The Liberal Democrats have outlined radical plans to tackle youth crime.
The dual approach aims to stop young people committing crimes in the first place by enabling them to play a full role in society through increased training and volunteering, as well as stopping criminal behaviour early by making young offenders face up to their crimes.

The main proposals :

· The creation of a Youth Volunteer Force, to engage with young people, involve them in community projects and give them skills to benefit them in later life
· Establish Community Justice Panels across the country, where offenders admit their guilt to the community and agree on a Positive Behaviour Order as a course of action
· Create a dedicated PCSO youth officer within every Safer Neighbourhood Team to identify and work with teenagers most at risk of offending
· 10,000 more police on the streets by scrapping the ID cards scheme
· Intelligence-led stop and search and ‘hot spot policing’ targeted at gun and knife crime
· Restorative justice programs to be run in every community, specifically targeted at early intervention with widespread use in schools and care homes
Commenting, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Affairs Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

“This Government has spent 10 years trying to sound tough while failing to cut youth crime.
“In fact, ministers have embarked on the mass criminalisation of a generation of young people. By dragging more and more young people through the criminal justice system, they have reduced the fear of a criminal record and contributed to the problem.
Instead of shock tactics to grab headlines, we need practical measures that are proven to work.
“Only the Liberal Democrats propose a dual approach to stop kids from getting involved in crime in the first place, and measures to make them face up to the consequences of their actions if they do.”

Bury South Parliamentary spokesperson,Vic D’Albert commented, “I think we all recognise that this problem bears all the hallmarks of getting out of hand. Partially due to the fashion amongst some young people to be seen carrying knives. But gimmicks and off-the-cuff policy announcements will not help. We need a considered response that aims to send the right signals to anyone that thinks its cool to carry knives and at the same time seeks to address the underlying long term issues associated with (especially) youth problems in our communities. These proposals are balanced and tough and would at least start to tackle the issue on both fronts.

“In addition I reiterate previous comments about kitchen knives. Most stabbings are committed with kitchen knives. Knives that don’t actually need a shart pointed end! If the design of kitchen knives was addressed then that would reduce the availability of some of our most dangerous knives and perhaps make it easier to regulate or even ban many of the others.”

Yesterday some hanging baskets put around the Longfield precinct water feature were dragged down and destroyed by mindless vandals. People who may well live in Prestwich, certainly visit Prestwich, use Prestwich facilities but patently don’t give a damn about Prestwich.

These hanging baskets were requested by Prestwich Area Partnership following consultation with residents who wanted to see the area brightened up, made more attractive to visit and rest near the fountain. It took months to get then ordered and installed and in a few minutes some idiot destroys them.

This follows a spate of graffiti breaking out across Prestwich. But one thing is sure those that love Prestwich must not allow these mindless vandals to win. We must replace the baskets, we must remove the graffiti and we must pursue these vandals and they must be made to pay. Justic must be done.

Someone knows who did this, someone must have seen something – it was in broad daylight! I appeal to you to please come forward and contact the Police. Do it because you care about Prestwich.  

Last night was the regular meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, this brings together your nine local Liberal Democrat Councillors together with representatives of partner agencies like the Police and NHS, and community group representatives.

The main issues that came up were:

Area Manager’s Report
Included in the report of the Area Manager was news of Prestwich’s bid to the £1 million that Bury has been awarded for play facilities. These are:
- Ballzone at St Josephs Playing Field
- Improvements to the Kersal Road playside
- Natural play area behind the existing childrens play area on Kings Road.

My colleague, Cllr Tim Pickstone asked about promised consultation on closing the cash office at Prestwich Library – apparently this will be coming back to a meeting in the Autumn.
There we also numerous mentions of graffitti in the area and I voiced my concern about an appalling letter council officers are sending out that threatens the victims with court action unless they clean up the mess! (see earlier story). It was requested that the numbers that people can ring are widely published, but that we monitor the effectiveness of some of these agencies in clearing up graffiti.

Youth Manager Update
We received an update from James Perkins – Prestwich’s Youth Manager on some of the excellent activities that are planned over the summer months for young people in Prestwich. The local Youth Action Group has also got off the ground again and I asked James to help make sure that there was a good “two-way” communication between young people and the area partnership.
We also heard about an excellent “Health Kick” scheme (part funded by the Area Partnership to raise health issues in the Rainsough Area. Its targetted at 16-25 and over 50 men, and involves football sessions leading into health awareness and promotion sessions.

Funding Bids
The Partnership agreed a number of funding bids for local projects -see seperate article.
Prestwich Heritage Society asked for some money to help with the heritage exhibition at Prestwich Library, we said we would consider in detail before the end of August.

