In response to the latest consultation with Bury Council about the proposed Goals Games Zone in Heaton Park, Bury Council has maintained their committment to a 10pm curfew on floodlights.

I had attended last nights Planning Committee to see what Bury’s response would be and to press for concerns to be raised about inadequate parking provision in the proposals.

I asked the Committee to maintain its previous position that floodlights should be turned off at 10pm and that extra car parking should be provided. The present provision appears to presume that Five-a-side teams will either arrive on foot or all in the same car, with no other visitors and will all leave just as the next customers arrive!

Although I regret that Bury Planning Committee has not taken a tougher stance in recognition of the noise and light pollution residents will face and additional traffic problems. They are at least maintaining  a consistent approach.

It is understood that Manchester City Council may not consider the application until February and that further public consultation may be required.

SAY NO TO GOALS, SAY YES TO PROTECTING HEATON PARK

 KEEP IT GREEN

Sadly with 3 meeting all scheduled between 5 and 7pm last night I probably didn’t contribute as much as I would like last night, arriving late and leaving early from the first two!

ALLOTMENTS

It has been a grwoing for some time that the Council could with encouraging more “grow your own” veg etc and as part of this there is the feeling that we could do with more allotments in the area. Despite there being 559 at present there is a waiting list of up to 400, some of whome have probably been waiting years.

The big problem is that they generate very little money for the Council, but costs a great deal more and need significant improvements yet. And the Council don’t have the spare resources at present – hardly a priority compared to front line life enhancing services.

Nevertheless with the right political will I am sure more could be done to try and identify further resources internally or externally. After all they improve health, save money and essentially provide for a more sustainable local environment.

The Climate Change Working Group who received a report about the current situation with allotments in the Borough will be looking further at this issue.

PARK & PLAY AREAS

At the latest meeting of Polefield Tenants and Residents Association I was delighted to hear about progress towards creating a park/natural play area on St.Josephs fields near Sandgate Road.

We were presented with draft plans that were pretty exciting and involved altering the layout of the land and re-landscaping to create a more attractive area with shubery and trees and undulating ground, interspersed with wooden play equipment and play area.

These plans followed a consultation exercise with students at Parrenthorn and other local schools. A full public consultation exercise is set to follow in February. However I am convinced that these improvements would provide a nuch better local nature and play facility.

On Monday December 21st from 7pm, Join the Mayor of Bury, Local Councillors, Faith and Community leaders for the 1st Prestwich Community Carol Service at St.Mary’s Church, Church lane, Prestwich.

Nearly 40,000 children have been fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol-related offences in the last five years. The number has increased by over a quarter in that period, according to research by the Liberal Democrats. The key points are: 

·         39,714 people aged under 18 were fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol related offences between 2003 and 2007

·         This includes 124 children aged 10 to 12 and 6,111 aged 13 to 15

·         The number of under-18s fined, cautioned or taken to court for alcohol related offences has increased by 28.4% from 6,764 in 2003 to 8,686 in 2007

·         The number of 13 to 15 year olds being cautioned has increased by 17.4% and the number of 13 to 15 year olds being taken to court has increased by 19.9% in the same period.  

Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Bury South said said:“These figures are absolutely shocking. It’s extremely worrying to see how many children are being dragged into the criminal justice system through alcohol abuse. The problem appears to be growing worse by leaps and bounds. 

“There has been a lot of Government talk about the alcohol crisis in this country but these figures show that they are completely failing to tackle this crisis. 

“Unless we change our drinking culture, we will condemn many of these children and adolescents to serious long-term alcohol-related illnesses or a life of crime. We must stamp out the sale of ultra-cheap alcohol being sold at pocket-money prices and improve the education of our children about the dangers of drink.

“The Government must get serious about this escalating problem. They must end the culture of cheap booze imports and show zero tolerance when enforcing a strict policy that those who sell alcohol to under-age children will lose their licence.”

Commenting on Ed Balls’ announcement that the Government is to water down plans on vetting and barring, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for Bury South, Vic D’Albert said:

“At last the Government has injected some common sense into this issue. This u-turn is long overdue. The Governments heavy-handed approach to rules on parental vetting were likely to deny opportunities to young people, damaging extra curricular activities at schools and actually harm parental involvement with their children, rather than significantly improve their safety.

“There is still some concern however that this U-turn doesn’t go far enough.  

