The LovePrestwich Big Clean will officially end next week – but the campaign to clean up the town still goes on.

The Community Payback team will hit the town centre on November 3 and 4 for a final go, then head to the Holyrood Road/Heys Road/Bury Old Road Area to tackle graffiti on shops, businesses, backs of shops, and the side of houses.

Vic D’Albert, chair of Prestwich Local Area Partnership, said: “If this Community Payback team were playing in the Premiership or Champions League, they’d be champions. Their team work is fantastic, their commitment without doubt and the difference they have made to Prestwich is phenomenal.

“The work doesn’t stop here - we hope to continue to work with Community Payback, subject to funding, for three days a month to clean off graffiti and much more.

“We certainly want to expand the idea, and arrange community clean-up weekends of action whereby, if people volunteer, we will provide skips and litter picks to tidy the streets. This team is a winning team and I hope it is here to stay.”

Graffiti and No Graffiti outside M&S earlier this month.

Wednesday nights Full Council meeting - is the 6 weekly gathering of all 51 Bury Councillors.  It has struggled to be an effective forum and rarely gets to make any real decisions - yes, talking shop would often be an accurate description.

When it can be effective is to provide an opportunity for informed debates about important issues - such as the 10:10 Environment debate we had last night.

However since the Conservatives have come to power in Bury we have seen numerous measures introduced to minimise questioning of the ruling party and provide greater control of proceedings.

That is bad enough in itself, however last night we reached a whole new level. Awkward questions were filibustered (an attempt to talk and talk without answering the question and to waste time etc), and often they weren’t answered at all. On occasion they were actually used as an excuse to attack opposition councillors.

Then the low point was reached when the Conservatives actually lost a vote. What happened next had to be seen to be believed. The Chief Executive (not a politician) advised that one of the options could be to take the vote again and allow the previously absent councillor that caused the Tories to lose the vote to reverse the decision. This was supposedly done with the advice of a senior legal officer present at the time. It should also be pointed out that the vote was counted incorrectly anyway in the first instance as there seemed a presumption that the ruling tory group had won automatically!

 It was incredible, disfunctional, manipulative, and many other things. What is was not was transparent, informing, in any way useful or democratic. It was a shambles an embarrassment and a disgrace.

Now I could take the view that this is exactly what the ruling Conservative group want. But I cannot believe they do. Ok they want to win the arguments, the votes, to get their own way like the rest of us but surely there is a better way.

I could take the view that it doesn’t really matter, who cares, it’s largely a talking shop anyway. But that would be giving in, i’m not good at that - and surely if managed better it could be a useful forum.

So I come to this conclusion. This should be an opportunity for putting things right, for reversing the damaging undermining of local democracy of recent months, for improving the way business is progressed in the council chamber and for restoring respect between councillors of different political persuasions.

 A FEW GOOD MEN (AND WOMEN OF COURSE)

Perhaps it’s time for councillors who would like to see improvements to come forward and come together to see if there is common ground to improve the way we all do things.

Naive I may be , but all in all I still believe that all 51 councillors are committed to improving Bury and to representing the people that they are elected to serve, to the best of their ability.

Perhaps we need a convention of like minded councillors that have had enough of the 6 weekly Bury council pantomine and want to start doing thing better, more professionally and with respect for their fellow councillors - however much you despise their policies.

The public frequently tell us politicians to work together, perhaps now would be a good time.

On the other hand we could just send for Coco the clown, the dancing dogs and make a proper circus of the whole shabang. Oh no they won’t….oh yes they will!

Last night  at a full meeting of Bury Council,  the main business was a motion calling for Bury Council to join with over 50 other Councils, and millions of people and join the 10:10 campaign to pledge to cut CO2 emission in Bury by 10% in 2010.

I had the honour of proposing the Lib Dem motion, my colleague, Cllr Richard Baum seconded. We accepted an appropriate amendment from the Labour Group and for a moment things actually looked positive.

Then the Conservative leader and others spoke against and my heart sank at the utter lack of understanding of the peril many of us may face in our lifetime and the perils our children and grand children will certainly face.

