Last night was the regular meeting of Bury Council’s Executive Committee. This Committee brings together the eight Labour Executive members, together with myself and the other opposition (Conservative) Group Leader as “non-portfolio members”.

The Council has been ‘touring’ Bury with the Executive Committee, so it was a very sad coincidence that they chose to come to Prestwich, only to use the opportunity to close our last Council-run Elderly Person’s Home in Prestwich.

Redcliffe Elderly Persons’s Home
A couple of months ago the Council agreed to “consult” on closing the last Elderly Persons’s Home in Prestwich (EPH) – Redcliffe on Hilton Lane. As far as I can understand, everyone who was asked wanted to keep the centre open, but last night the proposal from the Labour-run Council was to close it.

The only glimmer of hope was that the Council had recognised that the day-care services that take place at Redcliffe should be re-provided locally. I understand that around 25 people currently use day-care services, and SOME of these are to be re-provided in the residents lounge at the Clarkshill sheltered flats on Rectory Lane. Only 7 places a day will be available in this lounge (for three days a week), and other places are to be offered at Spurr House in Unsworth (not exactly handy by public transport from Prestwich!).

Prestwich’s EPH is the only one that’s being closed anywhere in Bury. Yet again, Prestwich is seeing our local services reduced, in my view unfairly. Closing Redcliffe will be saving Bury Council nearly £1/2 million a year, and the site itself will no doubt be of commercial value if the council sells it as I suspect they will.

Other Issues
Other issues on the agenda were less controversial: We agreed some new letting regulations for the Council’s “Traveller” site in Bury, and some draft guidelines for designating sporting and leisure grounds.
I very much welcomed the strategy around tacking fuel poverty, and urged the Council to make best use of the excellent tools the Government is about to introduce to help people with fuel costs AND increase our use of green energy in the “Green Deal”. I also highlighted some concerns about over-spending in the Adult Care services department, which I hope will not have too much a detrimental effect on people who use the service.

Any questions please ask! The papers for the meeting are available here.