Last night’s Scrutiny meeting was one of the better ones from the year. We had a good look at four important items, giving our feedback to top officers and Cabinet Members and asking them to take on board the comments of some of us backbench members.

First up was winter maintenance, always a hot topic despite its unbreakable association with snow. As people will probably remember, it was very snowy for several weeks at the end of last year, making for hazardous conditions all over the place.

Obviously the Council can’t grit every street in Bury, but a lot of people expect that level of service even though it would be spectacularly expensive if achievable at all.

So instead they grit the main roads and provide grit bins at various places for people to grit themselves. The problem is that there aren’t enough grit bins to keep people happy, and the ones that do exist get emptied very rapidly when the going gets cold. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that some cheeky people nick all the grit, and some even cheekier people have been known to nick the bins.

Add to that the inherently unpredictable nature of the weather and it’s very hard to get the balance right. Nobody wants us skidding all over the place because there’s not enough grit, and nobody wants the Council spending Sweden’s annual winter maintenance budget to avoid that scenario, only for it to be mild outside.

The Council have learned lessons from the last two cold winters and have increased the number of bins. They are also working collaboratively with other authorities over grit supply and storage, and are improving their communications with residents. It’ll never be perfect, but it looks like it’s improving.

Also discussed last night were changes to the Council’s Blue Badge processes, its new affordable housing strategy, and the staff / Trades Union consultation processes in place to help with the current service redesigns going on. If anyone wants to find out more about these, please let me know. That’s the end of Scrutiny for the year.

My first (and probably only) year chairing the committee started off slowly as we adjusted to a new system of Scrutiny operating under a new system of Council leadership. But I think it got better over the year and we did some good work, particularly at budget time allowing the public to have their say, and regarding the Homelessness Strategy which changed quite a bit after our interventions.

Sometimes it’s frustrating being a Council backbencher, but when it works Scrutiny can help with that. Here’s hoping it keeps improving next year.

Rick

Tonight is the final Internal Scrutiny of the municipal year, and so your last chance and mine to give the Council some serious internal scrutiny, whilst being careful not to snigger at the innuendo.

On the agenda at tonight’s meeting (which is public, so come on down if you want to see it) is the new Blue badge disabled parking procedure, information on affordable housing, and on staff support in these troubled times.

There’s also an update on the winter maintenance processes, which I asked to come back in the spring after the grit bin disasters of the snowy winter. I am hoping that there’ll be a good debate about the best way to keep the borough moving in the snow, especially around the ability of local people to grit streets themselves from grit bins.

I’ll let you know how the meeting goes, and if you do want to come down, it’s at 7pm at the Town hall in Bury.

Rick

Last night’s meeting of the Council led to the approval of the controversial “Transformation Strategy” which has got quite a bit of media coverage and which I know has alarmed a lot of people.

The Conservatives running the Council voted for it. Labour voted against. Lib Dems abstained. We did this because whilst we agree that there is a need to transform Council services and proceed in roughly the direction that the Strategy takes us in, we couldn’t support it due to some uncertainties around consultation and scrutiny. We couldn’t vote against it because a delay would mean that any transformations that need to happen to avoid cuts in the future will be delayed and thus risk those cuts happening. So instead we sought assurances over our fears from the Tories. I hope they don’t disappoint.

There has been a lot of talk about transformation leading to massive privatisation. This isn’t something I would support, and it’s my view that the Strategy passed last night will not lead to the wholesale privatisation of Council services. I do think there needs to be far more scrutiny and consultation when service reviews happen to avoid this happening, but I haven’t jumped to the conclusion Labour have and immediately thought about big sell-offs.

The Strategy sets out a vision for the future re-design of Council services, but Bury Council provides services efficiently and well o its own. Every option will be considered when it comes to potential transformation, but where the Council is providing good value for money we wouldn’t support a change in provider.

Suggesting that the Strategy is somehow a blueprint for selling off the Council is wrong, and during the consultation process there have been significant amendments to the original Strategy to make this point even clearer.

The  Labour opposition to the Transformation Strategy is hard to understand as anything other than playing to the gallery and scaremongering. It’s easy to play the good guy against the ogre of privatisation, but I really don’t think that’s necessary. There have been no plans laid before us for anything approaching that. The Strategy just wants to look at options.  

The state of the country’s finances means that Bury Council will need to make big savings into the future. We have two choices – either big cuts, or re-designed services that are delivered more efficiently by whoever can deliver them most efficiently. By opposing transformation and scaremongering about instant privatisation, Bury Labour are signing the death—warrant for service after service. No Transformation means more cuts, and that is what Labour have voted for in opposing the Strategy.