They talked of putting together a strategy, of putting it back until 2011, some even questioned the accepted scientific wisdom that the earth is warming and climate change affect.

Totally missing the point they talked about bringing others on board such as the business community - as it’s difficult in the recession etc.

I pointed out to deaf Conservative ears that action to cut CO2 emissions can save money as well as the planet. That the cost of ignoring climate change would have a devastating affect on businesses, our homes and quality of life. But all to no avail.

Clearly their slogan “vote Conservative, get green - is a non-starter, if not an insult to those that take the future of life on this planet seriously. Bury Conservatives are clueless on the environmental threat faced by the people of Bury , this country, the planet.

It seriously makes you question whether a Conservative Government would be prepared to take the necessary action or would they put it off ’till tomorrow. 

It was depressing, frustrating and in my book a dereliction of duty to those we serve.

You can read my speech to the Council here: climate-change-speech-281009.pdf

If you are concerned about tackling climate change I would urge you to visit the 10:10 website here and like me, join the 10:10 campaign, and encourage others to join. Bury Council may be fiddling while Rome burns but you can still play your part.

Overnight work is due on Bury Metrolink line. Residents are being advised of overnight work taking place on the Metrolink line running to Bury next week.

Work is expected to take place overnight at a number of stops along the line between Sunday 1 November and Friday 6 November while the trams are not running. Work is anticipated on the following dates:

Crumpsall – 1 November
Bowker Vale – 2 November
Heaton Park – 2 and 3 November
Prestwich – 3 November
Besses o’ th’ Barn – 4 November
Whitefield – 4 November
Radcliffe – 5 November
Bury – 5 and 6 November
Woodlands Road – 6 November

Metrolink aims to keep any disturbance caused by the work down to a minimum.

Anyone with any queries can contact the Metrolink team on 0161 244 1555 during office hours or email future.metrolink@gmpte.gov.uk. Anyone who wishes to report issues or incidents relating to the work should call 0161 205 2000.

The latest clever wheaze (so they think) from Bury Conservatives is to set up “Task and Finish ” groups to deal with sensitive issues. These can be dealt with in the peace and quite of an office buried somewhere in the Town Hall out of the glare of prying public and for that matter local councillors.

Recently they set one up to look at options for the Council Security service and prior to that the result of the initial stages of the Civic Suites review was to establish a Task and Finish group to investigate the matter futher.

TASK & FINISH - HOW IT WORKS

Bury Conservatives have decided that the way to identify savings in council services is to carry out a number of Service Improvement reviews. These are carried out by officers. The officers produce a report which is then presented to a Scrutiny Committee (which does contain Councillors!). The report to Scrutiny will contain a number of options for consideration and the recommendation that a Task and Finish group be established to investigate further and report on it’s findings to the Council Executive (which is totally controlled by the Conservatives).

By dealing with issues this way they are hoping to minimise contact with Councillors - especially opposition councillors until the last possible moment. when no doubt a detailed officer report will produce overwhelming evidence in favour of the Councils preferred option. Effectively by-passing as much of the democratic process as possible.

Recently myself and other opposition Councillors proclaimed that Scrutiny is dead in Bury. Well, local Conservatives have just buried it!

Commenting on today’s GDP figures, which show the economy shrank by 0.4% between July and September, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable said:

“For all the hopes of a quick recovery, these figures make it clear we are still in the longest and what could yet become the deepest recession on record.“For all that has been thrown at the economy to try and stimulate a recovery it is clear that massive structural problems remain, particularly in the banking sector.

“This news adds to serious concerns over the realism of Government plans to deal with the burgeoning public debt. It is critical ministers spell out a credible path as to how they will deal with the deficit.

“With the legacy of unemployment likely to remain for years after the end of the recession, we need radical measures to avoid repeating the mistakes of the 1990s which left millions on the scrap heap.”

Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Vic D’Albert added: “With thousands of families across Bury struggling to cope with the recession and unemployment, it is crucial that they see leadership and real action to deal with the affects of recession, providing genuine support, new opportunities and jobs.

