Please don’t forget to vote in the important local elections on Thursday 1 May 2008. These elections will decide who will represent you at the Council for the next four years.

Ann Garner, our hard working local councillor for the last 5 years is the Liberal Democrat Focus Team candidate on Thursday.

Important Information
- Polling Stations are open from 7.00am - 10.00pm
- You don’t need your polling card to vote
- If you have a postal ballot, but have not yet sent it in, you can complete it as normal and take the completed envelope to your local polling station on the day.

Polling Stations in Sedgley
Downham Crescent/Meade Hill Road areas - Mobile Van on Meade Hill Road
Park Road and Brooklands Road areas - Mobile Van on Castle Hill Road
Kings Road, Bishops Road, Sedgley Park Road areas - Sedgley Park Primary School, Bishops Road
George Street, Bland Road areas - Mobile Van on Portugal Road
Whittaker Lane and Bent Hill areas - St Hilda’s Primary on Whittaker Lane
Recory Lane, Park View and Deyne Avenue areas - Park View Primary

If you need any more information, or need a lift to the polling station call our helpline on 0161 798 0117

Thank you!

Apologies for the Video Hight - we need to upgrade our software!

Election statement to readers of the Bury Times:

Liberal Democrats across Bury have had a brilliant response from local residents. People are telling us that they are fed up of Labour closing post offices, taxing poorer people and watching the economy slide. People are uncertain what the Conservatives stand for, and haven’t noticed any improvement since they took over last year.

Liberal Democrats in Bury have three clear priorities:

We want safe, thriving communities across Bury. People must feel safe in their own streets and communities. This isn’t just about tackling crime, it’s about stronger, united communities. That’s why we’re opposing Post Office closures and why we secured massively increased funding for children in the Council budget. It’s also why we have always opposed the unfair and divisive congestion charge.

We want Bury to be the greenest Metropolitan Borough in Britain. Last year Lib Dems secured blue recycling bins for every house, and this year more money for parks and cleaning. We cherish Bury’s beautiful environment. We will work hard to protect it.

We believe in giving power to local people, not keeping it at the Town Hall. This means that decisions should be made locally in the six towns that make up Bury. It means local people making decisions at the most local level about the services that effect communities.

On May 1st we have a choice - A return to the 21 years of neglect under Labour’s rule in Bury, uncertainty under the Tories, or a clear vision for a better Bury from your local Liberal Democrats.

Went straight from teaching to King’s Road playground for a quick swing, awaiting interviewer and camera man, for today’s 5-7pm news programme.  The feature is the local elections and issues in different council wards, through interviews with candidates and residents.  One of the main issues in our ward is traffic: speeding, rat runs, amount of and air pollution because of.  So I talked about encouraging parents to walk their children to school – but to do more of that we need doggie-dooh free streets and safe places to cross roads, too!   What I’m hoping for is the power of this piece to get our Council Officers to put more resources into our area to tackle poor, dirty pavements and improved crossing points (including the Bury New Road/Hilton/Scholes Lane junction)!  We’ve been lobbying for an improved school crossing for Park View on Bury New Road – for 17 years – this year with the help of lobbying parents and the local press and Channel M – it was partly improved …

We’ve been out with leaflets in between showers as well as enjoying cups of tea with supporters, leaving them with leaflets to get out next week (as well as posters to display).  Last year, at this time, we were getting tanned, not delivering in hats and gloves!  I’ve just put casseroles on, for our meals for next week, after canvassing.  A week and a half to go and then a Bank Holiday weekend so I can catch up with my garden!  Last night was great - an Oscar party for Jason’s 40th  It was great to mix outside our political pals for a few hours, too!

Coming home from work, two very small children were playing on the main road, in Salford’s Lower Broughton, throwing a doll into the path of cars and then darting to retrieve it.  It was scary – the biggest child wasn’t more than four or five.  I decided that they were playing a dangerous game and pulled in to find them and make their parents aware. 

It took me ages to weave back and got lost in the blocked-off side streets.  I parked up and went to meander around on foot.   I was really shocked at how blocking off the streets to stop rat-runs has separated the larger more affluent homes from the terraced homes below, too.  There was an area that I assume had once held garages, now full of broken glass and a small park with dumped rubbish and children playing in a skip.  I couldn’t see the little girls and hoped they had been found already.  My Dad grew up in these streets, I remember it from my childhood when I visited my Gran and it wasn’t so neglected and run down.  I hope that regeneration of the area improves it!   

As I don’t teach on a Wednesday afternoon, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Service of Thanksgiving for Charles Cross at St Mary’s Church, who was in charge of Prestwich Urban and District Council up until its merger with Bury in 1974.  He then became a barrister and continued to help and support Prestwich organisations, up until recently.  It was really interesting to hear all about his life and hobby of sailing as well as to meet some of his colleagues and friends.

I was so very glad when Vic called it a day and we could leave canvassing tonight.  Don’t get me wrong, I actually enjoy knocking on doors to talk with residents but tonight, my feet were not only cold but numb!

I took my new Lib Dem mug to work today - on seeing it, Mel almost tripped, in her efforts towards our staffroom fridge.   She had, as usual, huge bags of stuff for teaching and marking as well as her (as she has healthy food for lunch rather then my quick buttie from the canteen) buttie box.  - … ANNNNNN  is that suitable ….. ???????????

My new bright yellow Mug says ‘Beat the …. Bad News Party’ on it but she only saw the lib dem Logo and ‘Bad News Party’   !!!

