Fallowfield Library Springs into Action

Councillor Peter Morrison has welcomed an initiative to Spring Fallowfield Library into Action this April. Cllr Morrison stated" Following some recent negative publicity I am pleased to see that Manchester Libraries have put such a magnificent programme of free activities together for local residents of Fallowfield"

For further information about the Free events for Children, Families and Senior citizens at the Library this April phone 0161 224 4153 .


Monday 2nd of April

2 till 3 Craft session with Sharon Theme Easter (For under 5)
10 till 1 Craft session 8 to 16 year old
2 till 4:30 Craft session 8 to 16 year old (

Tuesday 3rd - Nursery and Playgroup visit the Library

Wednesday 4th 2 till 3 Jiggy Session – Under 5’s

Teenage event with Spear fish company doing (Series of work shops culminating in a short film, Young people are invited to take part in all aspects of production from story-boarding, scripting, model/prop making, filming, production and, of course, animating. The final animation is presented to the youth on DVD!

Home Work Club craft sessions 2pm till 4:45pm

Thursday 5th 2 till 3 Stories, sticking and Stuff – under 5s


Wednesday 11th 2 till 3 Jiggy Session

Teenage event with Spear fish company

Thursday 12th
2 till 3 Stories, sticking and Stuff For under 5’s

13th Friday - Coffee Morning 10 till 12

Hama bead craft sessions – 3.15 to 4.15.
Saturday 14th - Premier Reading Scheme with Leigh, Targeted with school’s

10-1. Craft session

Monday 16th Home Work Club 3.30 till 7;45
Craft Activities for under 5’s 2 till 3pm

Tuesday 17th - Toy Library and Story Bags Launch Party 1 till 3:30

Wednesday 18th - 2 till 3 Jiggy Session
(Possible Teenage event with Spear fish company)

Thursday 19th 2 till 3 Stories, sticking and Stuff

Friday 20th - Coffee Morning 10 till 12

Saturday 21st Dads Group (Sharon) 10 till 12
Homework club all day 10 till 12:45 and 2 till 4:45

Monday 23rd Home Work club 3; 30 till 7;45
Craft, Stay and Play session. 2 till 3

Tuesday 24th - Somali Day (All day) There will be Somali speakers in library to help and Somali customers can learn about stock etc We are still working on this, will have some food and Somali speaker! This will be an all day event

Wednesday 25th Jiggy 2pm

Teenage event with Spear fish company

Thursday 26th Stories, Sticking and Stuff 2 till 3

Friday27th Coffee Morning 10 till 12

Saturday 28th Premier Reading Scheme with Leigh (Poss pm)

Home Work Club: All Day

SHOW OF FORCE IN MANCHESTER

Budget summary - Building Britain’s long-term future: Prosperity and fairness for families

Gordon has delivered again, a Budget that sets out increases in spending on public services; increases education spending to its highest ever levels; reforms the tax system to reward work, supports families with children, and takes 600,000 pensioners out of income tax. A bold Labour budget for a soon to be bold Labour Prime Minister.
Key announcements

Further support for families, by increasing the child element of the Child Tax Credit by £150 a year, over and above the commitment to increase it in line with earnings to the end of this Parliament. This raises the child element to £2,080 a year lifting 200,000 children out of poverty;

Increasing the threshold for the Working Tax Credit by £1,200 to £6,420 to improve work incentives;
So almost £2 billion extra is being invested in tax credits in this Budget;

Child Benefit will rise in three stages to £20 per week increasing faster than inflation. Child Benefit which was £575 a year in 1997 will by 2010 be over £1,000;

Education spending will rise to £90 billion by 2010-11 the highest ever level, increasing UK education spending from 4.7 per cent of GDP in 1997 to 5.6 per cent by 2010-11;

An increase in pensioner tax allowances taking 600,000 pensioners out of paying income tax;

The basic rate of income tax cut from 22 pence to 20 pence from April 2008 with the 10 pence starting rate removed; Simplifying the tax system by aligning the upper earnings limit for national insurance with the higher rate threshold and over indexing both to avoid people losing out

The headline corporate tax rate will be cut from 30 per cent to 28 per cent from April 2008 together with other significant reforms to the corporate tax system;

Measures to encourage energy efficiency and tackle climate change including an increase in fuel duty rates from 1 October 2007; and increasing Vehicle Excise Duty on the most polluting cars, while cutting it for the less polluting;

Extending the Financial Assistance scheme from its present budget of £2 billion to a total of £8 billion so that every one of the 125,000 workers will now receive help. Reporting later this year we will investigate, in full, the assets within the affected schemes and how we can use them further to support affected pensions.

