114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will end up in the bin, and not recycled, over the festive period estimate a group of environment charities including Friends of the Earth, the RSPCA, the National Trust and the Wildlife Trusts.

Their recently launched beach litter report revealed the tide of plastic has risen to a whopping 70% on UK beaches. The damage being done to the world’s oceans by plastic has been highlighted in the BBC’s flagship nature series Blue Planet II.

The charities say: “Government has the power to change the habits of our throwaway society. They can put a stop to the ongoing environmental disaster of ocean plastic pollution. We’d urge everyone to join our call to get charges introduced across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland on single-use plastic items such as plastic cups and lids, straws, plates and cutlery”.

The Charities are currently calling on UK governments to put a charge on single-use plastic throwaway items and demanding that big fast food chains stop giving out millions of plastic cups, stirrers, straws and cutlery but instead replace them with reusable or fully compostable alternatives.

Sadly in Greater Manchester we cannot put many types of plastic in our ‘blue’ bins such as much of the packaging used by supermarkets or shops. To make a real difference we’re going to need to see action from Government (national and local), industry and from individuals taking action ourselves.

Bury’s Councillors have backed calls from the Liberal Democrats group for the 1% pay cap for public sector pay rises to be ended, and to be properly funded by Government.

Liberal Democrat councillors proposed a motion on Public Sector Pay to the last full meeting of Bury Council. This was agreed by Councillors and is now Council policy.

Liberal Democrat Group Leader Councillor Tim Pickstone said:
“Since 2010 most public sector staff have seen their pay rise by just 4.4%. At the same time prices have risen by 22% – a massive pay cut in real terms.

Prices continue to go up and we cannot keep making public sector staff suffer what is effectively a pay cut every year. Staff in the NHS, the Police, Fire, local councils and civil service undertake important jobs and need to be paid fairly.

The Government says it is allowing flexibility for more pay rises, but without funding the rise this is an empty promise. Without the Government taking action pay rises would just mean schools, hospitals or councils would have to make further cuts and lose further staff if a higher pay rise was agreed”.

Local Government employers (which Bury Council is a part of) seem likely to be offering a 2% rise each year for the next two years. However this increase is currently NOT funded by Government, so such a rise would mean that more cuts would be needed to be made in both local councils and local schools.

Metrolink Fares are to rise by around 6% a year until 2020, Greater Manchester Council Leaders have agreed.

The decision was to raise fares by ‘inflation + 2.33%’ a year for three years. That’s an increase of 5.93% on 1st
January 2018 and over the three years a fare rise of 19%.

Railway companies announced yesterday that rail fares would be rising by 3.4% from January – described by Passenger Groups as a ‘Kick in the Teeth’. Rail fares rises are determined by a Government formula, but rises on Metrolink are decided by our own local councils.

In Greater Manchester the decision was taken by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, made up of Bury Council’s Labour Leader, eight other Labour council leaders, the Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester and the Conservative Leader of Trafford Council.

This decision made by the Labour Leaders shows how out of touch they are with the financial situation of many tram passengers.

Labour complains constantly about the Conservatives’ austerity and wage freezes in the public sector and then hits passengers who are feeling the pinch with unremitting fare increases. It promises in its own Manifesto to limit rail fare increases to below inflation, yet when it has the chance to make the decision increases them by double inflation.

This is simply not fair – Metrolink is in profit. We should be encouraging more passengers to use the service and cracking down on fare evasion not hammering the fare-paying passengers.