Open Forum
Open Forum is the part of the agenda (45 minutes) set aside to hear issues and concerns from local residents in Prestwich. These included:
- concerns on fencing on Ludlow Avenue
- concerns about youth nuisance on Ogden Street
- concerns about the closing time noise of a local pub
- good news about the recently funded Simister Wetland site
- discussion about the opening times of Prestwich Police Station

Prestwich Community Plan
Richard Baum, who chairs the Developing Communities Group, presented the proposed Prestwich Community Plan for 2008-2011. The plan was agreed,(see seperate article).

The next meeting of the Area Partnership is on Thursday 4 September 2008. This will be a special meeting to discuss the URBED proposals for Prestiwich Village Centre. 6.30pm at the Longfield Centre and will be preceded by an exhibition of the proposals in August and a summary leaflet identifying key proposals to be circulated throughout Prestwich.

Any questions just drop me a line!

Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which brings together your nine Liberal Democrat Councillors, together with representatives of partner bodies and community groups, have agreed a “Prestwich Community Plan” for 2008-2011. The plan sets out what the Partnership aims to achieve over the next three years to make Prestwich a better place to live and work.

There are three overall themes, and within this ten priority areas:

GREEN PRESTWICH
1 – Improve Parks and Leisure Facilities (play areas, parks, green spaces – including the Phillips Park development)
2 – Achieve a reduction in car useage in Prestwich (walk to school, community bus routes, cycle routes etc)
3 – Reduce air pollution in Prestwich (particularly addressing the M60)
4 – Improve the Prestwich environment by reducing litter and graffiti

THRIVING PRESTWICH
5 – Vision for the Redevelopment of Prestwich Village Centre (the URBED study)
6 – Support local Prestwich businesses
7 – Create better facilities for the most deprived areas of Prestwich

STRONG PRESTWICH
8 – Make Prestwich Healthier (working with the local PCT and others)
9 – Make Prestwich Safe (working with the Police and others to reduce crime and the fear of crime)
10 – Create a Prestwich for people of all ages (focus on young people and older people, and a sense of community pride).

The plan sets out an exciting vision for how we want Prestwich to develop over the coming years, people’s views and ideas are much appreciated.

You can download the full plan here: Prestwich Community Plan 2008-2011

I have been contacted by a distressed local resident who has been sent a letter from the Council threatening her with legal action unless she removes graffiti from a wall bordering her property.

The letter from a Council Risk Management Coordinator at the Council’s Planning, Engineering and Transportation Services Division says:

“The external appearance of your property is a source of concern due to this graffiti. The Council is writing to you as the owner/occupier, its purpose being a request that works are completed to remove the graffiti.

Its goes on…

“I advise that if prompt action is not made in remedying the removal of the graffiti…..the council has the option to take enforcement action under section 215 of the Town and country Planning Act 1990.”

“I do ask that the graffiti is removed within 21 days from the date of this letter.”

Isn’t it time we stopped targeting the innocent victims of petty crimes and anti-social behaviour?

Isn’t it time we supported local people who are the innocent victims of such behaviour?

The resident in question is a woman pensioner living on her own – she was extremely distressed in case she should be fined or somehow forced to clean the mess up herself at great cost to herself.

Its no way to treat people, especially our senior citizens.

I have written to the council asking that the letter be withdrawn and that the council put more effort into finding ways of supporting local people who are victims rather than threatening to punish them further!

Lib Dem councillors are currently working hard to tackle Graffiti and push for more resources to deal with this problem. Instances such as this hardly encourage the support of local people!!!

9th St.Mary’s CE Primary School Governors meeting

10th Sedgley Park Childrens Centre Opening

10th Prestwich Area Partnership,  6.30pm St.Monicas RC High School (Public Forum 7.30)

14th Whitefield & Unsworth Area Partnership, 6.30pm Elms Community Centre

15th Healthier Communities Scrutiny Commission, 7.00pm Town Hall, Bury

24th Prestwich Area Partnership, Town Centre Regeneration meeting.

If you have issues that you would like me to raise at any of these meetings or would like to know more etc, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

A new planning application has been received which is within Holyrood Ward of Prestwich as detailed below:-

Application number: 50140 Type of application: Full Date Registered: 02/07/2008

Applicant: Cambrian Homes Ltd
Location: LAND OFF POPPYTHORN LANE, PRESTWICH
Proposal: DEMOLITION OF EXISTING GARAGES AND ERECTION OF 12 NO. DWELLINGS (RESUBMISSION)

Plans can be viewed on the Council’s website. These plans may come before the Planning Committee as early as 24/7. Should you require further details or would like to raise issues with your councillors, please don’t hesitate to contact us or the Councils case officer: Helen Longworth on: 0161 253 5322.