My colleagues are amazing, talented, keep me focused and make sure I laugh more often than I would, without them.

It’s amazing how fast the year comes around again.  Mike came out to canvass with us tonight, it’s almost as though the last year never happened and we’ve turned back the clock.  We knocked on doors again – and after many years, so many residents are well known to us all.  It’s really odd when you are walking to a door and you remember the conversation you had with the family, last year ……you also remember the residents who don’t agree with you ….  you pause before you ring the doorbell for a repeat ….. 

At work I have my enthusiasm for my job and get on with my classes, as its too easy to focus on election work alone.  My long-suffering head of department has just had to endure one of my lessons, for my annual lesson ‘observation’ (poor man) and I am spending hours ‘feeding back’ to students, about coursework that (still) needs changing before we post samples of their work to the exam board next week.  Work provides a rest from pounding the streets and pushing our Lib Dem message through letterboxes and personal exchange.   Election time is a strange beast few understand unless they too, are involved.

Where has the sunny pre-election lead-up gone?  I need my hat and gloves again!  Case work is rolling in, leaflets need delivering and we’ve got lots of doors to knock on to speak to residents about our local May 1^st elections.  I’m back from nipping down to Plymouth to visit my son who is heading towards university exams in a few weeks.  It was good to meet his flat mates, have a wiz around Plymouth Sound in a motor boat and enjoy the train journey there and back, too.  

Now I’m back, a few hard weeks of campaigning are ahead - and I’m up for election this year too.  I am amazed that I have been a local councillor for five years - it’s been five very quick years - I have learnt so much about local government, lobbying for resident’s rights and services, working on consultations to get improvements and supporting residents to apply for grants and when things go wrong, complain, too.  There’s still so very much do do - I hope residents can put their trust in me again, to help them.

Nick Clegg has sent this email to all members – pity I’m too far away from

London to join the protests this weekend:

“Today I have written to the Prime Minister asking him to pull out of this weekend’s ceremony welcoming the Olympic torch to London in advance of the Beijing Games.  When China made its bid to host the Olympics, the Deputy Mayor of Beijing said that this was an indication of

China’s wish to “promote” democracy and human rights.  But it has done nothing of the sort.  Recent events in Tibet, broken promises over media freedoms, ongoing human rights abuses and intransigence over the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur have made a mockery of

China’s “commitment” to progressive freedoms. As the prospective host of the 2012 Games, Britain has a particular responsibility to hold

China to account for its broken promises and its poor record on human rights. 

Gordon Brown should not attend this weekend’s event or any future events to mark the Beijing Games - including the opening ceremony on 8th August – until

China lives up to the expectations placed upon it by the Olympic Charter. The Charter states that “Olympism seeks to create a way of life based on the joy of effort, the educational value of good example and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles”. 

China should do that by taking four clear steps.

First, President Hu Jintao should agree to meet the Dalai Lama for face-to-face talks on a mutually acceptable solution to the contested status of

Tibet and the treatment of Tibetans.

Second, China should honour its commitment to allow the free access of foreign journalists to all parts of the country and to talk to any individual who gives consent to be interviewed: China should not use the Olympics as an excuse to further restrict the freedom of its domestic media.

Third, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China should use its influence in Khartoum to remove obstacles to the United Nations-African Mission in

Darfur.

Fourth,

China should demonstrate its commitment to civil and political rights by ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).I  believe firmly in the spirit of the Olympic Games, and in the value of human rights and civil liberties. 

We should use the opportunity of the Olympic Games to exert pressure on

China to live up to those values; and the British government should express its clear disapproval until it does so. Best wishes,
Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats”

I couldn’t agree more!    

Liberal Democrats have announced a full team of candidates to contest the elections for Bury Council on Thursday 1 May 2008. One third of the seats on the Council are up for election, with one councillor to be elected in each of the 17 wards.

Two Councillors are seeking re-election - Vic D’Albert in Holyrood and Ann Garner in Sedgley.

Liberal Democrat candidates are:
Ramsbottom, Tottington and North Manor
Ramsbottom - Janet Turner
Tottington - David Foss
North Manor - Ewan Arthur
Bury West
Elton - Robert Sloss
Church - Tamsin Thomson
Bury East
Moorside - Nissa Finney
East - Emma Davison
Redvales - Paul Jenkins
Radcliffe
Radcliffe North - Lynne Molloy
Radcliffe West - Joanne O’Hanlon
Radcliffe East - Mike Halsall
Whitefield and Unsworth
Unsworth - Theo Tzymcyca
Besses - Julie Baum
Pilkington Park - Wayne Burrows
Prestwich
Holyrood - Vic D’Albert
St Mary’s - Mary D’Albert
Sedgley - Ann Garner

The Lib Dems have claimed to be the “practical” party of local government at the launch of their campaign for council elections in England and Wales. Leader Nick Clegg said the party’s record was a “success story - quality services, and value for money”.

Speaking at the campaign launch in Sheffield, he accused Labour of failing on crime and the Tories of having “no stomach” for addressing green issues.

The party currently controls 29 local authorities across Britain, and is defending 700 Council seats on May 1st. We also hope to make other gains in Bury, including of course in St Mary’s.

Today, Nick Clegg said the party had come up with local solutions to problems including housing, crime and the environment.

“The Liberal Democrat record in local government is a success story - quality services, and value for money. And we are ready to apply the lessons that we have learned to councils throughout this country. “ He said: “We don’t promise to fix or solve every problem, but we do promise to give people a say, to give them the opportunity to fix things for themselves.”