkland and greenbelt, protection of
endangered species such as bats.

Join the Save Heaton Park Facebook Group
Search for “Save Heaton Park” on Facebook. Current membership 1200

Attend Save Heaton Park Meetings and Events
We plan to arrange meetings and events to keep people informed and raise
the profile of the campaign

The new £4.3 million Fusilier Museum in Bury was officially opened today (Friday, September 25) by the Duke of Kent.

For some unknown reason, the invitations to myself and the Leader of the Labour Group in Bury only reached us the afternoon before the event! I’d have really liked to have been there, but regrettably not at such short notice!

The museum commemorates more than 300 years of Regimental history and includes the impressive collection of the Lancashire Fusiliers and the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers – who are currently on active service in Afghanistan. Apparently more than 5,500 visitors have been through the doors of the museum since it opened in late June this year.

The new building houses the Fusiliers collections, the Tourist Information Centre, Hero’s cafe and a shop. The Lancashire Headquarters of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers have also relocated here along with a new Army recruiting office.

The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers is the only organisation to enjoy Freedom of the Borough in Bury. It allows the Fusiliers to march through the town on all ceremonial occasions with drums beating, bands playing, colours flying and bayonets fixed.

Prestwich residents might be interested to learn just how confused the wannabe Conservative MP for Bury South - Whitefield Councillor Michelle Wiseman - seems to have become.

On her “blog” (here), Michelle appears to be confused about the Liberal Democrats saying, quite rightly, no to a massive commercial soccer centre in a Prestwich corner of Heaton Park, whist at the same time promoting sports in a motion to Bury Council about the Olympic Games.

She has, of course, missed the point. Probably all of us are in favour of better sports facilities. This is what we’ve said all along about the Heaton Park Soccer Centre - its a great idea in the WRONG PLACE! Why turn a beautiful piece of public parkland into a commercially run soccer centre where pitches seem likely to be £45 a hour to hire? Surely there are better places to put such things?

What our motion on the Olympic Games attempts to highlight is the lack of action, by both the current Conservative and the former Labour people who run Bury Town Hall on sports in our local area. One of the sensible ideas we’re putting forward tonight is about a Greater Manchester Leisure Card so that people can make good use of sports facilities across boroughs - a sensible idea you’d expect a Parliamentary candidate to support?

The Conservative Councillor seems to be particularly confused in what she is saying. Michelle has told the Campaign Group against the Heaton Park plans that she is 100% supportive of our campaign to stop the Soccer Centre being built there. Brilliant - but at the same time she’s trying to make a cheap political point about the Liberal Democrat group supporting the Campaign AND supporting sport. Do we really want such a confused MP?

In Bury lots of organisations and projects involve volunteers to deliver valuable services and support to the people of Bury. They face the highs and lows of involving volunteers. Many are working in isolation dealing with similar problems and concerns and they don’t have anyone to celebrate the successes and achievements they have with volunteers.

Bury vinvolved Team and B3SDA want to change this. They are working together to launch Bury’s Volunteering Forum. The first meeting will be on Wednesday September 30th from 12pm until 2pm at the New Kershaw Centre on Deal Street.

Read the rest of this entry.

Following a meeting on Friday 3 rd July 2009 Prestwich Arts College will now be open to all students at 10.15am on Tuesday 7th July 2009 ,contrary to the letter sent from the head teacher to parents and carers of students at the school  on 3rd July.

Goals Soccer Centres have submitted an application to Manchester City Council for their controversial commercial “soccer centre” in the part of Heaton Park just off St Margaret’s Road in Prestwich.

Full details of the application can be found here.

This is the Location Plan which shows the area of park which would be converted into the Soccer Centre.

This is a more detailed plan showing the 12 football pitches, 6 tennis courts, club house with cafe and function rooms, car park and skate park.