It’s the job of the opposition either to present an alternative and fight for that, or to make sure that what is happening happens properly and in a consultative way. I don’t think there’s an alternative to transformation, so what the Lib Dems have done is sought assurance over the proper processes to make sure that transformation happens properly. Labour have done neither and have simply voted against.

That’s no good for anyone except themselves and the easy headlines it goves them

Rick

It’s another meeting of full Council tonight at the Town Hall from 7pm. It’s the last one of the municipal year, in fact.

On the agenda tonight is the Transformation Strategy, which outlines how the Council’s services may be provided in different ways in the future as budgetary pressures increase. I’m not sure how the debate will go tonight, but one thing is certain in my mind, and that’s that the consultation and scrutiny process around this most important Strategy has been poor even by Bury Council’s already very weak standards. To have had a consultation period as short as has been in place (just three weeks) and to have avoided the Scrutiny process entirely as has been done, is not right.

The Lib Dems are also putting forward a motion for debate about Prestwich Tip, hoping to get the Council’s backing to keep that facility open.

And there’s another motion, from Labour, about petrol prices, which will be interesting. Let’s see if their assertion that the global economic crisis is down to international factors rather than just Labour’s economic incompetence (which I agree with) extends to the spike in petrol prices, which I maintain is also down to international factors and not George Osborne cackling maniacally in the direction of hard-up motorists.

There’ll also be questions to the Leader and Cabinet, from Councillors and the public, although thanks to arcane rules presumably made up by people with an allergy to democracy, if you want to come down and ask a question you will have had to submit it in writing a week last Tuesday.

It’s a public meeting, so if you want to see democracy in all its disappointing nakedness, come on down to the Town Hall.

Rick

The Council have only given the public one consultation event in which to have their say on the budget, despite it being the toughest we’ve ever faced. I think that’ s ridiculous, but there’s a loophole which I invite everyone to try and exploit if they want.

The budget proposals have to go before the Council’s Scrutiny Committee where Committee members (about 10 Councillors) scrutinise the proposals and perhaps get the Cabinet Member proposing the budget to think again about certain aspects of it before we all vote on the final budget proposal next week.

At that meeting there is a section of time devoted to public questions, and any member of the public who comes along can ask their question. It’s normally about half an hour, but if there are lots of people present then it might be extended and hopefully everyone who wants their say can have it.

I am the chair of the committee and I will be encouraging as much public involvement as is practical tomorrow. I have asked for as many Cabinet Members as possible to come along too, to help answer the questions, but sadly the Leader of the Council has refused the request and so I think it will just be the Cabinet Member for Finance.

Even so, if you have the time to come down, please do. It’s your chance for a say on the budget. The meeting is at 7pm at Bury Town Hall.

Rick

My new(ish) wife tells me, every once in a while, about the dreams she had in her youth concerning her future husband. Since I am no Brad Pitt in the looks, fame or wealth departments, I have to make up for it in romance.  Occasionally we have strayed into her thoughts on how she might spend her first Valentine’s Day as part of a married couple. In the course of those conversations, which contain such predictable themes as champagne, chocolates, flowers and those bizarre furry handcuffs I see in the window of Ann Summers when I scurry past, not once does she ever mention her husband spending the evening at a meeting of the Bury Council Licensing Committee.

And yet that is what I am doing tonight. Ever the romantic, I am spending my first married Valentine’s Day in the company of a room full of ageing men and naughty taxi drivers.

Still, I got her a card and a tube of Love Hearts, and what more can a man do?

Actually, last night I also cooked her a roast dinner which has yet to claim her life through food poisoning, and after slaving in a hot kitchen for three hours imploring stubborn Yorkshire Puddings to do me the honour of rising, Licensing actually represents a welcome break.

Tonight’s agenda is similar to normal, as we decide on the fitness of various applicants with troubled pasts to work as licensed taxi drivers and private hire vehicle drivers in Bury. It’s a difficult job, and actually Valentine’s Day, with its penchant for getting people a bit tiddly, reminds me why it’s so important. When I think of people a bit worse for wear getting into a stranger’s cab, it’s vital that we make sure the driver is fit and proper to do the job.

So sorry Tam, duty calls. And I’m taking you out for lunch tomorrow, so I hope I’m forgiven.

