Work has been a busy and also very, very sad place to be this week. The very tragic death of one of our young students has jolted us to reflect at this loss, the loss to his family and friends and to society as a whole. I was fortunate to be able to attend the memorial Mass held in our Chapel today. It was a very sensitive, calming and carefully put together time to celebrate what he meant to his family, our students, staff and the college. As many of the students attending are of different faiths and none, the service booklet also directed students through different parts of the service and what they symbolise. It was very fitting.

What an amazing meeting – showing the Tories in their true colours and also deciding to limit democracy at council meetings … a … ‘We Are in Charge’ …. approach …. in limiting our involvement …. is a dangerous place to be when locally, we need to work together on so many issues to find sustainable solutions to meet local issues and needs. Even a Tory who spoke out, had to toe the whip and vote against his own beliefs of fair, open and honest debate.

Richard later presented our motion about further proposed Post Office closures. His pitch, timing, research, structure and body language was spot on. All parties voted to support our Motion voicing our concerns and objections to further closures as well as a need for a more community centred approach that is sustainable too. More creative approaches to services being supported are needed.

Last weekend was a Wendy’s 40th b’day party at a campsite in beautiful, quaint Dent. A special time to catch up with folk we’ve not seen for ages and ages. It made me remember that I need to think about friends and family and not just work, work, work! So with that in mind I surprised Mum when I popped in for a coffee, after college. Something I need to do more often!

Marking late coursework, an exam board key skill quality visit, case work and our councillor group meeting have filled the rest of the week nicely. The only fly in the ointment is being mis-quoted in this week’s Jewish Telegraph by Dr Wise. When Richard Baum and I met with him, he wanted to know why generally I avoid the press unless absolutely necessary – this is a stark reminder!

I was fortunate to be at our annual North West Lib Dem dinner last night - Nick Clegg’s after dinner speech was superb, motivational and without a prompt sheet! He’s knowledgeable and focused with the right carefully considerred policies to make a difference as well as a growing supportive army of MPs and party members! It’s a shame it wasn’t being filmed! He was also good at answering questions put to him. I liked the way that he didn’t over use hand gestures or sound bites - which the other two party leaders do - which makes them come across as puppets without originality! I also had the amazing opportunity to ask advice on how to approach Dr Wise and his article in JC from Jim Hancock. It was strange to be able to talk with somebody whom I’ve listened to on the radio, for so many years! He’s personable and genuinely interested in people, without the know-it all arrogance of many, which is how it should be.

It’s a showery day, making me not looking forward to touting for petition signatures against Post Office closures in Bury and Radcliffe! However, its important that we get our message across to people adn make sure they know whats happening! I also need to get our Focus leaflet into letter boxes this week before we circulate another about Bury’s Mayoral Referendum. My leaflets are delayed for a number of reasons, one being a war my chiropodist and I have been waging on a small army of warts on my foot, making walking painful for a while!

In the wake of the announcement that dozens of post offices in and around Greater Manchester, 5 in Bury and 11 across the Stockport Borough, are scheduled for closure, Liberal Democrats from across the area have launched a petition to ‘Save our Post Offices’.

Hazel Grove Constituency MP Andrew Stunell, Cheadle Constituency MP Mark Hunter, Manchester Withington MP John Leech and Rochdale MP Paul Rowen, along with Lib Dem Councillors and activists launched the petition today in central Manchester by holding a demonstration to oppose the plans and asking local residents to sign up in support of the protest.

Speaking after the launch Mr Hunter said: “It’s not too late for action on this issue. I hope local people will speak out and sign our petition to save their local post office. Many are under threat now and many more will surely follow if the Government gets is way.

“Post Offices are a vital part of the community; they often help to keep local other shops afloat and are relied on by a very wide variety of people particularly the elderly and young mums. It seems to me that Labour is fast becoming a Government that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. The Liberal Democrats are committed to the future of the Post Office and we will keep up our campaign to show the Government that local people want to keep their Post Offices open.”

Mr Stunell added: “We lost a lot of Post Offices in this area when the Conservatives were last in Government, and now we are faced with a Labour Government that does not understand how strongly people feel about their local Post Office.

In fact the situation could soon get even worse - the Post Office Card Account that many pensioners rely on for drawing their pensions and benefits is being reviewed and if that work is lost by Royal Mail than even more Post Offices will surely be closed in the future.