“The existing daft regulations on child protection require even police officers to go through an expensive and bureaucratic registration system. It’s not yet clear whether rules of this type are going to be swept away.We can only hope that the Governments will see sense on this aspect as well and make further reforms.”

As is usual with this Government the devil is in the detail. With the pleadges to protect services and the fairly minimal increases in taxation combined to a pledge to half the country’s borrowing, if anything was clear it was that the sums didn’t quite add up.

Now thanks to the Institute of Fiscal Studies we have expert examination that confirms what many feared , that “unprotected” services will face cuts of £36 Billion over the next 3 years. To put this into context the Armed Forces budget is £38 Bn.

Whilst that is a worry to put it mildly, what is also worrying is that we now learn that Gordon Brown overruled Alastair Darling and the Treasury on the proposed strategy. The Treasury wanted to make deeper cuts sooner – which the opposition generally believe is necessary. But Gordon Brown with an eye on the coming election clearly felt the medicine would be too severe and stepped in – but at what cost to the economy and peoples livelihoods?

Interestingly Brown is on record as a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher. Older readers will recall that Thatcher regularly usurped her Chancellors – remember Lamont, Howe and Lawson? Has Brown modelled himself on Thatcher? If so with £36 Billion of cuts coming our way the suffering will be long and hard.

Last night I sat down to watch a couple of my favourite TV programmes. Spooks, A fictional MI5 drama was all about the fact that if the Government couldn’t sieze assets of around £2 bn from an unscrupulous bank, then the country would be bankrupt and unable to pay public sector workers.

This scenario then seemed to morph into the news where I was confronted with Alastair Darling the Chancellor informing the country that we were in a worse mess than he had thought but he had a plan that involved bingo and boilers!

I have to tell you “Spooks” was more believable. Alastair Darling looked like a rejected pilot episode of “Yes Minister”.

I doubt there is anyone left in this country who does not know the nations finances are in a mess, that tough action is needed. Yet we saw a Chancellor trying desperately to offer nuggets of comfort, little tasty morsels to see us through a miserable winter.

He promised to protect Health and Education from cuts and offered increases in some benefits for next year – but what about the following years, after the General Election?

Read the rest of this entry.

Manchester City Council have announced that the application from Goals
Soccer Centres to build a commercial soccer centre in Heaton Park will
now NOT be considered at the Planning Committee on 17 December 2009. 

This is the second time that the proposals have failed to make it to Planning
Committee - earlier concerns meant the application was not considered in
September.
 
Local campaigners, whilst welcoming the delay, say the "fight must go on" to
stop this part of the park being ruined. The application is still expected to come
before Committee in the new year. 
 
Vic D'Albert, Parliamentary candidate for Bury South and local councillor said,
“I welcome this further delay and urge Manchester City Council even at this late
stage to reflect on the negative impact that this development would have on 
Heaton Park and the surrounding community. The legacy to future generations
should be trees and open parkland not concrete and cages.”
 
“Don't sell Greater Manchester short, abandon these proposals and start a real
dialogue on how best to ensure Heaton Park is sustainable and preserved for
the benefit of all, this generation and those that follow."

The National Autistic Society is running a FREE Information Sharing Drop-In giving you the chance to meet a range of providers who offer support and services to people with autism and their families.

The Information Sharing Drop-In will also offer FREE training sessions on Sensory Issues by the National Autistic Society HELP! Team as well as information on the changes in Social care.

Date: Wednesday 9^th December

Time: 10am – 6.30pm

Location: The MET, Market Street, Bury BL9 0BW

Everyone is welcome! Just come along to have a chat and find out more. For further information, please contact Sara on 07766248915

For further information about Bury Adult Care Services? Then visit: www.bury.gov.uk/adults

Hundreds of local residents and represents of all three main parties on Bury Council turned out at lunchtime today to form a human chain around the Longfield Suite.

The event was billed as an opportunity for residents to show their support for the Longfield Suite and they certainly made it clear that they opposed Bury Councils plans to “reconfigure” the Suite. A move which could see the end of the much prized dance floor.

Vic D’Albert said, “If ever we needed to show that local people care and that local people want Bury Conservatives to change their mind about these plans then today they sent a very clear message to the Council leaders that Prestwich won’t put up with threatened damaging changes to the Longfield Suite.”

“Once more I would say to Cllr Bibby, Leader of the Council, to call a halt to these proposals, confirm that the dance floor will stay and involve local people in improving the Longfield Suite for all.”