Last night I attended a meeting of local residents,Police and Council reps to discuss the possibility of setting up a Homewatch for this area.
The issue of petty crime, nuisance and anti social behaviour in the area came to the fore at the recent meeting to consult on proposals for play areas at Heaton Park School. As a result the Area Partnership working with local councillors and local police/community support decided it would be an opportunity to explore the possibility of establishing a Homewatch in the area.
I am pleased to report about a dozen local residents turned up and expressed varied levels of support and committment to the proposal. As a result further publicity and local contact will be made and a date for an inaugural meeting is being looked at. So Watch this space.

If you would be interested in joining or becoming involved in Homewatch in any capacity please get in touch.

Frequent visitors to this site (if there are any?) may have noticed a new page listed on the left menu called Prestwich regeneration. As the Regeneration process unfolds , firstly with consultation etc then I propose to post details/important dates on this site/page for local residents to refer to and comment on.

If you visit the page now you will see that I have posted an initial link to the Prestwich Regeneration page on the Councils web site.

Watch out for further postings and news both here and in the local press.

Sir, 

The past 10 months have really exposed Labour for what they really are. The bitterness and venom that has poured forth from some of their more senior Councillors since they lost control of the Council after 21 years has been something to behold. Rarely in the field of political conflict has so much bitterness been directed at so few people.Cllr Tim Chamberlain, writing in last weeks paper is a prime exponent of Labours bitter and twisted view of Bury’s municipal world. Once again he ranted on about the so called Tory/Lib Dem Alliance, when everyone knows that there is no such alliance and the Council is run by a Conservative minority administration, much as it was previously run by a Labour minority administration.Such bitterness is of course self destructive and serves no good to a once great party that having first ditched its idealogy now proceeds to abandon all sense of purpose. It really is time to move on – There is a valid positive contribution to be made to Bury politics but the Lib Dems are the only opposition party making that contribution at present. 

What is almost more worrying than the failure by Labour to move on is their utter failure to confront the issues that lost them power at the last local elections. The appalling mishandling of the High School Review, the failure to engage with voters, inflation busting Council Tax to fund their latest pet schemes and an incredibly arrogant we know best attitude.  

At the last elections Labour lost 2 seats to the Lib Dems and 1 to the Conservatives, leading to the Tories becoming the largest party. Yet the arrogance of Cllr Chamberlain and others displayed in expecting the Lib Dems to then keep the second largest party in power irrespective of the Bury electorate frankly beggars belief.   

But then again – Post Office closures, lost personal data, dangerous criminals going undetected, and crumbling confidence in the economy with rising repossessions  - perhaps focusing on the real issues is more difficult for Labour to handle. After the High school closures fiasco local people lost trust in Labour – now the rest of the country is catching up. 

Vic D’Albert

Lib Dem’s Secure More Money for Children and Young People, and more money for Parks and Cleaner Streets 

Liberal Democrat Councillors saved services for young people and vulnerable children and secured extra expenditure on much needed environmental services such as parks, cleaner streets and environmental enforcement in Bury Council’s budget for next year.

The Lib Dem proposals, which were agreed and have become part of the budget:

- saved advice services for children and money for youth services across Bury

- saved services for disabled children, the “young carers” service and provision for children who are at risk

- secured new money for our parks and environmental services

- secured new money for a cleaner environment such as street cleaning and enforcement such as dog fouling and fly-tipping

 Cllr Tim Pickstone, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group said:

 “This is a difficult budget again for Bury. We all need to be clear on why these difficult savings once again have to be made. The blame is quite clearly with the Labour Government who, despite many years of pressure, continue to effectively give Bury a “poor deal”.

“Services to young people are already stretched  -  A vibrant youth support service is essential to ensure educational staying on rates and engagement in training or employment, with the subsequent positive impact on reducing anti-social behaviour”

“We are not prepared to put up with an unsafe reduction in support for vulnerable children, and to not see advances in supporting the environment in this borough.”

Cllr Richard Baum, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson on Resources said

“The people of this Borough want cleaner streets, green space and safe places for their families. And the Liberal Democrat group will ensure that as much as possible is done to give them what they want. Our proposals tonight are to invest in parks in this Borough to ensure that every community has a well-managed place of peace and greenery to enjoy.

Attacking the Labour Party Proposal to cut vital services for a zero Council Tax rise Cllr Pickstone said:

“This proposal is madness. We would all like to have a zero council tax rise, but the Labour Party are proposing to scrap £700,000 on much needed services for disabled people, are proposing to scrap services for young people and vulnerable children, and proposing to run Bury Council into the ground by running reserves down to a dangerous level. This is a disgrace - I am shocked that that Labour Party will stoop so low in a pathetic attempt to gain votes.