The following statement was released from the Prestwich’s local Lib Dem Councillors last week:

Lib Dem Oasis Verdict: Room for Improvements, not 200,000 fans

Local Lib Dem Councillors have praised clean-up staff following recent Oasis concerts in Heaton Park, but voiced concerns that not enough was done to protect local people during the recent events. The concerts, which saw
210,000 people enjoy music in the park over three nights, generated controversy over noise, but passed largely without major trouble.

Commenting on the concerts, Cllr Vic D’Albert, Liberal Democrat member for Holyrood and Parliamentary candidate for Bury South said “What’s clear is that over 200,000 people came to Prestwich and had a great time. But there
were lots of problems for the people that live here, and we need to get the balance right. Before Manchester City Council think about having more concerts here, they need to think about Prestwich residents.”

Read the rest of this entry.

Just to update the many people who have been in touch with me and other Councillors today with concerns about the Oasis Concert.

We have fed ALL your concerns into the Senior Officer Team at Bury Council who have been liaising with the event organisers.

The following guidance is also currently being delivered to houses on Bury Old Road and Sheepfoot Lane to clarify the situation on parking restrictions. (This is from Bury Council).

OASIS CONCERTS
TEMPORARY WAITING RESTRICTIONS

Following a number of issues occurring at the first Oasis concert held on Thursday evening, this note seeks to clarify the position for residents in respect of the parking restrictions in place along Sheepfoot Lane and Bury Old Road.

The intention of the temporary waiting restrictions is to provide a safe environment for the people attending the concerts. In order to make this effective the restriction has to apply to all vehicles, including those belonging to residents.

This message has been conveyed to the Marshals and Enforcement Officers to ensure consistency in dealing with the matter.

I hope this eases the problem for the concerts over the weekend and I can assure you the process will be reviewed should any future events of this magnitude take place

I certainly was - you think anyone in this half of Prestwich could sleep though that?!
Oasis were forced to abandon the stage twice at their huge headline show at Manchester’s Heaton Park tonight (June 4) due to technical difficulties. (Source NME)

At around 9pm (BST) following support slots from Twisted Wheel, Reverend And The Makers (standing in for The Enemy, who cancelled due to frontman Tom Clarke falling ill) and Kasabian the band began their set with ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Star’.

The song was stopped due to sound problems. The band headed off stage for around ten minutes to the sound of boos from the crowd.They then returned and began to play ‘Lyla’ – although that song was cut short due to further sound troubles.

The band left the stage again, while a message appeared on the stage screens declaring that the problems would be fixed as soon as technical staff could sort them out. The message explained that generator failure was causing the issues, while smoke could be seen emanating from the equipment. It was then updated to say “Almost there!”.

Oasis returned to the stage after around 40 minutes to successfully kick-start the set again with ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’ and ‘Cigarettes And Alcohol’, with the Gallaghers promising to give fans their money back. “Really sorry about that,” Liam Gallagher told the crowd. “This is a free gig now. Everyone will get a refund.”

His brother Noel added: “The curfew’s 11, but we’ll play ’til they kick us off. Keep your ticket and you’ll get your money back.” Later in the set, Noel said: Kind of regret offering you your money back now. Apply for it back if you wanna be ______, we do our best for you.”

The band played a 24-song set, ending with their customary cover of The Beatles’ ‘I Am The Walrus’ at 11:20pm.

Please let us know what your experiences were as a local resident. We are hearing reports of:
- excessive noise (lots of bleary eyed Prestwich people at work and school today……)
- parking problems, especially around the south of the Park, and on the Rhodes/Bowlee side of the Park.
- alcohol nuisance.

It could be that some issues could be resolved before Saturday’s and Sunday’s concerts, when people have to listen to it all again…..

tim

Two additional statements have been released from Bury Council regarding the Oasis Concerts in Heaton Park on Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June 2009.

This statement is on the proposed street cleaning operation, and this statement deals with road and metrolink closures.

The main factheet is here.

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.

