Planners at Bury Council have given approval for state of the art new facilities at Prestwich Arts College, marking the end of a long campaign for improvements to the successful local school.

The Council’s Planning Control Committee voted on Tuesday 16th June to grant planning permission for a new dining room and arts auditorium for the school, which was threatened with closure back in 2005. Commenting on the news, local Lib Dem Councillor Tim Pickstone said “This is great news, not just for the school but for the whole community. Prestwich Arts College is the only high school in Bury without a dining room, and this news is long overdue. We’ve been lobbying the Council for years, and I’m glad they’ve finally seen sense and given Prestwich young people what they need.

Commenting on the new arts auditorium, Cllr Pickstone, who is also a governor of the school, said “This will be a first class facility for a top quality school. But more than that, it will be used as a community facility, bringing better arts provision for the whole of Prestwich. I’m delighted it’s been given the go-ahead.”

The new facilities will be built in the near future. Cllr Pickstone said “We need to listen to the concerns of local residents on Heys Road, Glebelands Road and other nearby streets to ensure that the plans do not adversely affect local residents. When we get the process right, Prestwich Arts College and the whole area will have splendid new facilities.

In the words of Victor Meldrew ( no not D’Albert ) ” I Don’t believe it ” — over 5000 people have visited this website in the month of May.

At the last count I didn’t have that many Family and friends so a big thank you to everyone who has help to reach this target

Hurrah! 

Nick Clegg has taken a strong stand on cleaning up Parliament and leading the call for a complete overhaul of our political system. Last week at Prime Minister’s Question Time he challenged Gordon Brown to reform our electoral systems. Now even Brown’s own ministers are echoing Nick’s call.

Nick is making the case to:
- Give people the right to sack MPs
- Stop all big party political donations
- Elect the House of Lords
- Make the voting system fair - so that governments can’t just get all that power and all that money with only a minority of you voting for them
- Put an end to self serving politics and put you back in charge
- But Nick can’t do it all on his own. He needs our help.

I thought that North West MPs would not be involved in this expenses scandal because they would need a second home to do their jobs. However Saturday morning the front page of the Daily Telegraph our own Bury North MP David Chaytor and according to the daily telegraph he claimed for a mortgage that had already been paid. Now all we want is a bit of honesty and integrity from our MPs and at least David was honest enough to hold his hands up and admit he made a mistake, roll on the general election and the public can elect Richard Baum a man with all the correct credentials to serve Bury North.

Now Tuesday and Manchester evening news on-line has information on our Bury South MP Ivan Lewis and how much mortgage he claimed on-his £300,000 flat in London, before I start this is completely legit and what you are suppose to do, but the feeling amongst most people is that funding MPs on mortgage expenses is not right as the MP earns a profit off the property and the living allowance should be non-profit. Anyway the way property prices are in London a £300k flat-is like a cardboard box located under Tower bridge - if everyone gets that image of our local MPs living space then we will not get hung up on the amount of money.

Also just for amusement Ivan Lewis failed to pay a gas bill (not a Mobile phone bill) he actually got threatened with court action. Again roll on the general election when the public of Bury south-can vote in Vic D’Albert a man with all the credentials  required-to be Bury Souths MP.

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Local Issues, News

Oasis in Heaton Park 4, 6 and 7 June 2009

05.16.09

Many residents have expressed concern over the Oasis concerts which are taking place in Heaton Park on Thursday 4th, Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th June 2009. (There is no concert on the Friday).

As your councillors we have raised a great number of concerns to the event organisers and to Bury Council which is part of the event management group.

Whilst I’m sure we all wish the concerts to be a great success, we do have to live here as well! The Local Area Partnership in Prestwich has had two presentations on the plans, and what measures have been put in place to manage traffic, parking, litter, noise and local residents needs.

Today was Mayor making at full council the official start to the municipal year and congratulations to Cllr Sheila Magnal, Bury’s fourth Mister madam lady mayor . Also a big thank you to Peter Ashworth the out going mayor who had a great year representing Bury .

However the question on everyones lips is what has Peter Redstone done to upset the executive? It’s well known that those people in least favour in the conservative party are  at the furthest point and this is what has happened to Peter and also come to mentioned it Michelle Wiseman. Why has Bob Bibby cursed them and put them in the naughty boy and naughty girl seats?

Answers on a postcard please.

Nominations have now closed for the elections for the European Parliament on 4 June 2009. This is the full statement of persons nominated.

Liberal Democrat list is headed up by our existing Member of the European Parliament Chris Davies MEP. Chris is a great friend to our area and has been to Prestwich on many occasions. Here’s his campaign website.

Meanwhile Prestwich residents are being encouraged by Bury Council to “vote early” or vote by post” with the following message:

Prestwich residents are being encouraged to vote early, or use a postal vote, in the forthcoming European elections.

The poll is held on Thursday June 4, the same day as the first of three Oasis gigs in Heaton Park.

The concert means that two main roads bordering the park – Sheepfoot Lane and Bury Old Road (south of Heywood Street) - will be closed to traffic at 9.30pm, half an hour before polling stations close. This means that some residents who leave it to the last minute to vote will not be able to drive close to their station.

Elections officers in Bury say that one way to avoid any potential problems would be to use a postal vote – the closing date to apply for one is May 19 at 5pm. Alternatively, some people might choose to go the polls a bit earlier. The polling stations open at 7am. For a postal vote, or to make sure you are on the electoral roll, contact Bury’s elections office on 0161 253 5224 or email electionservices@bury.gov.uk

You can apply online to vote by post - this site fills in your form, but you do need to print it off to sign and send off to the Council

Mp’s expenses has hit the headlines again and it seems like a lot are wrongly (legally) coining it in.

Its also a bit of a gravy train being an MEP if its about the money.

Chris Davies our local Mep has posted his expenses and earnings on his website www.chrisdaviesmep.org.uk   its very interesting and explains everything about what how and what can be claimed for and of course it seems a lot of money. However it enables Chris to fufill his duties to the North west and I challenge anybody to find a creaming off the top.

steve

A leading local Lib Dem has reacted angrily to proposals from Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, to launch a pilot ID card scheme in Manchester this autumn.

Vic D’Albert, Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate for Bury South said, “This scheme should be scrapped now. The fact that the Government are intent on pressing ahead with this discredited scheme just shows they are in complete denial about the cost, the value and the flaws of this scheme.

“At a time when Government finances are in a mess, during the biggest recession since the 1930’s the last thing we should be doing is spending an extra £5 billion on ID cards. If this Labour Government is so concerned about security why not plough that money into more Police or a proper border police to fight illegal Immigration and trafficking?

“The cost of introducing ID cards would amount to £83 for every man, woman and child in the country. Arguably it would be better spent by just sending everyone a cheque!  

“My advice to anyone in Manchester would be to boycott this scheme, it’s not needed, it’s a waste of money, and it won’t stop crime or terrorism. But it will eat billions of pounds of our tax-payers money and enable the Government to store and possibly lose more data on you and your family.

“In this time of deep recession and rising unemployment £5 billion pounds could be better spent on supporting the economy, struggling small businesses and hard pressed low income families.

The Government really should be concentrating on the need to get a grip of our public finances and stop indulging in expensive flawed follies such as ID cards.