“There are two opposition parties in Bury. One, the Lib Dems, have achieved over £1/3 million of expenditure on young people, children and the environment, while Labour have achieved nothing but a cheap gimmick at the expense of vulnerable people.” 

Last night was “Budget Council” for Bury MBC. It is at this meeting that the Councils budget for the year to 31/3/09 was agreed by all councillors. As such it is probably the most important meeting of the council each year.
The headlines from last nights agreed budget are:

COUNCIL TAX UP 3.4%
This is the lowest increase for some time and the first time for a while that it is below the inflation rate of 4.1%.

OVER 65’S COUNCIL TAX DISCOUNT
In a repeat of last years “Age of Opportunities” initiative

12 INSTALLMENTS OPTION
Recognising the difficult times faced by many Council Tax payers will have the option of paying over 12 installments as opposed to the current 10 payments option.

MORE FUNDS FOR DISABLED SERVICES (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)
To pay for pressures on services for disabled people

MORE FUNDS FOR STREET CLEANING (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)

MORE FUNDS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS (LIB DEM PROPOSAL)
Including Parks maintenance and environmental enforcement.

COMMITMENT TO BUILD RADCLIFFE RIVERSIDE SCHOOL

COMMITMENT TO REFURBISH AND DEVELOP PHILIPS PARK
With support from the National Lottery

THE BACKGROUND
Once again it was a very difficult year (again) for Bury thanks to yet another poor grant settlement from Bury Council. The amount of money that the Government gives us was yet again less than our neighbours in the rest of Greater Manchester. Its been calculated that since Labour came into Government Bury is 15% worse off than before - and that was from a low starting point. This means that a number of “savings” (cuts) have had to be made - totalling around £5 million.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT BUDGET PROPOSALS
The Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment to the Budget which proposed to reallocate just over £1/3 million of different expenditure than what was being proposed by the Conservative Party administration that runs Bury.

£250,000 TO MAINTAIN KEY SERVICES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN
This included saving proposed cuts to the youth service and schools advice services. We believe that services for young people are essential, not just for their own sake, but also because they help tackle issues like anti-social behaviour.
Our proposal also saved proposed cuts to services to vulnerable children including: disabled children, the whole young carers service, the whole service to support parents with mental health needs, and vulnerable children at risk.

£100,000 OF NEW EXPENDITURE FOR PARKS PARKS, CLEANER STREETS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
£50,000 on environmental issues to help deal with issues such as Street Cleaning and maintaining the “Green Flag” status of our parks. We’ve been promised a Saturday clean of town centre areas which believe will help tackle the filthy state of our town centre.
£50,000 on environmental enforcement which will tackle issues such as fly-tipping, dog fouling and stray dogs (dog warden service).

The Liberal Democrat Group amendment was accepted with Conservative support (but without the support of Labour) and became part of the agreed budget.

LABOUR EXPOSED
Last night we finally saw how desperate Labour have become. After 10 months out of power and with an increasingly unpopular Government ,they are now so desperate that they are prepared to put the vulnerable at risk in order to offer the Bury people a gimmick bribe at the next local elections.
Labour proposed to:
- ignore the needs of disabled people in Bury by removing £700,000 of much needed expenditure for people with learning and physical disabilities. This is a disgrace. They should be ashamed of suggesting that disabled people don’t need services from the Council.
- ignore the needs of children and young people by cutting £350,000 of services for young people and vulnerable children. If you wanted to know what the difference is between Labour and the Lib Dems this is where that difference was most evident. Whilst the Lib Dem proposals were saving these services Labour were axing them. Labour proposed to cut youth services, cut ALL services to young carers, cut services for disabled children and, most worryingly, cut services for vulnerable children at risk. This is how desperate Labour have become and it was shameful and a disgraceful proposal.
- put the future finances of the council at risk by spending all the “reserves” down to the bare minimum (reserves are needed to cope for emergencies such as spending on flooding, unexpected demand etc). Fundamentally Labour were happy to ignore the long standing “equal pay” issue to address women employees who have been paid less than men doing the same job. So much for equality under Labour. Another principle ditched.
In this final act of a desperate Bury Labour party, desperate to hang on to their remaining seats. These savage damaging cuts were proposed in an era of 4% inflation in order to bribe Bury’s electorate with a 0% Council Tax increase. New Labour has finally ditched all its founding principles and any remnants of social concience. An ultra-conservative budget from a desperate Labour Party.