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.

Nominations have now closed for the elections for the European Parliament on 4 June 2009. This is the full statement of persons nominated.

Liberal Democrat list is headed up by our existing Member of the European Parliament Chris Davies MEP. Chris is a great friend to our area and has been to Prestwich on many occasions. Here’s his campaign website.

Meanwhile Prestwich residents are being encouraged by Bury Council to “vote early” or vote by post” with the following message:

Prestwich residents are being encouraged to vote early, or use a postal vote, in the forthcoming European elections.
Read the rest of this entry.

On Wednesday I met with the Council’s Traffic Management Road Safety Officer who covers Prestwich to look at the “Chicane” on the run-up to Parrenthorn and St Margaret’s School on Heywood Road.

The scheme was put in place around two years ago to enable the stretch of road outside the schools to be 20mph. At the time we are very supportive of the scheme, as Heywood Road is a very straight road in the approach to the schools, there had been a number of accidents including a serious one involving a school student.

I promised the schools that we would look at the Chicane in particular and how it was working in practice. Some people are concerned that the traffic build up (morning and afternoon) is causing problems.

Please let me know what you think? Sometimes we need to balance the need for safety for pedestrians (especially children) with road users.

In Prestwich we’ve been campaigning for 20mph outside EVERY school. We’re hoping to have good news to report on this later in the year - so watch this space!

A beautiful sunny April Sunday morning in the area of Heaton Park that Manchester Council would like to remove from open public access.

5th April 2009 about 9.30am - the dog I was walking refused to pose for a picture!

Local Councillors have reacted with anger after another spate of graffiti in Prestwich, and are calling on the Council to take immediate action to clean up the mess.

Cllr Vic D’Albert, Liberal Democrat Councillor for Holyrood ward and Chair of Prestwich Local Area Partnership said “I am disgusted that vandals continue to bring misery to local people by daubing our streets with graffiti. And I am equally angry with the Council’s woefully inadequate response. This has been going on for too long now, and it’s about time action was taken. The Local Area Partnership and the Police are already using very tight resources to try to manage this problem, but the Council need to take action now to help us and clean up the streets”

Liberal Democrats at Bury Town Hall have been campaigning for action for months. At a Council meeting in February they staged a demonstration displaying photographs of graffiti which has blighted Prestwich for months. The Council have offered graffiti kits for residents and businesses, but have so far directed no extra resource to clear up a problem which is getting worse.

Lib Dem spokesperson for Environmental Service Cllr Ann Garner said “The graffiti is on everything from streets signs to walls, and from utility buildings to business property. Graffiti kits are not a suitable solution except in limited circumstances. The Council have the power to insist that utility companies clean up graffiti on their property, and need to direct real efforts into cleaning it from their own property. I am proud of what Prestwich has to offer, and it is being ruined by graffiti which goes uncleaned for months.”

Cllr D’Albert concluded “We need to work together on this. Prestwich Councillors are doing their bit by leading the community fight. The Police did their bit by catching offenders, and we are supporting them to try to catch the latest offenders. But the Council are letting us down. They need to take action to clean up Prestwich now. “

Last night I had the honour of playing a very small part in Bury’s Holocaust Memorial Service. The service took place on Holocaust Memorial Day, the anniversary of the date of the liberation of Nazi death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. Representatives of the three political parties on Bury Council each signed a commitment on the Day, as we have done for each of the nine years that Bury has organised a service on the day.

As always, school students from a number of different schools across Bury had worked together to put on a very memorable and moving service. My biggest memory from this year’s service will be story, retold by local school students of a survivor of the Holocaust in Poland, who was with us last night in Bury. We also had musical accompaniment from members of the Bury Music Service Wind Quintet and Bury’s Young Voices.

The students also looked at some of the hatred in todays society, linking to this year’s theme for Holocaust Memorial Day - “Stand up to Hatred”.