The Liberal Democrats have a viable plan to prevent further closures and help to sustain the network; a plan that wouldn’t cost the earth that would invest in our local Post Office network not chop it up. Post Offices should be local and should be supporting our communities and we will continue to fight with our local community to save them.”

Elected Mayor discussions, ridiculous post office closure proposals, developments towards City Regions, capital building investment/refurbishment and school places reviews for primary and high schools … its only Wednesday! Tomorrow is a Litter Scrutiny sub-group to explore how we can stop people dumping, littering as well as get dog-owners to be more responsible about doggie doohs.

Close to our home a few nights ago, a neighbour disturbed his late night burglar and was very seriously assaulted. I hope he recovers and can come home from hospital soon. Being hurt in your own home by an unwelcome predator is both a very nasty invasion of your privacy and personal feelings of safety and security and worryingly, on the increase.

Residents have asked us to find out when more re-cycling will take place as many residents (5, 000 of them) as well as schools/youth and community centres still don’t all have a brown bin for composting garden and other such waste or full access to re-cycling activities.

Fellow St Mary’s Lib Dem Cllr Donal O’Hanlon and I were at the first meeting of the Scrutiny Commission for Environment, Economy and Transport last night and a report about re-cycling was tabled for our discussion/comment/scrutiny.

Apparently there is a review taking place to work out how to use the equipment (trucks) and staff teams more effectively in order to be able to extend re-cycling more efficiently. It’s hoped that more brown bins will be available by the end of 2008 and that the Council, can take recyclables from schools by incorporating them into new collection routes.

As to the green bags for paper/card/catalogues/directories - although it’s accepted that the green bags are not fully sufficient/fit for purpose and they blow around - alternatives explored at present have not turned up anything more viable - as yet. And if households need more than 2 green bags they can have them - just phone Bury council (253 5000) or email me and I’ll deliver them with your Focus.

I am shocked to find out that households are still only enabling the Council to collect 26% of possible material for re-cycling of what they produce - this is ridiculous! We all need to do more!

All the Greater Manchester Councils (except Wigan) all work together for re-cycling and waste disposal to develop a joined-up approach as well as keep costs in check. There are new re-cycling sorting plants coming on-line over the next 2-3 years which will also increase the quality of re-recyclable materials that the Greater Manchester Councils can jointly sell/pass to companies to then re-cycle. The more companies want different materials from household rubbish to re-cycle, the more that can then be collected from us householders.

An interesting development, is that a Bury charity called re-Build, refurbishes furniture for needy people. The Council now takes bulky items that are suitable over to them to mend/repair instead of putting it in landfill! This is what should be happening. Re-build also have volunteers who need to have work experience working for them, too - so its more than a furniture re-vamping process but a real community-based approach.

However, for may residents, the issue of re-cycling is blood-boiling stuff – as much of our rubbish, ie unsolicited letters and unnecessary packaging, we have to dispose of, we didn’t ask for in the first place!

I ‘phoned one of our residents, to see how she’s recovering from a nasty pavement fall. As well as lots of stitches above her eye, she’s lost feeling to part of her scalp and was telling me how odd it feels when she’s blow-drying her hair. However, she was looking forward to a week away in the family caravan; I hope she has a well-deserved rest and break. After several other calls, I chatted with one of our supporters, she’s really been hit sideways by both a family bereavement and nasty bug. Cllr colleague, Steve, is pleased that some ugly and dangerous old coal-bunkers will be removed from the gardens of bungalows for retired people. Hubby and Cllr colleague, Andrew’s still chasing broken promises to re-house a local family as well as recovering from mountains of leafleting in the by-election.

Yesterday, we took our youngest son out to lunch at Sam’s Chop House. He was delighted to be able to eat as well as watch the Monaco Grand Prix! Celebrating the end of his BTEC studies and hoped for results, it will not be long before he’s also away at Uni. Whilst the ‘boys’ were sorting out their mobiles, I escaped to buy some new makeup ready for both an evening out and a course I’m being sent on in a few weeks. Jodie on Selfridge’s Clinique counter was a marvel. She not only showed me new colours and how to use products better, I left with newly ‘painted’ face and step by step chart ….. as well as new bits and pieces …

By half nine this morning, my husband still in bed, I had my arm down a drain. I’d been putting this job off for weeks. Being mucky and smelly, I decided to finish digging a tree root out of the back garden, move a fir tree and a few bushes around, ‘turned’ the compost heap and take up some of our crazy paving to plant herbs. All I need now is a cool rainy day to ‘bed’ everything in again! A day’s rain is all I need as we’ve got leaflets to get out and I haven’t done any all weekend …. so need to show willing ….

