Back-Pay I got mine – both of – for my full-time teaching job and part-time political Councillor work/role for Bury MBC. So, why haven’t the Police got theirs? Bury MBC pays its share from our local Council Tax payers money into Police coffers and for one, I expect Police pay rises to he honoured!

Alan Gordon vice-Chair of the Police Federation commenting for The Observer, today, says that it’s caused the Government extreme embarrassment …. He thinks that ‘they were hoping that the whole problem would disappear over the Christmas break’ …. Will that be when the Police are at home with their families like teacher, me…. or WORKING …….. and feeling very annoyed that their public sector counterparts are hitting the Christmas Sales with their back-pay?

Switched to a relaxing Christmas cheer and ready to settle with a book, last night – news of the shocking assassination of Benazir Bhutto brought me back to the reality of politics and violence in other countries, especially the dangers to women politicians when they put themselves forward to challenge the status quo.  BBC 4’s Women’s Hour focused on this, this morning, beginning with the re-transmission of their July interview with Benazir and her hopes for the political future of Pakistan. They followed with a superb piece about women in Kenya and how many are continually bullied by men who consider their place to be at home and not in the political arena - if you didn’t catch it - you can for the next 7 days!

Supplementary Info: Accident Statistics (from Bury MBC) - this is very worrying!          

Injury collision info in the most recent standard 3 year monitoring period available to us ( ie 01/10/04 - 30/09/07 ) it has been revealed that there have been 15 injury collisions which have occurred at this junction during this period.  Fourteen of these injury collisions resulted in slight injury and one of the injury collisions was recorded as a serious injury collision. 

The collisions resulted in 27 casualties from the 15 injury collisions recorded. Twenty one of the casualties were either drivers or passengers, 2 were motorcyclists, 3 were pedal cyclists and 1 casualty was a pedestrian.

I much prefer to walk, its better for you and a steady pace burns 100 calories per hour ….. However, to walk in urban villages such as Prestwich, you need to be able to cross the roads!  We’ve got a new ‘joined-up’ Police-operated traffic management system for arterial roads to the City of Manchester.  Which means that lights are operated and altered to suit traffic flow.  An impact for us locally is that traffic junction light change sequences are speedier.  This has resulted in more traffic accidents from motorists who jump lights as they turn to read as well as impossibility for pedestrians to cross some road junctions.  However, traffic flow has improved and standing traffic with resulting pollution, reduced.  

The A56 junction of Bury New Road with Hilton Lane/Scholes Lane is now a particular problem, concerning many residents and school children.  As it’s also a junction that I use regularly, I see children and Mums darting across and stupid drivers refusing to allow them time to cross- how sick can people be when they start to drive up to people to push them off the road.  I was so mad I wanted to drive into one man recently as he forced a mother with a pram and two children to literally run for their lives.  But that’s not the answer! 

So at our recent Council meeting, I asked the question about why this junction is so dangerous and yet there are no plans for improvements due to the scale of costs of doing it.  I’d lobbied for a re-modelling survey and costings to be done and have been told it will be over £1 million!  I’ve asked to Scoot to slow traffic down there and a lolly-pop school crossing service.  Ah……… but the junction is unsuitable for a crossing patrol - ……. – is it too dangerous for one?  When the junction is finally improved, I was told, they will certainly consider a crossing!   I’ve been working to get this junction improved for several years and it’s getting more and more dangerous and will continue to campaign for it.

Do we have the record for the greatest number of new party leaders in two years?   At least we can now settle down and get to business - getting our message across and persuading residents to vote for us.  I’ve just been helping at a Christmas party for gentlemen who live at a rehabilitation hostel in Manchester. 

It’s part of my day-job as a teacher, not my political hobby - something we do, as a college, each year.  I was there to support my students who were helping our guests to have a lovely meal and enjoy carols, turns and bingo. One of the care workers and I recognised each other - I leaflet her home regularly.  She tries each year to get her husband and son to vote - they don’t and we had a really positive conversation about how difficult it is to get people to believe that their vote is vitally important and by voting for us we can make a difference. 

She’s a great lady, one of the ‘Joans’ of life - she works hard caring for the home’s residents and enabling them to move on with their lives, she has her family and looks after her Dad too.  She’s the lady who lives next door to us - or that we hope that she does - the lady who is always there to lend a hand and always be pleasant and cheerful.  Not somebody who expects everybody else to do everything and them to do nothing. 

It was a special evening - it always is.  Being elderly comes to us all and hostels such as this that work so hard to help are so few and poorly funded - we need to do more to help them to do more.  Our leader has a lot of work to do to help us to do this.

