PRESS RELEASE: BAG on the upcoming Council Elections

Bury Action Group has written to all candidates standing in Bury’s council elections to give them the opportunity to say how they would protect our vital public services.

The Group thinks all councillors should oppose the cuts. They will make the country’s economic policies worse not better. They will damage the lives of everyone in Bury to no benefit. Healthy local communities depend on the delivery of local services by council employees.

Group Chair, Sue Arnall, explained:

"We know that none of the three main parties are prepared to challenge the government by setting an illegal budget. In the end, each of them would have to make some cuts. Our letter gives the independent and small party candidates the chance to say whether they agree. Do they have an alternative approach?

The main parties do have some choice about which services to protect and which services to cut. Some councillors also claim to be able to deliver services despite cuts or to protect the quality of services whilst privatising them. We challenge the candidates to explain how they believe they can achieve this".

No to Racism in Bury

Sandra Walmsley is a councillor for Moorside Ward and a member of the CWU. She has invited members of Bury Action Group to a meeting at the Jinnah Centre at 7pm tomorrow.

This is Judy Paskell's summary of the circumstances.

'The issue is that an Asian member of the union, working at the big O2 call centre in Radcliffe, was racially abused over the phone by a customer, eventually responded in what the company consider to be a rude manner, and has been sacked. I believe members of the Bury Asian community will be there and I think a wide spectrum of local people should attend to show that we will not tolerate racism in Bury.'

We are passing an invitation to attend on at Judy's request.

Candidates ready for election fight

A total of 65 candidates will battle it out for 17 seats at next month’s Bury Council elections. The deadline for candidate registration passed on Monday, with one seat in each of the 17 wards up for grabs at the ballot box on May 5.

There are a total of 51 seats in the borough, with the Conservatives currently occupying 23 seats, Labour 20 and the Liberal Democrats eight. The Conservatives have a majority rule, although they do not have outright control.

To read the full article, click here 

Future of youth services uncertain

Council chiefs have spelled out what the future holds for the borough’s five youth centres in the wake of cuts totalling £800,000 allied to the loss of around 18 full-time posts.There were initial fears that the youth service savings could have forced four of the five centres to close.

But bosses have now disclosed that the buildings will remain open, although some of the previous youth activities will be carried out by new service providers.However, in some cases, uncertainty remains over the level, frequency and type of youth services which will be offered.

To read the full article please click here

Media items

Bury Council leader Bob Bibby recently appeared on ITVs 'Party People' talking about the upcoming local elections on changes to the way Bury Council runs its services (he won't say it but I will...privatising them!). You can access the link here, but as with these things, it may not be available for that long.

In addition, we understand that Sue was contacted about this 'You and Yours' item, but you wouldn't know from listening to it - please click here to access it.