BACK GORDON BROWN FOR THE LABOUR LEADERSHIP - TO JOIN THE LABOUR PARTY PHONE 08705900200 or visit www.labour.org.uk

Tree clearance following January storms

Over the last few weeks residents have been in touch with me and my colleagues in regards to a number of trees uprooted due to the severe storms in January.

The high winds caused extensive damage and toppled more than 2,000 trees in approximately 800 locations across the city. Five aboricultural teams of three men have been working tirelessly since January to sort out the problem which has been immense in scale and which will take sometime to clear.
As well as clearing the fallen and dangerous trees as a result of storm damage the aboricultural emergency call out teams also provide a service 24/7, 365 days a year for the city responding to calls within two hours to remove dangerous trees.
Councillor Amesbury, said: "We are still faced with an enormous back log of tree clearing following the January storm and the teams who are working full time are doing a tremendous job, while still providing an emergency service".
The chippings from the trees are used for a variety of purposes on paths, mulching beds in parks and for landscaping work across the city.

To report an uprooted or dangerous tree email contact@manchester.gov.uk

100 DAY CHALLENGE

A CLEANER FALLOWFIELD

I, Cllr Peter Morrison, Cllr David Royle, the city council clean team and the new PCSO's got our hands dirty as part of a clean up of the Fallowfield Brow area. The Clean up was in response from a call to action by the newly formed Neighbourhood Watch group in Fallowfield Brow.

The new Police Community Support Officers did a house to house door knock and leaflet drop to promote crime prevention and litter enforcement measures.

Cllr Peter Morrison stated: "This is not a one off isolated measure but the start of a concerted effort to encourage a sense of community responsibility to many of these households that have a large number of student tenants. We will also encourage Landlords to take more care of their properties using both gentle persuasion and where necessary the law".

A number of residents thanked the volunteers and staff for their fruitful efforts.

If you have an idea as to how to make your local streets better or want more information about the 100 Day Challenge then visit www.challengemanchester.co.uk

BMX Track approved for Platt Fields Park

The submitted plans for the proposed BMX site on the disused shingle tennis courts and surrounded area ( that suffers from flooding ) have been approved by the Planning Committee. Do keep an eye on the Friends of Platt Fields website for more information. http://www.plattfields.org/bmx.htm

Thank you to everyone that has been involved in the consultation exercise.

The Friends of Platt Fields Park AGM - The BMX Track Debate

I, Cllr Peter Morrison,(pictured) Cllr David Royle, Sir Gerald Kaufman MP and over 40 Friends members attended a lively and informative AGM celebrating the success of the group and re-electing the committee for the forthcoming year. Following Cllr Morrison's move to extend the consultation period over the proposals to construct a BMX track, people are able to have their say upto March the 15th. Feedback from Saturday's debate will be fed into the consultation process.

To have your say please visit the Friends of Platt Fields site where both arguments for and against have been posted. http://www.plattfields.org/bmx.htm

You are invited to spend an evening with us for fun and purpose.

Friday 23rd of March

Cost only £3 which will include live entertainment

Doors open at 7:30pm


Venue is the English Martyrs Social Club on Alexandra Road South, Whalley Range


All proceeds go towards making Whalley Range, City Centre and Fallowfield a better place.

For ideas on improving the above wards and information then contact cllr.m.amesbury@manchester.gov.uk

Traffic Calming for Kingsbrook and Kings Road Whalley Range

My colleague Cllr Peter Morrison alongside Cllr Mary Watson and Labour campaigner Kath Fry have successfully pressed the council to draw up a traffic calming scheme for Kingsbrook and Kings Road.

