A new direction for Bury South

Yesterday David Cameron revealed the Conservative’s plans for tackling crime in Britain today – the full propsals can be seen here.  Labour’s promise on crime is their largest broken pledge – tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime – just empty words.  Violent crime has doubled under Labour and 18 teenagers have been killed in London so far this year and knives were used in 7% of all violent crimes last year and in 20% of robberies.  We have the largest rates of family breakdown in Europe which is the largest cause of social breakdown and over 70% of younger offenders come from single parent families.   No wonder the distraught mother of the murdered Liverpool teenager Rhys Jones was blaming the parents of her son’s murderer yesterday and why David Cameron in his speech in Darwen last week placed high emphasis on the family unit.   She said the killers parents must know that their child has done this but that they ‘just don’t care’ – that unfortunately sums up what is happening in our society today people just don’t care enough.�

The Independent Reconfiguration Panel have today published their recommendation on the Government’s proposed changes to maternity and healthcare in Greater Manchester.   Their advice backs the Government’s plans to axe vital maternity and children’s services at Fairfield Hospital.  How disappointing but really not surprising - even the lobbying of Health Care Minister and MP for Bury South Ivan Lewis has made no difference.  Once again it proves that this Government is not listening to the people of Bury and bulldozing their proposals through - another one of their election pledges not kept – ‘24 hours to save the NHS’ more like 24 hours to save this country!

Holidays over now and back to work!  Just returned from 3 days in Edinburgh at the festival and the military tattoo – the highlight of which was the talk I attended by Andrew Marr – well it would be I suppose!  Being in Edinburgh though meant that I missed the visit yesterday by David Cameron to Darwen where he spoke about serious youth crime and anti social behaviour.   

Next week sees a return to the regular round of meetings and campaigning.  Oh yes and well done to my daughter Danielle who achieved an A* in her ICT GCSE which she took a year early and well done to all students who received GCSE results today.

I must congratulate my daughter Amelia on her A’ level results today of 3 As and 1 B and she is off to Nottingham University in September to study maths – so well done Amelia you have worked very hard and deserve it.  I am not going to enter the debate of whether the exams have been made easier but what I do know is that students require higher grades in recent years to get into the top universities and I also think that the Government’s target of 50% of all students to go on to a university education is unrealistic, unnecessary and very costly to the students.  I also feel that the Government’s dictatorship to universities of the ratio of student intake from private:state schools is going to drive some universities to go ‘private’ and will therefore eventually exclude the very pupils they are trying to help altogether.  Anyway next Thursday is GCSE results – I am sure a similar debate will take place then.

Having just returned from my holidays I was delighted to receive a letter from the Standards Board informing me that Cllr Wayne Campbell’s complaint about me has gone the same way as his colleague Cllr Briggs’ – in the filing cabinet no further action to be taken.   I also understand that a Radcliffe resident has written in to a newspaper asking who am I a mere Whitefield Councillor to comment on matters in Westminster.  Strange really because some of the posts I get on here accuse me of doing the opposite – not commenting enough – oh well some (and most) you win and some you lose!

Greetings from sunny Gran Canaria!  My website has attracted 68 spam comments whilst I have been away but that is nothing compared to the spin I hear has been going on at the Council in my absence – well they do say August is the silly season but the Labour Councillors oh and our Bury South MP seem to be keeping the newspapers busy with newsprint.  I have been compared to a saint this week whilst at the same time being accused of making political capital out of my position and oh yes trivialising the importance of the building of the new school in Radcliffe – I seem to cause more of a stir when I am away than when I am in Bury!  Neither I nor any of my Council colleagues have denied that the new school will be built in Radcliffe - every child who lives in Radcliffe and who wants to attend a high school there will have the opportunity to do so but why build a super school in Radcliffe which will have surplus places at the expense of other schools in the Borough.  The proposed demand for these places are based on statistics drawn up and used by the Labour run Council in 2005/2006 when looking at closing schools then – mind you one expression that comes to mind is ´do as I say and not as I do´ oh and I think there is one about statistics as well! 

Tomorrow I am off for a week’s holiday to Gran Canaria thinking when I booked it that August would be a quiet month – no Council meetings and very little happening elsewhere.  How wrong could I have been?  Even where I am going on holiday has been in the news last week with terrible forest fires caused by an arsonist.  This weekend has seen the reporting of another outbreak of foot and mouth disease in the UK – I have not read all the facts yet surrounding this but it is dreadful and once again affects the livelihood of our farmers.  I am sure my week away will be a change of scenery but how restful it will be I shall have to wait and see.

What is all the fuss about?  The Conservative Group managed to save the closure of two secondary schools in Bury last year which was directly opposite to Labour’s wishes.  No-one denied that there were surplus places and to try to prevent the future closure of yet more schools The Conservative led Council have decided to review how many places are required at the new Radcliffe Riverside School BEFORE it is built!  Seems common sense to me and not only that are looking at moving a crumbling primary school on to the same site – two schools for the price of one.  Labour have called a special Council meeting to discuss this issue next week – more waste of Council tax payers’ money – oh well they are in opposition but they never waste an opportunity to WASTE our money.  Let’s look at the issues that have been answered by the Council today:Q: Why is 600 an acceptable figure now when previously it had to be 900 for an effective curriculum to be operational?A: Whether the capacity is 600 or 900, if the roll is only 600 that is how the school is funded, so we are doing the responsible thing in ensuring the school receives near to its maximum potential in terms of budget. Savings made by sharing the running costs of the building with another school will mean there is a greater proportion of money available for curriculum development than under the previous plans.A great many youngsters will continue their education outside of the school environment, pursuing vocational courses at skill centres. So there is less need for either the capacity, or for as wide a curriculum as previously explored.Q: Won’t the new school attract pupils that are currently at, or considering attending other secondary schools until this one is completed, therefore ‘upping’ the roll?A: It’s possible, but being responsible for the spending of millions of pounds of tax payers’ money means we have to reduce our reliance on guess work, and achieve the best we can for all residents of the borough. Currently parents exercise their choice and send their children to other Bury schools.Q: There was a children’s centre in Radcliffe, on a planning agenda but it has now been removed. Is that something to do with this?A: Yes. We will be consulting on an option of including a new childrens’ centre on site, so the community can access a large number of services in the one place 

Today sees the launch of the Government’s Home Information Packs for 4 or more bedroomed houses.  It is interesting to note that these will not necessarily include information about the risk of flooding as this is under the ‘optional information clause’ along with information on rights of access, ground stability, natural subsidence, actual or potential environmental hazards including risks of flooding, radon gas or contaminated land.   So exactly what important information is the potential buyer going to get for their money the average price of these are estimated at £435+VAT?  I would have thought that after the past few weeks this would have been top of the list.