David Nuttall - Bury North

The residents of Bury have voted by a margin of 3 to 2 to reject the proposal that Bury should have an Elected Mayor. The result was:

Yes 10,338
No 15,425

The turnout was 18.25% and there were 28 papers rejected.

I am pleased that the proposal was rejected and I am only sorry that the whole exercise has cost the taxpayers of Bury a sum likely to be in excess of £100,000 and this money could have been better spent on other Council services.

Today, Thursday 3rd July sees the whole of the Borough of Bury going to the polls just a couple of months after the May local elections. This time the only question facing the residents of Bury is whether ir not they want to replace the present system of local Government with a system under which there would be an Elected Mayor who would hold all Executive power. All the existing Councillors would still remain but they would have less powers. There would be a whole new set of costs imposed on local Council Tax payers. Not only would there be the salary of the new full time Mayor but there would also be a Deputy Mayor and the new Mayor will need an office which will need staffing. The costs have been estimated to be up to a quarter of a million pounds a year.

I believe all this is totally unnecessary and unwanted. I receive dozens of representations every week on all sorts of problems but not once has anyone ever said to me that what they wanted to see was yet another elected politician. Everyone in Bury can vote today, if you are not a postal voter you can simply go to your normal polling station. If you have a postal vote and have not sent it back yet you can complete it and hand it in at a polling station. Whichever method you use I urge you to use your vote and vote NO.

Sue and I took CeeCee down to the Bury Show on Sunday as past of his socialisation process. It is very difficult to get anywhere very quickly when we have him with us as so many people want to stop and chat. This is especially true of families with young children who love to be able to stoke him. Even though his has grown from his early days with us he is still clearly a puppy and the children who have seen 101 Dalmatians think it is great to see a real life Dalmatian.

In the evening we went down to the Lowry to watch Showcase where local amateur operatic societies perform sets from well known shows to raise money for charity.

On Saturday I joined other Parliamentary Candidates on the Second Day of the Parliamentary Party’s Away two days at Latimer House down in Buckinghamshire. Despite the seven hour round trip drive it was certainly a worthwhile day with sessions covering differebt aspects of the current political scene.

On Thursday I visited Fairfield Hospital with the Shadow Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley. We met with the Chief Executive of Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust and a group of senior clinicians. After discussing the latest position on the proposed closure of Children’s Services we toured the post-natal ward and the paediatric unit.

To coincide with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the NHS at Trafford General Hopsital in Manchester by Nye Bevin the Conservatives have launched an online Bithday Card where anyone can leave their own message.

The website can be accessed here

Sunday saw Tottington’s annual Music in the Park event take place in weather more like Autumn than Summer. There was a strong wind blowing in the morning which actually damaged one of the tents in the course of erection. Fortunately other than a couple of brief showers the afternoon was quite dry and relatively warm, the sun even appeared briefly. I know how much work goes into organising this event and I would like to thank all those who gave up so much time to make this event happen and I hope all those who attended enjoyed themselves.

On Saturday I was the guest speaker at the half-yearly meeting of North West Conservative Clubs. It was actually held over at the Dunscar Conservative Club in Bromley Cross which is in the Bolton North East constituency but even so it was only a short journey for me from Tottington. It is an excellent Conservative Club with great facilities and a very good sized car park. Despite the very heavy rain there was a good turnout with representatives coming from Conservative Clubs all over he North West. After a substantial buffet lunch I spoke for 20 minutes or so about the current political situation and then I answered questons which were many and varied. It is clear that people are becomingly increasingly worried about the state of the economy. A couple of years ago you would just have an occasional question on the economy on Saturday there were several questions about different aspects of the economy and the fears of a recession. I explained that for many people especially in the private sector who had not had a pay rise for two or three years and were now seeing price double-digit price increases in food and fuel for them it would seem like there was a recession now.

I was pleased to be able to welcome Michael Gove MP to the Constituency yesterday when we visited Elton School. Michael is the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families ( ie Education ). Michael was able to hear at first hand from the Headteacher and Chairman of Governors about the achievements the school has made and the challenges it faces.

I called into Limefield Post Office this week. Limefield is one of the four post offices in the Bury North Constituency which is facing closure. The Government claim that these post offices are closing because they are not used. Well all I can say is that whilst I was there it was not only very busy but there was a constant queue of customers waiting to be served. Hundreds of local people and businsses rely on the post office and its closure will be a devastating blow to the local community