Bury Liberal Democrats have reacted to the news that £1.4bn transport investment in Greater Manchester which has been made despite the rejection of congestion charging in last year’s referendum.

Speaking after news of the investment was made public, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary spokesman for Bury North, Cllr Richard Baum, said “The fact that these improvements to transport are happening without a congestion charge finally exposes the pro-charge campaign’s key message as a complete lie. They said that there was no Plan B, but there obviously was and this is it.”

Bury Lib Dems led the fight against congestion charging, securing Council backing for their motion rejecting the charge. Cllr Baum continued “The whole c-charge idea wasted millions of pounds of public money for absolutely no reason. Not only was the proposal hugely expensive and riddled with flaws, it now turns out to have been totally unnecessary.”

Cllr Baum gave a cautious welcome to the extra money, but warned that there were still many unanswered questions to resolve. “£1.4bn into Greater Manchester is great news. But we should remember that this is our taxpayers’ money to begin with, trying to make up for decades of under-investment. This new package still doesn’t give Bury what it needs. We will still have an inadequate bus service, an expensive tram service, and little in the way of incentives for cycling and walking. The government are giving us back some of our money, but nowhere near enough.”

“I also have concerns about the deal that’s been done to get this funding. There will be Council Tax increases to pay for it, and all local Councils in Greater Manchester have had to give up a large part of the local transport grant which could have been directed to local schemes. The government are giving with one hand and taking away with the other. And none of this has come before Bury Council for a vote or even a discussion. Once again the people of Bury are being ignored by the government. Our Council Tax will pay for a bypass in Wigan and a busway in Leigh, and whilst these are welcome schemes, the Councillors of Bury have been denied their say once again.”

A team of community volunteers collected over twenty bags of rubbish from Prestwich Clough during an anti-litter action day recently.
The volunteers, from across Prestwich, first came together to clean up the local area earlier in the spring, with a graffiti clean up day. This time their attentions turned to litter, with an attempt to shift some of the rubbish which blights the Clough.

The group have been supported by Liberal Democrat Councillor for St Mary’s ward Richard Baum, who attended both the graffiti clean up and the litter pick, and got stuck in cleaning up. Cllr Baum said “It’s great to see a group of local people giving up their free time to help the community like this. We cleaned a lot of graffiti a few weeks ago, and today we collected over twenty bags full of rubbish between us. It makes a real difference to the local environment, and it’s actually surprisingly good fun!”

But Cllr Baum had some words of criticism for the authorities who have done little to help the situation. “It’s a shame that the Council don’t seem to be helping keep the Clough clean as much as they should. We’ve found everything from old tyres to broken mirrors today, some of it clearly dating back years. It’s obvious that stuff is getting dumped here and not cleaned up by the Council when it should. We all need to do our bit not to drop litter, but I will continue to press for more help from the authorities as well as a crackdown on the people responsible for spoiling the beautiful Prestwich clough with their litter.”

Bury Liberal Democrats say that new unemployment figures for Bury point to a jobs crisis for the borough. The figures, released today by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) reveal that there are 60% more local people claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance than a year ago.

Commenting on the figures, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Bury North Cllr Richard Baum said “These figures are a shocking display of how Labour’s mishandling of the economy is having a real impact on local people. There are now thousands more people out of work and claiming benefits in Bury than a year ago. This is terrible news for them, for our borough, and for the local economy. And the figures may not tell the whole truth. When people stop spending their redundancy pay, or come back to Job Seekers Allowance from other benefits, the true scale of the problem could be much worse”

There is particularly bad news for the long term unemployed and for jobless young people. There are nearly one third more long term unemployed claimants in Bury than a year ago, and the numbers of young people out of work in the borough has risen by 48%. Cllr Baum continued “Labour claim to be tackling the economic crisis. But tell that to the people of Bury desperately struggling to get out of long term unemployment, and tell that to the young people leaving college and joining the dole queues.”

Job Centres in Bury have reported steep falls in vacancies. Cllr Baum said “There are 66% fewer vacancies in Bury’s job centres compared to just a month ago. These figures are the worst for any borough in Greater Manchester, and reveal the level of this crisis. The Labour government are doing nothing to tackle this crisis. Gordon Brown is off trying to save the world, but people in Bury need jobs now, and there aren’t any. The government are letting the people of Bury down.”