“Stand up to hatred means not allowing others to intimidate me
Stand up to hatred means making the society we live in a better place
Stand up to hatred means to tell a teacher if I am bullied
Stand up to hatred means having the courage to stand up for what is right

Stand up to hatred means helping people if you see someone excluded
Stand up to hatred means stopping friends saying hateful comments about others
Stand up to hatred means getting to know people before judging them
Stand up to hatred means believing that this evil emotion shouldn’t exist

Stand up to hatred means allowing other people to join the community
Stand up to hatred means doing the right thing even if it involves personal sacrifice
Stand up to hatred means protecting human rights
Stand up to hatred means standing up even if you are standing alone”

More information on Holocaust Memorial Day can be found here, where you can light an online candle.

The Evening News/Advertiser are reporting the story that Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon is proposing to spend some of the proposed £6 Billion of transport infrastructure projects on the northern part of the M60. This includes one short stretch of a 4th lane (in one direction near Worsley), but more controversially, Hard Shoulder Running for the whole stretch as it runs past Prestwich (from Simister island through to the M62 turnoff near Worsley.

Liberal Democrats locally have been raising concerns about air pollution from the M60 for many years - by some measures we have the worst air pollution in the North West (at Junction 17). We’ve been interested in the scheme on the M40 in the West Midlands, which also uses Hard Shoulder Running, as it has been shown to REDUCE air pollution (basically because the traffic keeps moving, even if it is at a slower speed).

We need to find out more about the Government’s proposals - what would the impact of Hard Shoulder Running be on our local communities? What is the physical impact of the scheme on our local junctions (J17 and Simister Island)?

I’ll post more when I find out more - comments and thoughts much appreciated. This is the MEN news story.

Tim

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

Late last year Bury Council commissioned the consultants URBED and AGDR to draw up a vision, and strategy for the centre of Prestwich. This was after many years of campaigning by your local Prestwich Liberal Democrat Focus Team to get Bury to take our town centre seriously.

Local people are now being asked to have our say on the proposals in the consultation period which is 13 October - 24 November 2008. Every household in Prestwich is being sent a consultation newsletter which includes a survey to send in your views. The newsletter is here, the full report is here.

The vision for Prestwich is that it becomes a sustainable “urban village” inlcuding:
- a community hub
- a lively high street
- a gateway to parkland
- a place to live
- a place to work

You can visit the special consultation website at www.bury.gov.uk/prestwich regeneration or email your views to prestwichregeneration@bury.gov.uk.

Please let us, your local Councillors what you think so we can best represent your views.

Simister Village Community Association are pleased to announce that the village has been three times lucky with its applications for grants to transform both the Simister Wetlands and a parcel of wasteland to become a local green haven for walkers, wildlife and a memorial garden.

Residents in partnership with Bury Metro and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) aim to restore and breathe new life into the Wetlands that has, of late, become neglected and also to create a garden with paths and seating with plants to attract birds, butterflies and other species of insects.

The Association meets regularly to improve the quality of life for local residents. Chairman, Michael Slater said “An issue that has arisen is the disappointing state of the Wetlands and there is now a need to develop it as a place to visit as well as encouraging wildlife to the area. This is really important as we sit close by to the notorious Simister Junction 18 where the M60, M62 and M66 converge and standing traffic is a daily fact of life bringing more pollution from vehicle exhausts than almost anywhere in the North West so trees and green space are really important to our community environment.” The Community Association sent off three bids for approval with all three projects getting the green light. These bids were - Big Lottery, Breathing Spaces have awarded £9,618 to alleviate draining problems and to reinstate some of the paths. Greening Greater Manchester have awarded £8,995 to improve other sections of the paths, clear out the existing pond to encourage aquatic creatures and birdlife as well as creating wildlife spaces with a selection of wild flowers. The final application was a bid of £5,672 to create the Memorial Garden in memory of Gerald Leahiff, known as ‘Mr Simister’ a respected member of the community who died just over a year ago. Other contributions will include volunteer support from BTCV, from Bury Metro, and the support and volunteer labour from Simister residents and any others who feel they would like to be associated with such an endeavour.

