A new direction for Bury South

The past week or so seems to have flown by and most of my time has been spent working on an exciting project to help to renovate the Radcliffe Boys and Girls Club.  Last Monday a large skip was delivered courtesy of Viridor and volunteers from the community and club members and volunteers have spent the last week filling this up, tidying out the club and removing a lot of the flood damaged items from the cellar.  Work can now begin on repairing the roof, replacing the windows and ceilings and tidying up and decorating the rooms.  The football pitch is to be lined to make two pitches and the greenery outside cut down.  Lots to do and lots to organise but I really must thank Marj and Mike for their hard work and putting up with me visiting nearly every day – and of course thanks to all the club members who have helped so enthusiastically over the past couple of weeks.  If anyone reading this would like to come along and help either in the restoration work or in running activities at the club please do email me. 

The rest of the time has been spent delivering my latest newspaper and also going out and about meeting residents and listening to their issues and concerns oh and trying to keep dry in between all the rain showers.

The weeks just seem to fly past and I note it was over a week ago that I updated this.  So what have I done since then – well apart from work, sleep and eat I have attended meetings which include information about Pandemic flu in ethnic communities (it was extremely interesting and came in useful yesterday when my younger daughter could not stop sneezing and was quizzing me on the symptoms of swine flu).  I also went to a meeting about the opening of a Phase 3 Children’s Centre in Pilkington Park Ward.  This will probably be located at several sites dependent upon demand.

Wednesday afternoon I went along to the Holyrood Ladies annual strawberry afternoon tea at Prestwich Conservative Club where we were entertained by somne light hearted poetry reading – it injected some much needed humour into my day.

On Friday morning I popped down to the Conservative Office in Salford to say farewell to Ian Lewis who has been the North West Regional Press Officer for 4 years now and has left to work for Jacqueline Foster MEP as her Chief of Staff.  Ian will be greatly missed and I wish him much luck in his new role.

Saturday afternoon I walked down on a hot sunny day to Boz Park to the family fun day.  A record number of people turned out and I arrived just in time to greet the Mayor of Bury, Cllr Sheila Magnall.  Thanks much go to all who helped to organise this event which went on into the early evening – well apparently even later for some as the stage got stuck in the mud on the park and a local farmer had to come to the rescue!

Sunday afternoon I was on the panel of a Q&A at a Muslim Jewish Forum event at Manchester Town Hall.  The topic of the debate being Jews and Muslims in the 21^st Century – our hopes and fears.

and finally ……… last night I managed to get away from work in time to catch the last 5 minutes of the Radcliffe LAP Meeting!

Oh well today is another day and with 5 telephone calls before 8.30am this morning it set the pace for the day!

Thursday night I went along to the presentation evening at the Longfield Suite for Manchester Mesivta School (formerly known as Jewish Grammar School for Boys).  It was a wonderful showcase of the achievement of their work as well as presenting prizes to the pupils many were able to talk about their studies and also the extra curricular activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme they took part in.

Friday was a day of catching up with casework and Saturday night went to friends for dinner.  Yesterday was spent working as it was our annual telethon to raise much needed funds for the Centre. 

Off to the Conservative Group Meeting tonight.

Last night I went along last night to the Many Hands Campaign Event held at Manchester Town Hall.  ‘Many Hands’ raises money for the new Manchester Children’s Hospital based just south of the City Centre.  The campaign’s aim is to raise £20m by September and so far is £1.8m short of this target – a magnificent achievement.  The money has been raised through innovative ideas and there were four finalists presenting last night in front of a panel of judges which include Theo Paphitis from Dragons Den.  The winners were, I am delighted to say, two residents from not only Bury South but also my Ward.  So well done to Nigel Woolfstein and Sheldon Bean who organised a 24 hour tennis marathon to raise the much needed funds for this mangificent cause.  Everyone who has raised money for this event needs to be equally congratulated and I look forward to having the opportunity in the not too distant future to taking a tour of the new hospital.