I’m a by-election widdow at present, ‘Hubby’ has been juggling family life, his job as well as working on the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. He’s shattered but really enjoying things and I’m just a little concerned that he’ll not know what to do with himself at the weekend, when the results are in and he’s got to slow down a bit. However, we have our own local community leaflet to finish, print and fold ready to get out asap too!

I’m returned from our local Bury Friends of the Earth meeting. They are supporting the Manchester wide Congestion Charging Bid – I still have very mixed feelings and huge, huge concerns. I agree that we need to improve public transport but local councils could have been doing this for years – they have been caught on the hoof with climate change concerns and congested roads and feel the need to be seen to be doing ‘something’. The ‘something’ ie TIF bid has far too many problems and difficulties to overcome and also creates an additional tax on the ordinary working person. So yes, invest and improve public transport (but who will use it at night if it’s not safe) BUT find another way without taxing the ordinary motorist who can ill afford either a hybrid car (to be exempt) or to pay the tax!

Away from my rant – my student’s work is still coming in, in dribs and drabs – yesterday I managed to get coursework work ‘signed off’ that should have been completed last year. It’s as though some of them live in a computer game, a bubble far from reality that if they are not doing a conventional A level with its associated exams – the alternative means they have coursework that they really need to do! Perhaps if we stopped their EMA payments when their third piece of coursework didn’t appear, they would be forced to either find a job or get on with their work – time to go, ranting again! There again, I’ll not be able to afford to get to my teaching job if congestion charging comes along …. maybe I’ll have to start looking for something else … nearer home …

This afternoon we’re all getting together at Cllrs Vic and Mary’s home to celebrate our local election success with friends and supporters to thank them. It will be great to get together and chat rather than the snatched conversations we’ve had over envelope stuffing and leafleting over the last few weeks!

The highlights of this week were ‘Mayor Making’, folowed by afternoon tea and our first full Council meeting of the year followed by our briefing with council officers who want to chop the cash-payment facilities at our local library that we disagree with. We then had a two hour meeting to explore the outcomes of the Urbed study. This is a community consultation mapping process to explore what businesses, land owners and residents vision for the future of our small town that we lovingly call ‘Prestwich Village’. Its been a great process to explore what everybody would like but whether it actually influences the main ‘players’ in the area, of whom I suspect, think that tall over development making every shopping and community area similar with another at the cheapest possible price …..with little or not enough comittment to help create a more environmentally sustainable community, vital for our future. The consultation report was then shared with residents and community partners at our LAP the following evening. Initial reaction also raised concerns of too many, too tal buildings. However, there is agreement that our warn-out shopping centre needs re-developing.

Next week – marking coursework for the BTEC Care course I work on – and supporting students to find inner enthusiasm and energy to complete outstanding work. There is a sub-group SEN meeting at the school where I am a governor a Friends of the Earth meeting in Bury and time to be able to pop around to see residents who need support to get things sorted.

At our councillor group AGM – I became the link Cllr for young people in Prestwich as well as Lib Dem representative on the Youth Cabinet, which meets at Bury town Hall. I’m also on Environment, Economy and Transport Scrutiny Commission, with the brief for the Environment (Donal to have Economy & Transport). I’m also on an Equality working group for the Council.

This week has been catch-up – case work and marking. I’ve been liaising between two residents about an overly large tree between their gardens, finding out about disability support for ramps for a resident, lobbying for pavement repairs – where a lovely resident fell and has had plastic surgery to stitch up her face (she’s had a really horrid time and is in a mess as well as really shaken-up) – and asked why after spending over 1 million £, our road re-modelling at the Bury Old Rd/Scholes/Sheepfoot junction …. has a huge dip ….. to the point that residents feel its dangerous ….

Tonight is Richard and Tamzin’s house warming party and tomorrow, Prestwich Village Clough Day … see you there?