The Committee are hoping that all those interested will join us in working parties on Saturday 25th October and Sunday 2nd November meeting by the pond at 10.00 am. Work has started on the Wetland paths but has been hampered by inclement weather whilst work on the Memorial Garden will commence in the spring of 2009 at the optimum time for planting. Michael Slater said “Clinching the third grant has been the icing on the cake and shows exactly how communities can work together to create a greener and better place to live. “

With Bonfire night approaching, the police, fire, transport, youth and local authority services are each considering how they can ensure that Bonfire night is as safe and enjoyable as possible for everyone.

In order to ensure effective patrolling of the Borough during the Bonfire period, the team at “Bury Safe” (Police, Council etc) hope to put together a comprehensive list of organized events across the Borough, so that resources can be used efficiently.

If you are involved with organising a council run or private Bonfire or firework event or know of any in the immediate vicinity, please send in the details to: k.griffiths@bury.gov.uk. They need to know information including start and finish times, what’s happening (fireworks, bonfire etc) and the expected number of attendees.

Many thanks for your assistance

The Bury Safe Team

The Local Area Partnerships across Bury, including Prestwich Local Area Partnership, are asking local community groups and voluntary organisations across Bury to submit bids for grants from the LAP fund.

There are a number of grants available and the maximum any one group or organisation can bid for is £3000. The group will be required to complete an application form and provide evidence that the money has been used within six months of the date the grant was awarded.

The funds is split into several programs including: Kickstart grants for new, local groups or activities; Community Development Fund providing one-off grants to support community activities and facilities; Communities for Health Fund, for specific geographic areas across the borough to promote healthier lifestyles; and the Bury Futures Fund for community projects to help residents get employment through work placements, training and volunteering schemes.

For more information about the funding available and to get a copy of the application form please contact the Local Area Partnership Team at Bury Town Hall on 0161 253 6372 or email them at areapartnerships@bury.gov.uk

The Bury Third Sector Development Agency can also provide information about larger grants to help communities and advice on funding applications. For further information please contact 0161 797 1968 or log on to www.b3sda.org.uk

Our campaign to tackle the graffiti that is blighting our local area has made media in the Prestwich and Whitefield Guide.

The guide has picked up our campaign to get the Council to tackle graffiti, and in response to the letters that were shamefully sent out to local residents threatening them with fines if they didn’t remove graffiti from their property.

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.

Well done to the Year 7 Rugby League Team from our local Parenthorn High School after their victory in the inaugural Bolton and Bury schools’ league. The final took place on Thursday 12 June and Parenthorn beat off oponents from Westhoughton High School, Bolton, along with semi-finalists Peters High School from Bury.

The climax to the tournament came after six weeks of group games and over 80 per cent of the schools from both boroughs participated. Pupils from Year 7 and 8 were given curriculum time coaching by Swinton, Salford, Wigan and Leigh clubs as well as amateur clubs from the local area.

With the local elections on 1 May 2008 only a month away, an increasing amount of my time is being spent “on the campaign trail” helping Liberal Democrats standing for election for the Council. Council meetings are now almost over until the next municipal year, which gives even more time for campaigning!

In Holyrood Ward, Vic D’Albert, who’s been our councillor for an increadable 17 years is standing for re-election, and there will be a full-slate of Liberal Democrat candidates across Bury.

As the Lib Dem’s Group Leader in Bury I’ll be helping wherever I can and last night was an 0pportunity to join Mary D’Albert who is campaigning hard to become our third councillor in the next door St Mary’s Ward. Mary has lived locally in Prestwich for 25 years and will make a first class councillor. In joined Mary and her team canvassing in St Mary’s ward, and it was excellent to receive such a brilliant resposnse from local people on the doorstep. More information on Liberal Democrat canididates across Bury will be available on the Bury Lib Dem’s website after nominations have closed on Friday.