I have just received the news that Manchester City Council will not allow houses to be built in Marie Louise gardens after all - residents and park lovers have lobbied for over eight months to ensure that the green spaces of this park are not lost for ever.  It’s a really special place - if you get time to visit it - I have been there many times over the years - the best was when assessing play workers for their NVQs with a group of children for a Teddy Bear’s picnic!  http://www.westdidsbury.org.uk/news/home.ikml

 Previous posting on my Blog Site for 8th February (www.anngarner.net) about the development:

“I am in West Didsbury Residents Association. We are opposing development plans in a small park on Palatine Rd, Manchester, called Marie Louise Gardens. The park lodge was sold under a rather dubious ‘right to buy’ to a parks superintendent and it has now been bought by a night club promoter who is going to vastly extend it. He has quietly negotiated boundary changes to his property with Manchester Leisure and the purchase of a further 400 sq metres of park land on which he plans to build a showy 18 room villa with balconies overlooking the park. He will be giving an undisclosed 6 figure sum of money to Manchester Leisure to fund “improvements” to the park as payment for the additional land. All this was negotiated behind closed doors and only came out in the plans.The two developments will dominate the small and tranquil park in a way which was never intended when it was designed. The park will effectively become the back garden for the developments. The plans can be viewed on www.manchester.gov.org.uk /planning/public
access. Plan nos -081609/FH/2006/S2″

Manchester City’s Labour Council should have thrown plans to build in this park and loose green space months ago - they should be ashamed of themselves!

Some weeks have similar meetings and activities, and others not.  I chair the Academic and Pastoral sub-committee of one of our local high schools.  This week’s meeting was agreeing targets for different year groups.  Data from previous years, the local authority (Bury) and Fisher Family Trust (national research) are used to explore how teacher’s aspirations for their pupils compare with trends.  It’s always an interesting meeting and one that you need to be able to really focus and work with the data presented to us.  The teachers and pupils then work really hard to focus on beating the targets!  This approach of setting achievable but challenging targets has enabled the school to improve year on year.

 After this meeting I had a Tenants and Residents meeting.  We’ve got super plans being drawn up for major improvements and the residents were delighted that so much is going to be done when there have been years of stagnation.   Our Prestwich Area Partnership meeting was on another evening – thank goodness – as preparing for the meeting means an hour or so of checking minutes and jiggling in your head, how you will present the reports that you need to discuss.  I presented a short report of the workings of our Community Regeneration sub-group, which I have been chairing.  One of our projects is working towards regenerating an empty block of shops on Chapel Road that will make a huge, huge difference to residents if we can get health and support and childcare and a pharmacy there too.  Then other businesses will see viability and take on other shops, we hope.  There is a small pot of funding to push the project forward too - all we need is for our partners to work together and make it happen.   Tonight – is a local political fund raising dinner – so off to get ready.

Our Climate change Poster competition presentation finally happened on Monday evening.  Eleven of our prize winners and their families were able to attend.  It was great to meet them and for them to see the winning poster, too.  I also met and chatted with teachers from Bury Church High School’s Geography department.  It was extra special to meet with them as one, Mr Taylor, had been my Form tutor and teacher when I’d been at the school!  He also taught my sons. 

Our Mayor, Catherine who is our area’s Youth parliament Representative and Lady Mayoress presented certificates and Goodie Bags.  Everybody was so very welcome and also interested in the Council Chamber – it needs to be used more for occasions such as this – to also positively promote local democracy, by visiting and finding a little bit more about the Chamber and what goes on there.  Unfortunately I had to miss our Bury Friends of the Earth meeting on Wednesday evening to evaluate the Poster competition’s outcomes with them, it was Parent’s Evening at work – I was surprised at the number of parents who came to see us especially before an important Footie match. 

Tomorrow is a Lib Dem Leadership hustings – so I need to find my membership card – I haven’t voted yet……I am also disappointed that a Woman hasn’t stood, we could do with somebody distinctly different to the other two party leaders with distinctly brill (as usual) Lib Dem policies to push forward.

