The main item on the agenda last night was the URBED study into the Prestwich Village Centre, which I’ve already reported on below. Other than that the main issues were:

- Local Grants - we’ve received applications for grants from the Prestwich (anti) Litter Campaign, to purchase Graffiti Cleaning Equipment and to support the Bent Hill area for environmental improvements. The grants were referred to the Finance Working Group to study in detail. Personally I hope that this can be done as quickly as possible as, with the graffiti in particular, there is a issue that needs dealing with as soon as possible.

- Highway Maintenance Program - each year the Area Partnership is asked for its views on which local roads and pavements should be repaired. My view is that this is becoming a bit of a joke - we’ve been given a budget of £108,000 for the whole of Prestwich and the “worst” road, which was deferred from last year because it wasn’t done then, would cost £152,000! I’m not sure how we’re meant to do with that!
In our ward of Holyrood, the most urgent roads were Oaklands Drive, a part of Cuckoo Lane, Mount Road and Parrenthorn Road. We’ve asked the Town Centre Working Group to look into these in detail and make a decision on our £108,000. Obviously with such limited funds lots of people are going to be disappointed, I suspect that the Lib Dem group will be taking this up at a Council level to see what can be done to improve the situation.

- Youth Manager Update - we received an excellent update from the Prestwich Youth Manager on some of the different activities for young people that are being organised. This includes the regular youth facilities which are at the Phoenix Centre in St Mary’s Park and also at Parenthorn High and Rainsough Community Centre. The groups that meet at the Phoenix Centre include time for disabled young people, young mums and young people who are involved in the Duke of Edinbugh scheme. Another good initiative is the “BRAG” scheme, which is running in the half term and summer holidays an d includes a really good value bus pass - more information here.

- Prestwich Cash Office - we received another presentation on the possible closure of the Prestwich Cash Office (see earlier post), yet again we made the points that some people do need a face to face service and ask for this to be considered during the consultation.

Tim

As your councillors we got a “sneak preview” last night, and there are some excellent ideas, but ones which give us all lots to think about. Issues we need to consider include:
- the link between Tesco’s and the Village, and whether Tescos should/could be rebuilt on the “road front” to bring it closer to the village centre.
- ideas for new buildings in the whole village centre area including shops, housing above shops, a new Health Centre and Library and extended open spaces.
- What do we do with the Longfield Centre? - its an excellent public facility now, but if it was removed would there be any chance of it getting paid for again?
- How do we make the A56 through the Village Centre a more “friendly road” for shoppers and pedestrians whilst maintaining its through traffic role both for local people and as a trunk route into Manchester?
- Is there scope for re-opening up a second road onto the A56 from the east to relieve Fairfax Road?

For me the most important thing is that as many people as possible get the chance to say what they think about the plans and options. Its our village centre and we need to get it right! Do come along to the Area Partnership meeting or to other events. As soon as I have some links or electronic versions of the options I’ll post them on this site.

More information from URBED here.

Prestwich Councillors all met with Mike Owen, the Council’s Director of Finance and E-Government yesterday, who answered questions on the cash office. The Council does want to review whether the Office is viable nowardays and will be consulting on this over the summer. We made some very strong points about the benefits of face-to-face human contact - particularly as post offices are closing and some shops are reluctant to run the “Pay-Point” system because of security issues. The Prestwich Local Area Partnership will be receiving a full report and consultation at its July meeting.

Tim

Annual Council is in two parts - a civic “Mayor Making” and the Annual Meeting itself. At Mayor Making councillors elected Cllr Peter Ashworth to serve as the Mayor of Bury for 2008-2009. Peter is a Conservative councillor for Moorside Ward in north Bury and we wish him well in his year as the borough’s “first citizen”. Councillors appointed Cllr Farook Choudrey, who has been the mayor for the last year as Deputy Mayor. This is the normal convention in Bury.

In Bury we’ve become used in recent years to Annual Council meetings being significant occasions when the council was in “no-overall control”. As the Conservatives now have a majority of one seat on the Council, the drama was missing from this year’s event somewhat! The only thing of note is that the Council’s Executive Committee will now just consist of Councillors from one Party (the Conservatives), whereas previously under both Labour and the Conservative minority administration last year, the two Opposition Leaders have been included on the Executive Committee as “without portfolio”. We will still be there, but as co-opted and non-voting members. Obviously as the ruling group the Conservatives have the right to do this. Bury has been somewhat unusual including the opposition on the Executive, but somehow it seems a backward move to me.

