Council | Steve Middletons blog

Unsworth local election debate Monday 30th April at Hollins Community Centre

On Monday 30th April, Spotted Unsworth: Uncut will be hosting a special Question Time-style debate. The three Unsworth ward local election candidates vying for your vote on Thursday 3rd May will be on the panel, to answer questions from the moderator and local residents. The debate starts at 7.30pm at Hollins Community Centre and the…

Bury Council Budget and Council Tax Rise

Local residents will now be receiving their council tax bills for the upcoming 2018/2019 financial year. I am sure many of you have noticed it has increased significantly compared to last year. At Bury’s Budget Council Meeting the proposals from the majority Labour Group were voted through. This is a Council Tax rise of 5.94% from…

At all meetings of Bury’s Full Council your team of Liberal Democrat councillors use the maximum entitlement to ask questions of the Councils Leadership. Questions at the most recent meeting included: Could the Leader of the Council please inform members now many school crossing patrols are currently not operational, and how many others do not…

Unsworth and Whitefield Township Forums reduced by Bury Labour to once a year

Less than two years ago I blogged here about how Bury’s Labour-controlled council had planned to reduced the Township Forums across the borough from six meetings per year (on average, once every two months) to four meetings per year. They brought these changes in from January 2016 and just 15 months later the council are…

Bury’s Budget Council 2017

At Bury’s recent ‘Budget Council’ Meeting the proposals from the majority Labour Group were voted through, which is a Council Tax increase from 1 April 2016 of 4.94%. Your Bury Liberal Democrat councillors voted against this budget. The increase is made up of a basic increase of 1.94%, plus a further 3% ‘social care levy’.…

Public Meeting: Whitefield & Unsworth Township Forum 14 March, 6.30pm

The next Whitefield/Unsworth Township Forum takes place on Tuesday 14 March, 6.30pm at Elms Community Centre. Agenda items include: · Police Update · Presentation: Library Review – update on progress of review · Health Centre Development update with NHS officers · Updates – Uplands, Former Town Hall, Hickory Grange, Porada, Pilsworth (Park 66), Boz Park…

Answers to Questions: Bulky Waste Collections

On 10 April 2016 the cost of a bulky waste collection increased from £15 for up to 3 items, with up to 2 additional items for £5 each, to £30 for up to 5 items – that is the minimum charge has doubled from £15 to £30. Given the number of residents that have been…

Issues raised at the last Unsworth and Whitefield Township Forum

A large number of issues were raised by Unsworth and Whitefield residents at the last township forum and attached are the responses from local councillors, Bury Council officers and the Police. Download PDF document for reading offline [pdf-embedder url=”https://res.cloudinary.com/eastlancs/image/upload/v1486931567/Whitefield_Issues_Raised_170117_ncuvqs.pdf” title=”Issues raised”]

Reporting Back: Liberal Democrats work on Bury Council

Last Wednesday (1 February 2017) was the regular ‘Full Council’ meeting of Bury Council, the one meeting where all 51 councillors meet to discuss the main issues facing the area. This was a very busy meeting of the Council, with a full public gallery – mostly people concerned about the proposals in the Greater Manchester…

Increase in Missed Bins across Bury

Figures obtained by Bury’s Lib Dem councillors have revealed a noticeable increase in the number of reported ‘missed bins’ in the last few years. The figures identify the number of bins reported as not collected by bin type. This includes instances where it is not the Councils fault such as access problems due to parked…

Public Meeting: Whitefield & Unsworth Township Forum 5 July, 6.30pm – plus PACT at 5.30pm

The next Whitefield & Unsworth Township Forum takes place on Tuesday 5 July, 6.30pm at Elms Community Centre. Agenda items include: · Appointment of Chair and Vice Chair · Advisory Board membership · New Health and Care Centre for Whitefield – update on progress (Mike Woodhead, Acting Chief Finance Officer – NHS Bury CCG) · …

Save our Library

It looks like Library closures are a distinct possibility, with Unsworth Library possibly a victim of library services cutbacks that were originally proposed a number of years ago. At 5.20pm this evening Bury Council sneaked out the following press release: Public consultation to begin on review of Bury’s library service https://t.co/q9Av1IEL9X — Bury Council (@BuryCouncil)…

Unsworth 2016 local election ward results: Tony Clough UKIP 411 Nicole Haydock Green 66 David Jones Labour 1365 (elected) Steve Middleton Liberal Democrats 114 Bernard Vincent Conservative 885 Turnout 40% Thank you to everyone who voted for me. Your support is very much appreciated. Overall: Labour lost 3 seats (2 to Conservatives, 1 to Lib…

I’ve written two letters today about the car accident that happened last Friday outside the Co-op store on Parr Lane. The first letter was to Bury Council’s Traffic Management Department, in which I asked them to do more to enforce the double yellow lines outside the Co-op, install a temporary 20mph zone around that section…

Reporting Back – Full Council, Answers to Questions

Earlier in the month was the regular meeting of Bury’s ‘Full Council’. The Lib Dem Group asked our full allocation of four questions: (summaries below – full answers here) – Children in Residential Care Mary D’ALbert asked about the recent report that “Thousands of police visits ‘criminalise’ children in care homes”, and could we be…

A couple of weeks ago Unsworth residents received the leaflet attached below from Bury Council. I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, well here it is now. On the one hand, it is a nice message – well done, we are quite good at recycling…. maybe we should be all pleased to receive…

Bury Council meeting to be streamed live on the internet

Yesterday the Bury Times carried the news that Bury Council is to begin streaming live council meetings, starting with next Wednesday’s meeting of the full council. This follows a decision recently to allow tweeting in Bury’s council chamber, overturning a ban by the previous council when it was under Tory control. Regular readers of my…

The Manchester Evening News reports today that Salford City Council is to loan the city’s rugby club, Salford City Reds, £750,000 as part of a bail-out alongside Peel Holdings who will be matching the Council’s contribution. Salford City Reds, which has been facing a financial crisis since before it’s move from The Willows, already owes…