Its’ been another interesting and busy week, marred by the complete lack of progress for improving the junction of Scholes Lane/Hilton Lane and Bury New Road junction – which almost hits somebody every day.  Apparently our dear Council agree it needs work but a lack of finance hampers progress.  I’m just worried that the youngsters who use the junction to cross each day don’t have too many problems in the meanwhile – and my email to Children and Young People and Engineering has said as such.    Rant aside, it’s been a week of sub-groups and talking to residents from a flat development about supporting their fledgling Tenants and Residents group that’s been besieged by problems.  One sub-group has been exploring the progress and quality of our Sure Start Children’s Centers – this was a good meeting.  Another evening was the sub-group of our Local Area Partnership which I chair – about regeneration of areas of neglect and deprivation.  We’re exploring and looking for pots of cash to support the re-generation of Rainsough’s

I really find the damp, cold, dark mornings a struggle when my duvet is so very warm and cosy.  As always, the busy world beckons and I find myself in my car heading towards another day at 7.30.  This week was different as my husband was away on a training course so my son and I were able to chart our own way through the week without having to fit in with Andrew’s busy schedule too. 

My mid-highlight was sharing the outcomes of our Climate change Poster competition with the Climate Change sub-group of Bury Council’s Environment, Economy and Transport Scrutiny Commission.  The Council plans to use poster entries to promote environmental services and the spin-off is the web resources web link to the Council Web Site too.

I have been the project’s coordinator.  It was good to share how we planned as a partnership between Friends of the Earth and Council departments to undertake the competition over the last six months, with the sub-group of officers, councillors and environmentalists.  So many young people had entered the competition that we had quite a challenge to undertake the judging process.  Winners have been invited to attend a presentation ceremony at the Town Hall.  I’ve been putting together winners goodie bags of fun and interesting things to promote climate change issues as well as the library service and other environmental council services.  Friends of the Earth have been wonderful – the competition has been a joint partnership between the Council and Bury’s FoE group – and HQ have posted over bits and bobs for the goodie bags too – so I need to phone and thank them next week.

As well as spending time liaising with Council Officers about the competition, case work and other issues this week, I’ve also met with our Local Area Partnership manager to talk our way through the sub-group that I’ll be chairing next week.  Its always interesting and important to meet, between meetings to update on issues of concern and  explore where items need more work or chasing up.  One of our main concerns for this re-generation sub-group of the Area partnership is a block of abandoned shops at the edge of our area that belongs to Salford Council’s social housing. 

We’ve been trying to push the re-vamping and re-opening of the shops for years and have done a lot of background work - the problem is that our local residents information tells us that theshops eventually shut as they couldn’t afford to pay protection money.  This issue worries me - big boy bullies threatening decent people who just want to run a small local business as chip shop or paper shop or launderette. 

If this is so, local people are denied shops close to home and are forced to use ever-disappearing bus services over to bigger shopping centres.  This is too much as people get frail and elderly and unable to venture too far from home.  I am hoping we can work in partnership and do something here.  It looks like a long-term project and not something that will happen over the next few weeks and will involve a lot of work too, for our local Lib Dem Cllrs.  Richard met with the Salford Ward Cllr for the shops a few months ago, who was keen to push forward on this issue.

Last night Andrew and I attended a fund raiser dinner with our friends in Hazel Grove constituency.  Although Marple Golf Club is interesting to find in the dark, we enjoyed a super dinner, wonderful company and listen to the after dinner speeches by MPs Andrew Stunnel  http://www.andrewstunell.org.uk  and Jo Swinson http://www.joswinson.org.uk/.  Jo, the youngest woman MP, talked about the role of women in politics, her work to encourage more to become engaged in politics as well as her bill and efforts to reduce excess supermarket packaging and establish guidance and standardisation towards environmental sustainability.  A very enjoyable evening.    As its raining this morning, I’m able to catch up with blogs, case work and washing …….I hope the weather improves ….. I ate so well last night, my body needs a spot of leafleting….

Had great fun yesterday.  I’ve been project coordinating a joint venture between Bury Friends of the Earth and Bury Council’s Environmental Services to develop a Climate change Poster Competition.  We had 100s of entries - not the 1000s we’d hoped for BUT it took us all day to sort out and judge what we did have - we’d still have been there if there had been more!  Posters submitted by local young people are superb, I hope that the Council will make full use of them to promote ‘green’ issue awareness, re-cycling and other council services such as their Energy Saving Show house - which is a superb resource.

 Ann

In March 2007 the Liberal Democrat team on Bury Council successfully proposed a budgetary amendment which extended the “Blue Bin” recycling scheme to every house in the Borough.

The success of the scheme was confirmed in a response to a question our colleague Cllr Tim Pickstone raised at the Full Council meeting last night. 1,020 Tonnes of recyclables were collected in July 2007 - the first month after the Blue-Bin roll-out up from 767 Tonnes in July 2006 - a massive 33% increase!

