VIC DALBERT

Last wednesday (sorry for the delay), I attended the full meeting of Bury Council. The “full” meeting is the occasion (5 times a year) when all 51 councillors meet to debate issues and approve decisions taken by the Executive of Bury Council.
It has always proved invaluable to the Lib Dem group to press the executive on key issues and to propose motions on key policy areas.
Lib Dem Council Group leader, Cllr Tim Pickstone has written an excellent detailed account of this meeting on his site (see link at side) so I do not plan to repeat the process here.
I would however highlight a few points:

POST OFFICE MOTION
We put forward a motion calling on the Government to halt the Post Offices programme to close 2500 Post Offices nationwide (on top of the 7500 already closed) - We fear that this could mean further closures in the Bury area. I had the pleasure of proposing the motion on the night and was pleased to receive support from both other parties.
FREE KIDS TRAVEL ON LOCAL BUSES
My colleague Richard Baum made an excellent debut speech proposing an amendment to a Labour motion. Labour’s motion proposed the expansion of the free travel scheme and the Yellow bus service for school children. Unfortunately it did not address the issue of childrens travel. Currently pensioners and disabled can travel free with the anomaly that children cannot. So we amended Labours motion to support expansion to include childrens travel on the local bus network. Our amendment received the support of other parties and while it doesn’t in itself mean we get free kids travel overnight - it does send a message to the Transport Authority and the Government to look at the issue.
EMPTY HOMES AND THE HOMELESS
Fellow Holyrood Councillor, Wilf Davison asked a question on the number of homeless compared to the number of empty homes in the borough. Incredibly the reply was 167 homeless, over 3500 empty homes. of which about 1400 have been empty for 6 months or more. Personally I find that figure disgraceful and shocking - something has to be done.
RECYCLING
I asked how much of the blue bin recycling actually gets recycled and how much (through “contamination”) ends up in Landfill sites. I received a worryingly vague response, initially that 100% is recycled and when pressed it was confirmed that some is contaminated. Watch this space!