Cllr Peter Morrison stated: "Residents in this area of Whalley Range have been lobbying me and my Labour colleagues for sometime. Over eight collisions have occurred at the junction of Kingsbrook and Withington Road, cars drive at ridiculous speeds in this residential area and it has become rat run".

The draft scheme is part of a broader road safety initiative in the area to ensure that accidents at the junction of Wilbraham Road and Withington Road are reduced.

Please do respond to the surveys that will be posted through your doors over the next week or so. It is thanks to residents that we have got this far, lets have the final push.

Please email cllr.m.amesbury@manchester.gov.uk with your comments or post below.

Calling all budding DJ's and Singers ( 16 - 18 years old Age )
Spare time on your hands and unemployed ( 16 - 18 years of age )? interested in Music, DJing and sound recording? Then why not sign up for the sessions at Trinity House just off Platt Lane. For more details and to reserve your place call Louise from Music Stuff or email Louise Johnston mailto:louise.musicstuff@virgin.net. Sessions start from March
12th tel no 0161 2238700

Who’s Kidding Who?

The most unprincipled opportunistic political party to walk this earth has surpassed it's usual hypocrisy in its latest leaflet hitting the streets of Manchester Gorton. It now seems that Lib Dem Cllrs Jackie Pearcy and some other one whose names escaped me are claiming they are opposed to road pricing. Well I think they need to speak to their own leadership team in Westminster ( including Junior shadow transport spokesperson John Leech MP) and the rest of their Lib Dem colleagues throughout the North West (including your own leader in Manchester Cllr Simon Ashley).
Just to remind the rather forgetful Lib Dem Councillors in Gorton North here are some useful quotations from their own colleagues and their policy documents.

What the Lib Dem's say about Congestion Charging

Lib Dem's call for "the rapid introduction of a national road user pricing scheme to tackle congestion"
(Passed. Lib Dem national Conference 20th September 2006.)

"I am in favour of a congestion charge in peak times"
(Cllr Alan Taylor, Lib Dem Leader of Rochdale Council – 24th January 2007)

"Liberal Democrats believe road user pricing is essential"
(Lib Dem national policy document)

"We remain committed to a scheme of road user pricing that would charge vehicles according to their use of congested roads"
(Alistair Carmichael MP, Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Secretary – December 2006)

"The Liberal Democrats are not opposed to congestion charging in principle"
(Cllr Simon Ashley, Leader, Manchester Liberal Democrats – 24 January 2007)

What Labour Says

"Improvements in public transport have to be in place first"
(Cllr Richard Leese – Manchester Evening News, 11th January 2005)

"We have been very consistent on our position with congestion charging. For Greater Manchester, the investment in public transport has got to come first"
(Cllr Richard Leese – Manchester Evening News, 29th November 2005)

"Investment in public transport infrastructure has to be in place before we will consider it (congestion charging), and we will not consider it if it damages the economy"
(Cllr Richard Leese – Manchester Evening News, 21 August 2006)

"Public transport in Greater Manchester is not good enough and so the first priority is to improve it. No other measures will be introduced until we have not only delivered the necessary investment in trains, trams and buses, but also have greater control over how they operate"
(Cllr Richard Leese – North & East Manchester Advertiser, 8th February 2007)

What the Tories Say
§ "The Conservatives were ‘sympathetic’ to road pricing"
(George Osbourne MP, Shadow Chancellor

Better housing for Fallowfield - See for yourself

Councillor Peter Morrison is encouraging tenants to visit the newly opened show home at 191 Wilbraham Road.
Speaking at the launch Cllr Morrison stated, “over the coming months tenants will continue to be consulted on the proposals to create a local not for profit housing company called City South Manchester. The show home will give tenants an insight into the level of investment that can put into homes through the new housing company".