Its excellent to see such a great response from the public to the recycling initiative. The Lib Dem’s are already asking when the scheme can be made fortnightly for everyone. My colleague Cllr Richard Baum also asked for a report on the small number of households who’ve not yet received their bins (mostly farms, but a few areas with restricted lorry access). I’ll let you know this information when its received.

A company that ignored Bury Council’s warning to stop excavating near
protected trees has been ordered to pay £19,000 for wilfully damaging them.

At a hearing at Bury Magistrates court earlier this month Thomas Barnes PLC
pleaded guilty to two offences contravening the town and country planning
act while working on the site of the former Thorndyke House, Bury New Road,
Preswich.

Magistrates heard that in October 2002 a tree preservation order was issued
by Bury Council in respect of nine trees at the site in Prestwich.

Nearly two years later in April 2004 landscaping plans were submitted as
part of a development of 10 flats on the grounds.

Bury council’s landscape architect Michael Dowd was concerned that a
proposed wall and pathway could damage some of the protected tress’ roots
and he contacted the developers. They then submitted revised planes, which
were approved by the council.

The officers took evidential photographs and warned the site manager
regarding the condition of the trees, that the area must not be excavated
any further and that areas should be re-instated rapidly and adequate tree
protection measures put in place immediately.

Examination found that the damage caused rendered both trees beyond saving
as living specimens and the weight of the structure could not be supported
by what remained of the roots and could collapse with serious health and
safety consequences. Following correspondence between the council and
representatives of the company, proceedings were started.

The magistrates decided that the most serious aspect of the case was that
the company continued with excavation work despite the council’s warning in
October 2005 that it was causing damage to the trees, and told to reinstate
the ground.

They took into account the previous good record of the company and fined the
company £8000 on each offence giving a total fine of £16, 000 with legal and
investigation costs of £3000. The grand total was £19 000 to be paid within
28 days. The company have the option of appealing against this decision
within 21 days.

Bury Council continue to pursue the company to arrange for replacement trees
to be put in place.

Councillor Ann Garner said “It is imperative that the company replace these trees as soon as possible, the protection of our environment is more important than developers profits”

Residents who live alongside the Metrolink line need to be aware that the contractors currently working on renewing the track have informed the Council that some limited work may be needed during the night. Your local councillors have protested against this proposal, and we have received assurances that no heavy cutting or noisy work will take place. 

Residents should only have to endure some noise for one night in the majority of cases, but on occasion there will be areas which are inconvenienced for two nights. Please contact one of your councillors if work is disturbing you during the night and we will report this immediately to the relevant authorities.

The proposed areas and dates for night working are given below:

Thursday 16^th August – Prestwich to Heaton Park

Friday 17th August  –  Heaton Park to Bowker Vale

Saturday 18^th August – Bowker Vale

Thursday 23rd August  –  Prestwich to Heaton Park  

Friday 24^th August – Heaton Park to Bowker Vale

Saturday 25^th August – Bowker Vale to Queens Road

Wednesday 29^th August – Bowker Vale to Crumpsall

The work will take place in the above mentioned locations between the hours of 10pm and 10am each night and every effort will be made to keep un-necessary noise down to a minimum.  For more details about the track upgrades programme, please phone 0161 228 7811 or visit www.gmpte.com.  Alternatively call Carillion Control on 01788 866 080.

The proposal to introduce a congestion charge for Manchester raises too many questions for local people and should be opposed - say local Lib Dems.

Liberal Democrats in Prestwich have raised concerns about the proposals to charge local people up to £5 a day for driving into into Manchester with toll points at the M60 and the “intermediate ring road”.

 • Charging people to cross the M60  will divide the local communities of Prestwich and Whitefield. Why should we pay to make a local journey to schools, shops or health facilities that doesn’t go anywhere near Manchester!  Either all roads will have charges or terrible “rat runs” will be created. What happens to Simister village just outside the M60?
• The scheme just isn’t Green. It does nothing to tackle the big source of air pollution in Prestwich/Whitefield, the M60.

• For an extra tax of up to £1,300 per person a year what do we get? A few more trams and a few school buses? Using the tram costs more than the proposed charge!

Lib Dem leader Cllr Tim Pickstone said: 
“Everyone knows we need to work hard for the environment and to reduce congestion, but this scheme just seems so wrong for our local area. We cannot support a scheme that divides our local community and does nothing to solve the major environmental questions that face us today.

Tell us what you think. Sign our online petition at www.prestwichsaysno.com