A new direction for Bury South

I have spent the weekend catching up on post and reading the papers and plan to deliver some leaflets once the snow has melted a little.   This year the festival of Purim coincided with Good Friday so it was rather a busy couple of days for me so happy belated Purim and a Happy Easter to all who celebrate these two festivals.  Tonight I am off to a 100th birthday party of one of the members at the Day Centre where I work so happy birthday Nita a fantastic achievement.  This amazing lady  is having a dinner dance as she still dances and goes swimming once a week!  

Tonight I attended the Children of Bury Sing 2008 concert at the Castle Leisure Centre.  This was one of four concerts being put on over the weekend featuring children from Bury schools. I attended along with my colleague Cllr Diana Ashworth.  The schools represented tonight were St Andrew’s Radcliffe, St John with St Mark, Unsworth, St Mary’s Hawkshaw, Old Hall, Christ Church Ainsworth, Holly Mount and Radcliffe Hall.  Thanks must also go to Paul Jarvis the Director of Studies at Bury Music Centre who along with his colleagues co-ordinated the whole event.  It was a credit to all the organisers, teachers and of course pupils of these schools for a wonderful evening of music which included songs from Oliver, Annie and an ABBA medley – just my musical era!

Once again a Labour budget which will cost the average family £110 more per year in taxes.  Not only this he has penalised all drinkers by increasing tax on all alcoholic drinks rather than focusing on the binge drinkers and helping this country to get to the root of the cause of an increasing amount of anti social behaviour.  See The Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne’s response to the budget here.

I like all those I have spoken to since hearing the news yesterday were shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Mike Todd the Chief Constable of Greater Manchester.  I had the honour to meet him last year at a fundraising dinner I attended and was most impressed by his enthusiasm and commitment.  It is a sad time for all but especially his family and let us hope that they are left alone to mourn in the privacy they deserve.

Last night I went to the official launch in the Mayor of Bury’s Parlour of the Salam Shalom project.  This began back in 2004 and the main purpose of the group at the moment is to give presentations in High Schools on the basic idea of the belief and practices of the Islamic and Jewish faiths.  I wish the officers of the Group, Hassanat Ahmed, David Berkley, Warren Elf and Afzaal Khan much success and have pledged my support wherever possible. 

Yesterday afternoon I went along to the Elizabethan Suite to see the amazing work put together by the youth of the Borough to celebrate International Women’s Day.  Each area of the Borough displayed an information board relating to famous women through the decades from the 50′s.  It was a credit to them and congratulations to all who participated and organised this event.

After this and the brief rain showers I went leafletting finishing off the evening at a quiz with some friends.

David Cameron’s recent visit to Bury can be seen here. 

I spent some of this afternoon visiting St Monica’s High School in Prestwich and was delighted to be shown the wonderful facilities the school has to offer by the Head Teacher Mr Frank McCarron.  The school and its pupils are a credit to Mr McCarron and his staff and are a result of the hard work and dedication of all involved with the school.

Tonight I attended a presentation evening where a variety of local community groups which had received funding from the Local Area Partnership over the past year updated members of the LAP on what the money had been spent on.  The projects ranged from healthy eating initiatives to a gardening club to rock climbing for the youth.  It was an interesting and informative evening and I am pleased to have been able to play a small part in helping to make these groups successful.