Some proposals for amending the questions at meetings from both members of the public and from ordinary councils were to be discussed, but these have now been referred to the Democratic Arrangements Forum (which brings together all three Parties on the Council) for further discussion. I think we all recognise that some reform is needed, but I am concerned that we still keep the right balance between openness and public participation, and efficient working.

The Annual Council appointed Councillors to the various Committees, Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups. Liberal Democrats are entitled to a mix of one and two seats on each committee and we’ve appointed to all these places. We have been allocated one Scrutiny Committee to Chair, and this will be my ward colleague Wilf Davison. Apart from Leading the Lib Dem Group, my main role will be as the new “co-opted non-voting member” on the Executive Committee.

Any questions, please ask!
tim

Prestwich Local Area Partnership will launch its Love Prestwich Anti-Litter Campaign for the summer which aims to target Prestwich Village Town Centre to promote respect of the environment to residents and businesses to Love Prestwich and keep it clean.

The campaign is aimed at local businesses, schools and residents to work alongside Council officers to make Prestwich a cleaner, safer, greener place to live.

Aims of the Campaign

Raise awareness
- raise awareness of fixed penalties for fly tipping
- encourage residents and businesses to be greener and cleaner
- promote street care team

Take Action
- schools, residents and businesses sign up to the BURY STREET CARE PLEDGE
- educate local businesses on their DUTY OF CARE to legally dispose of business waste
- educational school visits and poster campaign
- community clean up day

Catch’em
- identify hotspots
- encourage reporting
- undertake enforcement where necessary

Do you want to become a Community Champion for Prestwich?
You can sign up to the LOVE Prestwich Anti-Litter Campaign by filling out the form below and handing it in to Prestwich Library, or alternatively contact :
Carran O’Grady (LAP Manager)
Tel: 0161 253 7245 EMail: c.o’grady@bury.gov.uk

You can download an application form http://www.bury.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/1F1891E5-F291-4F06-953F-7497A9B816F8/0/LOVEPrestwichLitterCampaignFlyerweb.pdf

I had the honour of being re-elected as Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group in Bury, a position I’ve held for the last two years. Its a great privilege to be chosen by your fellow councillors to act as their Leader, and I’m looking forward to continuing the development of the Liberal Democrats in Bury in the coming years. Cllr Andrew Garner, one of our team of Sedgley ward councillors was re-elected as Deputy Group Leader.

Tim

Mary will make an excellent Councillor for the St Mary’s ward of Prestwich, joining our existing team there of Donal O’Hanlon and Richard Baum. Mary is the wife of Vic D’Albert who is one of our Councillors here in Holyrood Ward. After 17 years of Vic going to council meetings it will be excellent to have Mary there too!

tim

Lib Dem Councillors elected last night Mary D’Albert, Vic D’Albert and Ann Garner with some of their group colleagues Steve Wright, Wilf Davison and Donal O’Hanlon.

More photos here

Unlike normal meetings of the full Council, which tend to go on till 10pm, the meeting was very short with only one agenda item. Councillors took note tf the responses from members of the public on what things would be like if we had an elected mayor in Bury.

We agreed:
- that the Mayor should work with a “cabinet” of Councillors, including councillors from opposition parties
- that the Council’s “scrutiny” procedures should be improved
- that the Elected Mayor would be the “first citizen” of the Borough, and that the person who Chairs meetings of the Council (currently the “Mayor”) should be known as the “Chair of the Council”.

So now the people of Bury get to decide whether to have an Elected Mayor or not, in a referendum on 3 July 2008. Lib Dems are opposed, and we’ll be campaigning hard to stop this undemocratic waste of money.

tim

There were a number of issues to report.
Equality and Diversity
The Council is doing well having achieved Level 3 of the National Equality Standard as an employer of staff. Work is being done to ensure that this high standard is maintained and perhaps improved on (you can go to level 4).
Alternative Service Models
It was reported to the meeting that moving forward on these issues, about changing the way the Council provides some of its “back office” functions, has been delayed to the new municipal year (after May).
Pay
It was reported that staff and employers were discussing at a national level on local government pay - at present there was a proposal of 2.45% rise for 2008-2009 (with £100 more a year for the lowest paid) - but I suspect there will be more discussions to be had!
Equal Pay
The most keenly discussed issue was the process around dealing with the Local Pay Grading Review - often referred to as the “equal pay” issue. Staff are understanably concerned about reviews like this, and the Trades Unions were very keen that we understood that they wished this uncertainty to end.

tim