Tim

Tuesday night was the regular meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership. This is the meeting that brings together your local councillors, key partners like the police, fire and NHS and appointed community representatives. The meeting, which took place in Sedgley Park School on King’s Road, was also very well attended by members of the public.

A number of important issues were considered:

Grants

The Local Area Partnership is given some relatively small amounts of money to grant to local groups and projects. As this was the last meeting of the year a large number of grants were considered by the meeting which I’ve listed in a separate posting below. The variety of the bids and projects was really impressive this year - its excellent that the Area Partnership can support so many excellent community initiatives.

Three of the largest grants across the whole of Prestwich were for our area (Holyrood Ward), all relating to addressing the issue of lack of play facilities (see separate posting).

Updates from Partner Organisations

The Partnership received updates from partner organisations like the Police, Fire and NHS. The new Divisional Commander of Bury was also present at the meeting, as were representatives of the local Magistrates.

Issues from Members of the Public

An “open forum” is provided for members of the public to raise issues of concern. There was significant discussion about the major nuisance caused by illegal use of quadbikes - not just in streets but also in the Prestwich Forest Park area. The Partnership and the Police agreed to take these matters forward. Some money is remaining in the budget for this year we agreed that we would look to see if a project on this issue was possible.

It was good to hear some good news from residents of Highfield Road, who continue to suffer from non-residents parking in this narrow street. Further meetings are being held, but some of the simple measures (like moving a sign and talking to business owners) have been having some effect.

Prestwich Village Strategy

The main item at the Area Partnership was a presentation from the planning consultants that the Council have appointed to look at the future of the Prestwich Village area. Your local Lib Dem Councillors have been campaigning for years to this work to happen and its great that it has finally started.

The planners (the company is called “URBED”) gave a fascinating presentation about Prestwich Village, the problems it faces and also the many good things we have in our favour. The area was compared to other simiar “villages in the city” that are a similar distance to Manchester City Centre (Sale, Chorlton, Didsbury) and the company have been looking at how they have dealt with similar issues.

There are some excellent ideas being brought forward which are exciting and challenging.

URBED are holding a number of events over the coming months and a major consultation over the coming months. You can find out more about about the URBED study at their special website . A special consultation workshop - open to all - is on 13 March 2008 - check the website for more details.

Please get in touch if you need to know more about any of the above.

Tim 

A number of local residents, and the Governors of St Margaret’s CoE Primary, have raised concerns about the visibility (particularly night time visibility) of the “priority restriction” (chicane) near Heywood Roa near Parrenthorn Road.

I have raised this issue with the Traffic Management section of the Local Authority.

It has now been confirmed that the Council are going to install some additional hazard markers on the build outs at the priority restriction which are highly retroreflective to give better visibility at night. Additional white hatch markings on the road are also going to be provided to help guide motorists through the priority restriction. An additional yellow backed retroreflective sign warning motorists to reduce their speed due to the narrowing of the road is to be introduced prior to the restriction for motorists travelling in an easterly direction to give plenty of advanced warning of the priority restriction ahead.

In additional the street lighting department have been approached street lighting to see if they can upgrade the street lighting units around both the priority restrictions on Heywood Road. Apparently United Utilities have not yet provided the electrical connections for the priority restriction signs yet which legally should be illuminated! - but that this will happen soon.

Other discussions around parking near the chicane are also being undertaken.

More news to follow, but just to reassure residents that the issue is in hand.

Tim

The Prestwich and Whitefield Guide is now reporting that the petition submitted on an elected mayor has been accepted and validated and will go ahead later in the year (read full story).  

What this means is that people in Bury will vote, later in the year, whether they want to change to a system where we have a Directly Elected Mayor, instead of the current system. If that’s what people vote for, it means an election would be held for an elected mayor of Bury, presumably next year.