“This Government is struggling to meet the aspirations of those worst affected and that means they are failing people in their hour of need. When leadership and action is expected they get the response of a head-less chicken and that just isn’t good enough.” 

This lunchtime I joined Save the Longfield Suite campaigners and spent two hours collecting signatures for the petition outside M&S in Prestwich.

I think I managed to fill over 5 pages of signatures and the response was terrific, with people eager to sign and pledge their support for retaining the Longfield Suite with it’s large sprung dancefloor.

The campaign is going from strength to strength and clearly campaigners are resolved to keep fighting until Bury Conservatives recognise the community value of the civic suites current facilities and back down over these plans. 

DON’T FORGET THE NEXT PUBLIC MEETING: Thursday November 5th, 7pm at the Longfield Suite. Your opportunity to put your questions and concerns directly to the leader of the Council, Cllr Bob Bibby.

Well the show went on as they say. No doubt whether it should or shouldn’t have will be long debated.

But it was clear last night that the persistent challenging of the BNP by the other panelists on their much publiscised right wing views did start to get to the heart of the matter. Griffin struggled to explain past quotes and failed to explain their policies.

Policies that until now they had publicly dressed up in a cloak of moderation and nationalism were becoming exposed as rascist, bigoted, homophobic, islamaphobic, divisive, illiberal and intolerant. In fact against everything Britain stands for. The mask definitely started to slip.

In that respect it’s only a shame he was subject to more forensic scrutiny as at times panelists were clearly allowing their hatred of the BNP to (understandably) get the better of them a little.

However at the end of the day, I just wonder how many current or would-be BNP voters actually watched Question Time last night because its not Nick Griffin and his mob we need to go after it’s the potential BNP voter. The problem remains the same. Mainstream parties need to persuade BNP supporters that we are worth voting for and that means we have to take their concerns seriously and find solutions.

When mainstream politics re-engages with that massive swathe of dissilusioned, apathetic voters that feel deserted and let down, then the BNP will be defeated.

Commenting after the defeat of a Liberal Democrat Opposition day motion calling for Government, Parliament, and all public sector bodies to cut their carbon pollution by 10% by the end of 2010, Vic D’Albert, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for Bury South said: “This is a bad day not just for Parliament, but our country and the planet.

“The Government has failed to understand the level of public support for the 10:10 campaign or to get the message that people want real political action now to tackle dangerous climate change.

The 10:10 campaign calls on people/organisations and Governments to pledge to take decisive action to cut carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

“Britain needs a Government which sets an example and delivers immediate and ambitious carbon reductions in the UK. Today the Government has failed to show leadership and send a clear message to the rest of the world that Britain will take action on climate change now.

Last year Liberal Democrats successfully added an 80% emission reduction target to the Climate Change Act and continue to press for Green taxes both to drive down emissions and to gradually replace traditional tax mechanisms.

“The Liberal Democrats will continue to show political leadership in dealing with the climate crisis and we will continue to give the strongest backing to the 10:10 campaign.”On Wednesday October 28th, Bury Councillors will be debating a motion to commit Bury Council  to the 10:10 campaign. “I hope for the sake of our town and it’s future citizens that the whole Council will rally behind the 10:10 banner and start to seriously examine ways and means to cutting carbon emissions in Bury.”

If you would like to join with me in taking the pledge to cut carbon emissions by joining the 10:10 campaign go to www.1010uk.org

Cllr Bob Bibby, Conservative leader of Bury Council has agreed to face prestwich residents over the Longfield Suite proposals.

At the last public meeting residents demanded that Council leaders face them to explain the proposals and listen to their case for keeping the Longfield Suite as it is.

As a result I have now organised a further public meeting on:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH at THE LONGFIELD SUITE, from 7.00 pm

Council Executive member, Cllr Beverley Sullivan has agreed to Join Cllr Bibby to hear residents concerns.

If you have a question you would like putting, but can’t make the meeting please email me on vic@burylibdems.net.

In the meantime if you would like to sign the petition it can be downloaded here: sos_petition.pdf 

Just print off, sign and return either to myself or one of my Prestwich Council colleagues.