Last night was the ‘Budget Council’ meeting at Bury Town Hall, where councillors set the Council’s budget for 2019-20, as well as the Council Tax rate residents will pay. The proposals from the ruling Labour Group were agreed. These include: – Council Tax rise of 4.4%. The maximum rise allowed by Government without a referendum […]

Last week was an important opportunity to scrutinise the Council budgets which are set at a Greater Manchester level with the regular meeting of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority ‘Corporate Issues and Reform Scrutiny. Bury’s Lib Dem Councillor Tim Pickstone represents Bury on the Committee and reports here: Mayor’s General Budget A part of our […]

The formal public consultation on the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework ends a month from now on 18 March 2019. This is your opportunity to have your say on these important plans which will have a massive impact on our local area for generations to come. You can take part in the consultation online, or in […]

A survey released by Age UK has found that more than 50,000 older people have now died waiting in vain for care during the 700 days since the Government first said it would publish a Care Green Paper Over the same period, in excess of half a million older people (626,701) have had their requests […]

Last week the Government published its annual ‘Local Government Spending Allocations. Councillor Tim Pickstone, Liberal Democrat Group leader on Bury Council said: “Councils still face a funding gap of more than £3 billion this year. The money councils have to provide local services is running out fast and there is huge uncertainty about how they […]

Just before Christmas Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone caught up with Bury’s recently appointed Assistant Director of Education and Inclusion, Paul Delbridge-Smith, who took up post with Bury Council in August. One of Paul’s first priorities was to get an accurate picture how Bury’s schools are doing and how well they are performing […]

Just before Christmas Councillor Tim Pickstone was able to meet with staff from both the Council and NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for an update on mental health services for children and young people (historically referred to as CAMHS – Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services). This followed on from a written question at […]

Alongside the GMSF, Greater Manchester has also set out a draft ‘Transport Delivery Plan’ – for 2020-25 – which sets out what is planned in terms of transport infrastructure. This is divided into: Things that are actually going to happen in the next 5 years In Bury the only significant thing is some extra double […]

Today Greater Manchester’s Labour leaders are publishing the revised proposals for the ‘Greater Manchester Spatial Framework’ to provide 201,000 new homes in Greater Manchester over the next 20 years. Councillor Tim Pickstone, Bury’s Liberal Democrat Group Leader said: For Bury this plan is a disgrace. While other boroughs like Bolton have maintained all future housing […]

This week the Government published a consultation on Waste Strategy, which has been criticised for its lack of ambition. The strategy aims to: – Introduce a tax on single use plastic with less than 30% recycled content. – Consider banning plastic packaging where there are alternatives. – Legislate to allow government to specify a core […]