The Liberal Democrats in Bury are OPPOSED to us having and elected mayor. Here’s why:

We believe its fundamentally undemocratic. An elected Mayor has all the “executive” powers of the Council for themselves, and once they are elected they are effectively unaccountable for the next four years until the next election! We don’t believe this is right or sensible. Decisions about local areas should be taken by local people, that’s why we’ve always pushed for greater say for local areas like Prestwich or Ramsbottom. How could one person, sat at Bury Town Hall, possible understand and make decisions for all the different towns and communities that make up Bury MBC?

Secondly, we believe it to be a waste of public money. We currently have 51 councillors in Bury and a ceremonial “Mayor”. If we had an elected Mayor that would be on top of the 51 councillors, and we’d still have to have a ceremonial “chair” of the Council. The average salary for an elected mayor in a principal authority in England is £66,000 - in some of those the Mayor has appointed a Deputy Mayor on about £40,000 as well! Personally I’d rather spend all that money on better council services, or a lower Council Tax.

For the sake of Bury, this mad idea should be confined to the dustbin.

Tim

I have the following letter published in this week’s Bury Times and Prestwich & Whitefield Guide.  

BURY’S decision to say no’ to the proposed congestion charge is a much needed ‘nail in the coffin’ for the proposal to make us pay to make local journeys, but it should not be the end to the discussion on public transport. To make local people pay a charge to drive between Whitefield and Prestwich is quite clearly wrong, and another example of this government trying to impose unpopular measures on the people of Greater Manchester.

But the need for improved public transport has not gone away. For the sake of our environment, and the sake of future jobs and wellbeing we need to tackle the polluting traffic problems of our major roads and motorways. advertisement Other cities are having major public transport schemes funding by other means . . . so why not Greater Manchester? Other solutions are available like using private investment.

Some much needed solutions, like safer Metrolink stations or school transport schemes shouldn’t cost the earth.

The debate on congestion charging was distracting us from the real issue of how we find the means to improve our public transport.

Coun Tim Pickstone Leader, Bury Liberal Democrats

The Labour Party in Bury have finally shown their “true colours” when they refused to oppose the proposed Manchester “Congestion Charge” scheme and refused calls for a Greater Manchester referendum on the charge. Labour councillors unanimously refused to support a Lib Dem proposal which set down clearly that Bury was opposed to the Charge and called for the people of Greater Manchester to be consulted through a referendum vote on the issue.

Everyone knows that we need to do something about the lack of public transport infrastructure in the Greater Manchester area, but forcing people to pay an extra £5 a day (at todays prices!) to get the investment we need is ridiculous. For Holyrood Ward where we live its particularly mad - our ward straddles one of the charge points - local people would have to pay to make local journeys to school, the shops or local amenities - without going anywhere near Manchester city centre.

My colleague Cllr Richard Baum made an excellent speech outlining our proposals. When I came to ’second’ the proposals I just highlighted a couple of points. I gave the Council two examples where major public transport investment was happening, that somehow didn’t need a Charge to pay for it (Crossrail in London and the Edinburgh Tram System). I also noted how the decision that Bury would make tonight might actually shape the future by enabling the people of Greater Manchester to have their say in a public referendum.

We had hoped for all-Party support, but Labour tried to subtlety change the proposal to say that the Charge was acceptable if it was agreed locally (by the Greater Manchester councils - most of which are run by their Labour Party friends!). None of us were so easily fooled.

Despite Labour opposition, the Lib Dem proposals were agreed by the Council. Bury now has a clear position that, we need public transport investment, that the Congestion Charge is wrong, and that the people of Greater Manchester need to have their say in a public referendum. Its also clear that Labour couldn’t support this simple position.

You can read our proposal, that’s now Council policy here - Lib Dem TIF Amendment (PDF)

Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any more information on this important subject.

Tim