As the Post Office announced the Government backed Post Office closure proposals for Greater Manchester I joined MP’s fellow Parliamentary candidates and Councillors to  launch the Greater Manchester Lib Dem Save our post Offices petition. Bury faces 5 closures (despite local Labour claims of scare-mongering), 1 in Radcliffe, 1 in Greenmount and 3 in Bury.
The Liberal Democrats have a viable plan to prevent further closures and help to sustain the network; a plan that wouldn’t cost the earth that would invest in our local Post Office network not chop it up. Post Offices should be local and should be supporting our communities and we will continue to fight with our local community to save them.

Commenting on the news that nearly 1m people have lost their NHS dentist since the Government introduced a new contract for NHS dentists in March 2006, local Lib Dems accused the Government of “ignoring the plight of the low paid and building a dental health time-bomb.” 

According to figures from the NHS Information Centre a total of 338,000 people lost their NHS dentistry in the last three months of 2007 – 3,674 people a day.In the North West the number of people treated plummeted by 61,000 in the 24 months to December 2007 , compared to the period up to March 2007.  4 out of 10 North West residents were not treated in the last 24 months.

Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesperson for Bury South commented.

“If evidence were needed that the new dental contract is failing then this surely is it.” “This Government is overseeing a crisis in NHS dentistry and as a result more and more people either don’t have a dentist, can’t find an NHS dentist or can’t afford the exorbitant cost of treatment. With dentists and hospitals treating more and more serious dental problems it’s now clear that the long term legacy of this Governments mishandling of NHS dentistry is a dental disease time-bomb.

” We need an urgent review into why reforms undertaken just two years ago have completely failed to improve access and action to get NHS dentistry back on track.”

I have been contacted by a number of people concerned that when they try to park at the Longfield Car park in the early morning it is already full of Metrolink commuters.

By agreement this car park remains closed until 9.30 to limit spaces taken by commuters in order that local shoppers and employees may still find a place to park.

In transpires that the barrier enforcing these conditions hasn’t been working and so the car park has remained accessable 24/7. I have now asked for an update on when repairs will have been carried out and a committment that it will be soon. I will post an update to this site when I get more information.

Recently I have been vocal (at the recent Prestwich Area Partnership meeting and in the press) about the state of our local roads and the amount of money available to spend on them. Quite frankly I believe it is scandalous that we are expected to rubber stamp a paltry figure for road repairs that will barely scratch the surface of the work that is actually required to bring our roads and pavements up to scratch.

For information below I list the roads Local councillors and your Area Partnership have been asked to choose from to decide where the £105,000 available should be spent. The roads are listed in order of priority and I am sure you can think of roads near you that are worthy of inclusion. The top 6 are carried over from last year – we didn’t have enough then either! (Holyrood roads in capitals).

1. Fairway (cost of repairs) £152724

2. Sunny Drive £17862

3. Meade Hill Road £33926

4.OAKLANDS DRIVE £26575

5. West Meade £46084

6.Downham Crescent (part) £12243

7.CUCKOO LANE (part) £30961

8. MOUNT ROAD £76510

9. Barnhill Drive £28644

10. PENNANT DRIVE £10659

11.Mowbray Avenue £44938  

12.PARRENTHORN RD £115194

Is it me?

A leading local Liberal Democrat has called on the Government to start tackling knife crime head on, by first dealing with knives in the home. 

In response to health service research that has identified that most knives used as weapons are kitchen knives, Vic D’Albert, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesperson for Bury South is calling on the Government to press for changes to kitchen knife design. 

Vic D’Albert said, “Most kitchen knives have a sharp pointed end which is rarely if ever needed. Most kitchen knives are needed for chopping and cutting and we just don’t need a pointed end for stabbing! Even my bread knife has a pointed end – god only knows what that is needed for. “Health research has proven that many of these knives end up being used as weapons. If the Government is serious about reducing knife crime then every avenue has to be investigated.  

“Clearly it is a traditional that knives have a pointed end, even when not required. In my mind it is blindingly obvious that at a stroke we could make the home safer and cut the number of dangerous knives in the public domain by designing out the problem. Its time manufacturers responded and the Government needs to make sure that they do”. 

A UK-wide campaign to encourage people to recycle more of their household waste has been backed by Liberal Democrats in Bury. 

National Recycling Week is being held on 2^nd – 8^th June. This is the fifth year it has been held. It is run by Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP), a national organisation set up to help people produce less waste and advise on how best to deal with rubbish in an environmentally friendly way. 

Vic D’Albert, Parliamentary spokesperson for Bury South said, “In Bury the recycling and composting rate is 23%. That means we still have a long way to go before we are dealing with our waste in a way that does not leave a lasting problem for generations to come. 

“Liberal Democrats in Bury are delighted to be able to back National Recycling Week. We are encouraging as many residents as possible to make small changes in their lifestyles which will make large strides to ensuring we do not wreck our environment. 

“We waste a huge amount of food each year – on average we throw away 112kg of food each, most of which is still usable. People can avoid this waste by doing simple things such as producing a shopping list of what food is needed, rather than wandering around the supermarket buying what takes your fancy! 

“Last year in the