The show home will be
open at set times of the week, including
early evenings and weekends.
For more information, call the
Transfer Project Team on 834 1618
or email

housing.investment.options@manchester.gov

Action for Fallowfield Library

Following a spate of anti social behaviour incidents we are working together with Manchester Libraries, the Police and the Crime and Disorder Team to deal with a small minority of youths who were intent on causing trouble.
As reported in last weeks South Manchester Reporter the anti social behaviour included racist threats towards door staff and an alleged assault.

A number of youths have been identified and will be banned from the library with immediate effect.

All CCTV images are being reviewed by the police.
The newly appointed Police Community Support Officers will have a strong presence in the area.

Anti Social Behaviour legislation will be applied to both the culprits as well as the parents and carers.

Cllr Peter Morrison said: "this is a well used resource and community facility, we are determined to ensure that this small minority of young people are dealt with firmly for the benefit of decent library users".

Better Education - Wilbraham Primary Success

Wilbraham Primary School has hit the top ten as one of the fastest improving
schools in the country.
Cllr Mike Amesbury stated: "This is wonderful news for the pupils and teaching staff at the school, I commend the dedication of the Head Teacher Tim Hatcliffe and his team ".
The Government League Tables rank schools across the country according to the proportion
of youngsters who achieve level four or higher at Key Stage 2 tests. The school was placed eighth in the League
Table.

Manchester MP's should speak up for Manchester

Not content with talking down our schools and teachers, criticising the Police with debatable figures on crime, John Leech MP is now poo pooing the decision to locate the Super casino in East Manchester. I suppose he is at least being consistent with his opposition to major regeneration projects.The Lib Dems opposed the Commonwealth Games, the regeneration of Exchange Square and now the creation of at least 2,700 jobs in East Manchester.
click the link below
www.johnleech.org.uk/

SUPER QUIZ NIGHT

Thursday March 1st

St Crispin's Social Club, Lloyd Street South, Fallowfield, Manchester.

7:30pm

Only £5 including hotpot and pleasure of knowing that the money will be used to keep the Lib Dems out of Manchester.

email cllr.m.amesbury@manchester.gov.uk for tickets.

Crime down in Fallowfield

At our last Local Area Partnership meeting the Police gave councillors and local residents an update on the latest crime figures for our area. Robbery, burglary,vehicle crime and anti social incidents were all significantly down when compared with this time last year.
Some notable arrests have been made which has had a major impact on the reduced figures. The Respect pilot with its multi agency approach and additional police hours undoubtedly had a positive effect. My colleague Cllr David Royle is leading the charge to get a permanent Respect Fallowfield initiative.

Please support us.

Calling all budding young film stars

My colleague Cllr Peter Morrison has helped to secure money to commision Reel Manchester to train young people and parents in drama skills, culminating in a film production in and around Fallowfield.
This is great news for our area helping to fill the hsitorical void in terms of youth provsion . If you are a budding actor, script writer or film prodcucer then contact Jacqui at Reel Manchester on 0161 2264487 or email info@reelmcr.co.uk
Visit http://www.reelmcr.co.uk/ to see past productions througout greater Manchester.

A Listening Labour Council

A number of constituents emailed me (or generally grabbed me in the street) to protest at the ill conceived idea to extend car parking charges in the city( up to to midnight weekdays and all day Sunday ). Your protest didn't go unnoticed and forced a rethink , which goes to show that Manchester Labour does listen.

BMX Track for Platt Fields Park

I have given my support in principle to plans to build a national standard BMX track in a disused area of Platt Fields Park. Two of the biggest issues highlighted by local residents in the ward have been anti social behaviour closely followed by lack of youth facilities. The two are in my opinion interlinked so I welcome any proposals to offer positive activities for young Mancunians.
The proposals are out for consultation at the moment and must of course go through the planning process, a prerequisite of my full support is to maximise free access to young people and ensure that the site is secure causing minimum disruption to local residents.
To view the plans and get a flavour for the arguments for and against please visit the Friends of Platt Fields Park Website http://www.plattfields.org/bmx.htm .

Your views will be most welcome

Please email me at cllr.m.amesbury@manchester.gov.uk