Bury Council has finally launched their formal consultation on the future of the Longfield Suite, Radcliffe Civic Suite and other threatened Bury Community centres.

Now is the time to act, whether you have signed the petition or not, if you care about the future of our local community centres then it is crucial that you complete a consultation form.

Forms are being circulated and are available in Council buildings and the Civic suites themselves. The consultation can also be completed online here .

Don’t forget to let Bury Council know what you think, don’t forget to tell all you contacts about the consultation.

Don’t leave the future of our community centres to someone else, act now!   

The Chilcot Enquiry into the Iraq War yesterday was astonishing for an incredible insight into how we were manipulated by Blair and Bush into deciding the war was legal when our own Attorney General felt it wasn’t.

When our Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith was opposed to the Iraq war or at least felt it was illegal, he went or was he pushed over the atlantic to visit Condoleeza Rice et al. Incredibly he then returns to the UK suitably reassured that the war would indeed be legal.

Now forgive me for pointing out the startlingly obvious but as the US were a tad keen on invading Iraq and removing Saddam Hussein, were they likely to say anything other than the war would be legal? I think not. It was hardly a neutral second opinion.

What it amounted to was ”we’ve got a problem with our top legal guy who isn’t so sure the war would be legal, you need to work on him”. They did, he advised that he’d changed his mind, we invaded.Incredible and appalling.

In a separate development the Enquiry has voiced concerns over the Governments reluctance to declassify certain information. We need this information in the public domain, the Chilcott enquiry needs it to be able to properly question witnesses ie Blair tomorrow.

A failure to do so will leave too many questions unanswered, we need transparency and openness if the enquiry is to succeed and satisfy the publics demands.

Tonight I attended Bury Councils Holocaust Memorial Service at Radcliffe Civic Suite. 65 years to the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated.

As ever it was a moving service, a wonderfully poignant, moving and thought provoking collection of readings, music and dance, including the words of holocaust victims. My congratulations to the organisers.

This years event was titled “A legacy of hope” with much of the words and music aimed at learning from the horrors of the past and in ensuring we do not forget the atrocities of the Nazis and others, we can leave a legacy of hope that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.

As ever the event was attended by representatives of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths, and all 3 political parties on Bury Council, led by the Mayor of Bury. Due to Cllr Pickstone recovering from a minor operation I was delighted to have been able to represent the Liberal Democrats at the event.

If there is one single area where Labour has persistently failed many people in this country it would be in its attempts to reduce poverty and the poverty gap in Britain. And within that their pledge to eradicate Child poverty is the most miserable failure of all. 

A report by the National Equality Panel published today has stated that the gap between rich and poor in Britain is now wider than 40 years ago.

The Panel found that “Deep-seated and systemic differences” remain between men and women and minority groups in pay and employment.

This is despite this Labour Government throwing millions of pounds of taxpayers money at the issue and numerous initiatives.

The trouble is they have done just that - thrown millions of pounds at the problem, almost scatter cushion like, without going to the fundamental issues that drive poverty and curse many born into poverty. And coupled with new labours conservative approach to personal taxation, especially in their first Blair Parliament from ‘97, they have undermined their own ambitions to deal with poverty.

It’s probably their biggest failure and worst legacy to many over the course of a generation, who despite promises now bear the brutal scars of poverty and all that flows from it.

Last nights public meeting received an update from Save Heaton Park Campaigners on progress and latest developments in the campaign.

It’s now expected to be likely that the application will go before Manchester City Councils Planning Committee in March.

The packed St.Margarets Church House, saw a video presentation featuring another  Goals soccer centre and more  details about the planns submitted were provided.

What is clear now both from the plans submitted and comments from some Manchester Labour Councillors is that this is not just about whether commercial sports ventures are appropriate in this or any other park, but whether it is right to develop our green open spaces at all - as a matter of principle.

If this proposal gets the go ahead then it could open the flood gates to commercial development of our parks like never before. It’s similar to the sale of school playing fields in the 70’s and 80’s which is now recognised as having a devastating affect on sports development in Britain - especially team sports.

This now is a line in the sand, I wonder how many other commercial organisations are watching and waiting for the Goals soccer application?

In 10 years time - how much more of Heaton park will have been developed as a result? How many other parks will have faced development?

It’s not about being a killjoy - it’s about acting responsibly for future generations, as guardians for our green legacy. Something Manchester City Council was supposed to be. Something I still hope they will be.

I read with incredulity this weekend that according to Cllr Bibby, leader of Bury Council, that the only reason Bury Tories didn’t carry out proposals to make the Longfield Centre and other Civic venues more successful back in 2007 was because there was a “hung council” and they couldn’t get anything done!!!!

Lets be clear here for the sake of clarity, transparency and a bit of honesty - The Lib Dem group held the balance of power in 2007 and on no occasion did we hold up any plans for improving the lot of our civic suites, on no occasion did we block any plans for improving the civic suites.