Rick

Tomorrow night is another meeting of the Council’s Internal Scrutiny Committee. You may have read in the papers the controversial report on Children’s Centre fees which came to our last meeting and was rejected due to the poor quality of the information in it. We asked for it to come back, and that’s exactly what’s happening tomorrow at 7pm at the Town Hall. I am hoping for a good debate on the issue this time, rather than a flimsy report supported by a Cabinet Member who looked like a rabbit in the headlights.

Also on the agenda is the Dementia Strategy for Bury, and an interesting report (well, interesting to governance geeks like me!) about how Councils could be run differently in the future thanks to the government’s Localism Bill. We have criticised the current set-up a lot recently, and now there might be a glimmer of hope on the horizon.

The meeting is open to the public, with half an hour set aside for public question time at the beginning of the meeting should you wish to come along. It’s at Bury Town Hall at 7pm.

Rick

1851 saw The Great Exhibition. 1896 heralded the beginnings of the modern Olympic Games, and in 1969 Man landed on the Moon. And now, tomorrow night at Butterstile Primary School, something new can be added to that list of historic moments in the shape of the latest meeting of Prestwich Local Area Partnership.

I am guessing most people reading this weren’t alive in 1851 or 1896, and weren’t members of the crew on Apollo XI, but tomorrow’s LAP is open to all and so you can come and be part of it. Butterstile Primary School is on School Grove, off Agecroft Road West, and there’s also pedestrian access from Butterstile Lane.

On the agenda are various exciting things including sheltered housing, health priorities for Prestwich, and your chance to meet local Councillors, Police, Fire, Housing, NHS staff and others from local community groups.

The meeting starts at 6.30, and there’s public question time from 7.30 when you can ask anyone on the panel about any issues you have with local services.

LAPs are a great way of finding out what’s going on in Prestwich, and raising any issues or problems you have in the area. So come on down if you’re free and say hello. If there’s an issue you’d like to raise but can’t get to the meeting, let me know and I will raise it for you.

Rick

Last night was the final Full Council meeting of the year. When we stumbled out of the chamber blinking into the light after well over three uninterrupted hours I wondered whether Christmas had been and gone, but happily it hasn’t.

There was plenty on the agenda last night, in what was an unusually good-mannered meeting on the whole. We began with a talk from Lord Smith, the Chair of AGMA, the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities. He told us of developments at city-region level, as many of us sat wondering whether decisions taken at that level are really democratic at all.

Lord Smith left and we debated the Council’s plans to change home-to-school transport policy. At the moment, children attending faith schools can get their transport costs paid, and there is a plan to restrict this right to low income children only, in line with those attending non-faith schools. The plan has caused consternation amongst Labour members and some of the Lib Dem group, particularly those with a strong interest in faith schools. It seems like a sensible idea to me actually, so in what turned out to be a free vote I voted to proceed with the consultation. This was the majority view and so we’ll hear what the people think.

Other debates last night included one on the future of Local Area Partnerships, which I know is an issue of interest to lots of people. They are threatened with abolition thanks to the decision of the mysterious “Team Bury,” a clandestine organisation who seem to wield lots of power with no accountability whatsoever, operating largely in secret like some kind of public service cabal. I haven’t met any Councillor or resident who agrees that they should go, so we should keep them and preferably improve them to something akin to how effective they were under the old Area Board system. We voted to keep them last night, along with the other two parties.

There was also a Lib Dem motion on Green Energy, which I proposed (and the speech for which you can read below). It called for an investigation into the feasibility of Bury Council using new government powers to generate and sell green energy. It makes sense for financial and environmental reasons, so I look forward to hearing how possible it is.

There was also question time to the Leader and Executive, of which you can read more above. Then we ran out of time before further motions that we’d put down for debate on bullying and pensions.

Then we adjourned for warm mince pies with the Mayor, smiling warily at each other before hostilities resume post-Christmas.

Rick

Tonight sees another meeting of Bury Council, when all 51 of us local Councillors assemble to talk about various things. There are four motions for debate tonight – Green Energy, Pensions, Bullying and one on the future of Local Area Partnerships.

There’s also a speech from the head of the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, an update from the Leader of the Council about what he’s been doing for Bury, and the opportunity to question him.

I’ll be speaking in some of the debates, and have tabled some questions to ask the Leader. Time pressures mean you can never quite tell what will happen when, but we’ll see how it goes tonight and I will let you know tomorrow.

It is a public meeting which you can down to should you wish. Due to arcane rules designed by people who like power more than democracy you can’t just turn up and ask a question, you have to submit them a week in advance. So sorry if you’ve missed that deadline. You can still come down and watch though, from 7pm tonight at the Town Hall in Bury.

Rick