I attended the latest meeting of this group tonight. The meeting included Housing officers, local Police and Tenants.

Key issues discussed including Anti-social behaviour, Alley-gating and ginnels, CCTV, Clean up day.  It was good to see everybody together and working hard to improve the estate and rid it of anti-social behaviour and nuisance. 

Visitors to this year’s annual public meeting of the Pennine Acute Trust will be able to find out more about a range of initiatives underway in its hospitals.
 

The Trust runs Bury’s Fairfield General Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital, Rochdale Infirmary and also has services at Birch Hill
Hospital. The annual public meeting takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday 25 September at North Manchester General Hospital Postgraduate Centre, Delaunays Road, Crumpsall,
M8 5RB. Doors will be open from 5.30pm, and it is expected that the meeting will have concluded by 8pm.The meeting is open to members of the general public, with many local patients, organisations and patients groups expected to attend.

A short formal meeting will be followed by a series of informal workshops, hosted by Trust Board members and clinical staff, who will be on hand to listen to participants’ views and suggestions.

Among the workshops are:
*       waiting list reduction work
*       infection prevention
*       good health during pregnancy and beyond
*       the results of the Healthy Futures/Making It Better consultations

For more details about the event, or if you wish to attend and have either access or particular requirements, then please contact Lesley Holland, communications manager, on tel: 0161 918 4283 or email: mailto:lesley.holland@pat.nhs.uk

Following further complaints from residents about the deteriorating condition of empty properties on Heys Road, Vic D’Albert has moved to urgently request that Bury Council respond with action and the full force of their powers to deal with this situation.

“I first reported this issue well over a year ago and was promised action then, a year later and the properties are in a terrible state and are now a local eyesore. The Council must act and act now using all appropriate powers to bring this issue to a satisfactory conclusion for local people.” 

Local Liberal Democrats have welcomed the condemnation of the proposed academic boycott of Israel at the parties Autumn conference in
Brighton.

A boycott had been called for by the University and College Union. The Lib Dem motion condemns that decision and urges them to review it.

Vic D’Albert, Parliamentary candidate for Bury South attended the debate and voted against the boycott. Speaking after the debate to delegates Vic D’Albert said, “The decision of the UCU to call for a boycott of Israel is misguided, retrograde and regrettably carries with it a strong whiff of anti-semitism. 

“Such punative action cannot succeed, such a boycott would have little effect and would only undermine the position of many Israeli academics who are challenging Israeli Government policies.

“If the UCU wanted to advocate boycotting someone I can think of many others I would put top of my list -  the murderous regime of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe to name but one obvious example. “Furthermore it is ludicrous to try and boycott individuals for the actions of their Government, Many Israelis are opposed to various Israeli policies just as many in this country oppose the British Government. Would it be right to boycott British academics because our Government invaded Iraq, I think not.

“We need to reach out to Israeli academics, not boycott them, we need to work from within to support the fight for justice and peace for all communities in Israel and the Palestinian territory and we call on the UCU to talk not walk and to play a positive part for the benefit of all.

I was pleased to attend the first meeting of the Governors of the new term. It was especially pleasing to hear that the school is continuing to make great strides.

Over the school holidays further buidling refurbishment has taken place - including new toilets and improved nursery areas, which also provide better security. In addition classrooms continue to receive improved facilities.

Crucially the Head, Mr Fish outlined in his report the schools action plan for the coming months.

If you would like to see more details of the School Governors meetings, copies of the minutes are available for inspection by parents at school. In addition Governors and Mr Fish are always happy to receive feedback or discuss issues with parents.

Tonight I attended a meeting of the Area Partnership’s Regeneration Working Group. The Group which comprises Councillors, Council Officers and Partners such as Health Trust and Police is charged with developing projects to help regenerate and improve lives in the most deprived areas of Prestwich. The Area Partnership has £20,000 available for such projects to spend before 5/4/08.

Also on the agenda was the Community Plan. The Plan is the Area Partnerships blueprint for action in the area and follows various themes following wide consultation. The process was started tonight to start to re-examine the existing plan in order to start developing a new plan for the next ten years! A very important documents - I hope residents will offer their thoughts on the future of Prestwich when they get the opportunity

In March 2007 the Liberal Democrat team on Bury Council successfully proposed a budgetary amendment which extended the “Blue Bin” recycling scheme to every house in the Borough.The success of the scheme was confirmed in a response to a question my Holyrood Ward colleague Cllr Tim Pickstone raised at the Full Council meeting on Wednesday. 1,020 Tonnes of recyclables were collected in July 2007 - the first month after the Blue-Bin roll-out up from 767 Tonnes in July 2006 - a massive 33% increase!

Its excellent to see such a great response from the public to the recycling initiative. The Lib Dem’s are already asking when the scheme can be made fortnightly for everyone. My colleague Cllr Richard Baum also asked for a report on the small number of households who’ve not yet received their bins (mostly farms, but a few areas with restricted lorry access). I’ll let you know this information when its received.

Last night I attended a meeting of Bury Local Area Partnerships Chairs Group, which oversees the Area Partnerships which replaced the Area Boards in May. It was confirmed that the Area Partnerships will be reviewed in March. An extensive review will take place examining all aspects of the Area Partnerships. We are aware that the Area Partnerships were not universally acclaimed by local residents and there are aspects of the Area Boards that some residents may miss. As Lib Dems we are keen to know what local residents think of the Area Boards/Partnerships especially - what’s good and what’s not so good, what works , what doesn’t ? And any ideas on how you would improve Prestwich Area Partnership would be appreciated. Just contact me or one of my colleagues.

The next meeting of Prestwich Area Partnership is October 18th, 6.30 - venue to be confirmed (see press) 

At last nights full meeting of Bury Council Cllr D’Albert asked about funding for local projects and raised concerns about the switch in Police resources between PC’s and PCSO’s (Community Support Officers) and the impact on crime levels.

In response to funding the Council spokesperson confirmed that there is still funding available (although no new money), but confirmed that the matter would be considered again when the budget for 2007/8 is considered.

With regard to policing, the Council’s representative on GMP confirmed that there is no apparent correllation between crime and increases in PCSO’s. In addition he confirmed that he would be prepared to raise the issue about monitoring of the balance between the numbers of PCSO’s and PC’s and their effectiveness. Cllr D’Albert commented; “This is a matter of great concern in Prestwich since the number of local PC’s was halved and the number of PCSO’s was doubled. PCSO’s have very limited powers and criminal and anti-social residents are as aware of that as everyone else. It is imperative that there effectiveness and the overall “team” performance is monitored closely.”