Tory Councillor and MP hopeful Michelle Wiseman says she is confused.

She is confused ,she says, because whilst the Lib Dems are opposed to a sports zone being built on open parkland in Heaton Park, we were proposing (at last nights council meeting), to press for more sporting activities and initiatives in Bury in the run up to the Olympic Games in 2012.

I would urge Mrs Wiseman to get out more (and meet real members of the public) as things aren’t always as black and white as Conservative Central Office makes out.

The Lib Dems are opposed to the specific proposals because, put simply, they are:

a) in the wrong place

b) Not freely available for public use – charges may be as much as £45 for pitch hire and,

c) Will mean the end for yet another piece of Heaton Park .

They are primary reasons and when you throw in the damage to the environment and extra congestion and nuisance to neighbouring residents we feel that makes a compelling case.

That should not however mean we are opposed to sports facilities – for the record we did not oppose the building of the Commonwealth Bowling greens and pavilion etc. But why should we be building on historic open parkland when there are derelict brown field sites across North Manchester and Bury?

But what was most dissapointing from Mrs Wiseman was that her desperate attempt to sit on the Heaton Park fence was exposed last night after telling Heaton Park Action Group that they had her 100% support we now know that was a shallow empty committment.

As for our motion we believe the Olympic Games provides a great opportunity to encourage young and old alike to get involved in sports and improve fitness and health etc by tapping into that enthusiasm that will be growing over the next few years. So it was particularly dissapointing that Michelle and her Tory colleagues voted down our proposals which included the development of a Greater Manchester Leisure Card enabling all residents across greater manchester to get better more affordable access to facilities across the area.

Confused, Shallow, Fence sitting – Bury Conservatives, one change we don’t need.