Grants Cuts put Prestwich Festival at Risk

Prestwich Festival and many other important community projects may be at risk after an annoucement that Bury Council is to cut all Area Board Grants in the current financial year.

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The Conservative-led Council has announced that there will be no Area Partnership grants for Prestwich – or any other the other parts of Bury this year. This is a grant scheme which has been running by the local areas for the last ten years. In Prestwich the grants have funded projects throughout the community, with the support for Prestwich Festival being the most visible in recent years.

Local Liberal Democrat Vic D’Albert said “This is another decision to cut services taken by the Conservatives without any consultation whatsoever. It’s damaging and not what people want. Once again we think the Bury Conservatives have got it wrong. We all know that cuts are needed to pay off Labour’s debt, but yet again the Tories at the town hall are cutting without asking people what matters to them.

“The Prestwich Festival is something we’re really proud of. We will fight to keep it going, and the Council need to realise how much this means to local people. They have made their decision without asking anyone, and are making the people of Prestwich pay disproportionately for Labour’s debt mess.”

(Picture: Prestwich Carnival Parade this summer)

100 days – Message from Nick Clegg MP

Today, the coalition Government is 100 days old.

I want to take this moment to say thank you once again for all your support, all your hard work, all your generosity. Thank you for everything you did to help us win over a million more votes for the Liberal Democrats in the General Election. Thank you for getting Liberal Democrat ministers into government for the first time in generations.

Today I made a speech about how the Coalition government is building a fairer society in Britain. You can read it here.

Both David Cameron and I have always made it clear that we are governing Britain for the long term, not for tomorrow’s headlines.

One of our main long-term goals is to increase social mobility. A fair society is one where everyone has the chance to do well, regardless of their beginnings. A society where no-one is held back by the circumstances of their birth. Where what counts isn’t what school you went to, the job your parents did or the colour of your skin, but your ability and ambition.

Read the rest of this entry.