Once again we find that when the leader of the council is caught out, found out or simply wrong, he finds someone else to blame and decides to go for distorting the facts rather than a straight answer.

Of course the real reason that proposals from the Best Value Review of Civic Suites in Bury were not carried out is because we now know that they had alternative ideas. It is likely that those alternative ideas were formulated out of that review. When the review didn’t say what they wanted to hear they merely shelved it.

Once again what is patently clear is that you really can’t trust the Conservatives, and certainly not with our public services and certainly not our valuable community centres!

Perhaps Cllr Bibby will have the common decency to admit that nobody but his Conservative Group blocked the implementation of proposals for the civic suites, I won’t hold my breath.

Prestwich Area Partnership met last night and in so doing we welcomed the new Partnership manager - Rose De’, who has replaced Carran O’Grady.

Some readers will recall that virtually everyone from all sides of the political spectrum and none were opposed to this move by Bury Council. But a couple of officers along with the Councils Tory leadership thought it was a good idea and the majority view was therefore ignored, leaving us with a shameful decision that has undoubtedly damaged the Area Partnerships in Bury.

After welcoming Rose I paid tribute to Carran’s work over the past 8 years and then proposed the following motion which was passed overwhelmingly:

“Prestwich Area Partnership deplores the recent unwarranted interference in the management of Prestwich Area Partnership and believe the unnecessary rotation of Area Partnership Managers at this time will undermine the effectiveness of the Partnership at a crucial time.We insist that any future changes be introduced only after full and proper consultation with the Area Partnership.”

I hope that this motion now draws a line under this shambolic mishandling of area partnership affairs. I have to confess though that I am now highly sceptical of this Tory administrations committments to the Local Area Partnerships innitiative.

That was followed by a statement on gritting services during the recent heavy snow fall and cold snap. This was delivered by Guy Berry, the Councils management board representative on the Prestwich Area Partnership. I had requested someone from Highways, preferably actually involved in the Gritting service - this request was denied by Bury Council. In any case the report was useful, confirming as it did the streets that are scheduled for gritting and outlining the policy and how it was compromised by the excessive snow, excessive cold and shortage of grit/salt.

Later in the meeting we received an enlightening report from Rev. Steven Williams, Priest in charge at St.Gabriels, Bishops Road about the work of Churches Together in Prestwich. We also had a crime update from Inspector Ryecroft who highlighted an incrfease in anti-social behaviour in the area.

Finally we approved grants to the Clough Centenary Committee, the Creative Living Centre and Polefield Tenants & Residents Association.

All in all an excellent meeting, albeit poorly attended by the public. Next meeting 6.30, March 18th, Church Lane Community Centre.

The latest Homewatch Newsletter from Greater Manchester Police features an article promoting a national database called immobilise.com, which enables people to register their valuables in case of theft - making it easier to identify who owns them if they are subsequently recovered as well.

In addition it carries the latest news on any local criminal activities such as the location of the 11 thefts from vehicles in the last week! Plus some very useful contact information.

Don’t forget there are Police surgeries held on the 2nd and 4th tuesday of each month at the Childrens centre at Sedgley Park School, Bishops Road between 4pm and 6pm.

Meanwhile you can view or download the newsletter here: homewatchnewsletter20jan2020.pdf

Commenting on the launch of the Conservatives’ crime section of their draft manifesto, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: 

“The Tories love to tell you they are the party of law and order, when in fact they are the party of crime.“Their disgraceful record in Government speaks for itself – crime nearly doubled, violent crime nearly tripled and robbery quadrupled.  

“A vote for the Tories is a vote for more crime; a vote for more tried and tested policies which don’t work.  

“The Tories cannot be trusted – one of their policies is to reduce one of the few remaining protections from the surveillance state.” 

Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South added.“The Conservatives’ crime policies are masked by a total disregard for the causes of crime and an insatiable determination to undermine Police resources. There policies are tough on paper, but don’t add up in the real world. As with their other “policies” pronouncements they are all spin and no substance.” 

At last nights meeting of Polefield Tenants and Residents Association we had the usual collection of council officers, Police, residents and me!

As is usually the case the business was upbeat with plenty of positive developments.

Key business was the planning of the estates next fun day for the young people on the estate. This has now been arranged for the week of half term on wednesday, February 17th from 12 noon and will cover activities on the patch of land at the junction of Polefield Circle/Polefield Hall Rd and also on St.Josephs fields at the rear of Prestwich Heys.

On the morning of the 17th skips a couple of skips are to be delivered to the estate and volunteers are needed to help clean up the estate.

But it’s not just about young people.The Association has learned that an application for some funds to provide some “winter warmer” kits to elderly on the estate has been successful. As a result elderly residents will be receiving a bag of goodies to help them keep safe and warm this winter. These should be distributed in early February.