AND THE CONSERVATIVES ?
In the end it was the proposals of the Conservative Party, with the addition of the new expenditure proposed by the Liberal Democrats that won the day as outlined above.
We didn’t feel able to support all the proposals of the Conservatives - particularly some of the savings around the environment and social services, so abstained on the final vote.
The papers for the Budget are available on the Council’s website.

If you have any questions, or comments, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Too many families in Bury are losing their homes because of difficulties over mortgage payments, claims Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Bury South. 

New figures show that 668 orders for home repossession were issued by Bury county court in 2007. This is a rise of 12% since 2006. 

“668 home repossession orders means 668 families being turfed out of the house they have lived in, often for many years,” said Vic D’Albert. 

“Many people remember the boom and bust policies of the last Conservative government that saw tens of thousands of people lose their home because they could not keep up with mortgage payments. Now it looks as though the current Labour Government has blundered into a similar mess. 

“The Government has failed to ensure there are enough homes to meet people’s needs. For every ten families on the waiting list in

At the request of residents of Taunton Grove I visited this area yesterday and was taken on a tour of the rear of shops between Ludlow Avenue and kenilworth Avenue. Taunton Grove is currently being blighted by inconsiderate parking from customers of nearby restaurants, fitness centre and hairdressers. In addition the appearance of the area is suffering from rubbish being dumped at the rear of shops and some inconsiderate use of the rear of shops by shop keepers and patrons.

Residents provided me with numerous issues and problems needing to be addressed. I have promised that (along with my fellow ward councillors) I will investigate how best to tackle these problems over the coming weeks. So watch this space!

I have to say many of the problems currently being raised are now of a common theme -many caused by people who basically don’t give a damn and worsened by council services seemingly not able to tackle the problems raised. Result an increasingly dirty, messy, shoddy area. I think the time’s come to say enough is enough - and take no more. The council have to start putting sufficient resources into dealing with dirty streets, litter strewn, fly tipping, graffitti and vandalism. 

Thanks to Mr G of St.Margarets Road for bringing to my attention the state of this area. Many leaves still remain, which are now rotting in an area with much footpath use between the park entrance, church, church hall and community centre and nursery.
In addition a partucular part of the road seems to have become a dogs toilet.

I have now reported the matter to the Council, requesting anti-dog fouling signs are erected and that the area is cleared of leaves - including in the park area fronting the church and Bury Old Road.

The recent announcement that there is to be a referendum to have an elected Mayor of Bury is nothing but bad news for Bury and Bury Council Tax payers

This is all thanks to the narrow minded one sided views of a small group of campaigners who are prepared to interfere with our democracy in order to get there own way on congestion charging.

I and my fellow Lib Dem councillors on Bury Council have opposed the proposed congestion charging scheme because we feel it is wrong for Bury people. Its an extra tax to pay for transport we are already paying taxes for! In addition the charging proposals would divide communities and penalise some and benefit others.

As a result Bury Lib Dems have been instrumental in forcing Bury Council to oppose the current schemes charging proposals - not the transport investment proposals - the charging aspects. That is now Council policy.

That however isn’t good enough for those that have raised the petition for an elected Mayor. They see an elected mayor being installed to oppose the congestion scheme.  They want to impose an extra tier of local government in Bury - an elected mayor as well as 51 councillors. An elected Mayor being on a salary perhaps as much as £100,000 plus additional costs of his office and administrative support.

And what for ? To oppose a charge that is already council policy to oppose. To oppose this unpopular charge they plan to sweep away the current system of Government in Bury and replace it with one individual who will decide what currently 51 councillors representing all corners and all communities in Bury do week in week out.

It’s bad , it’s a waste of money and it should be stopped. 

6th  - FULL MEETING OF BURY COUNCIL  Town Hall 7.00pm. Members of the public are welcome to attend and time is set aside for public questions.

11th - LIB DEM EXECUTIVE MEETING - All members are welcome to attend (contact me for more details or info on becoming a member).

13th - TOWN CENTRE REGENERATION WORKING GROUP 6.00pm - This working group of the Area Partnership is starting to consider te future of Prestwich town centre. Members of the public and local businesses welcome.

14th - STANDARDS COMMITTEE

20th - BUDGET COUNCIL MEETING Town Hall 7.00pm - This special full meeting of the council will set the council budget for the next year. Members of the public welcome, time is set aside for public questions.

28th - HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES SCRUTINY COMMITTEE Town Hall 6.00pm, Members of the public welcome.