Iain Roberts

From the Council:

Stockport Music Service showcased a very successful week of five summer concerts at the prestigious Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. All the pupils involved had a great experience on their respective nights.

The Stockport Council service celebrated the achievements of its young musicians, aged between five and 21 years and of all abilities, representing 9 Stockport primary schools, one special school, and a wide variety of musical groups and genres of music.

There were also adult singers, including teachers, comprising the Sing Up Choir. Anybody wishing to join any of the Music Centre groups in September or wanting more information should contact Stockport Music Service on 0161 483 7636 or email craig.eastwood@stockport.gov.uk.

(I was there on the Friday, watching my son and his friends in the brass Five Notes Band and Prep Band).

From the Council:

People of all ages can explore the world of books and learning with Stockport Council’s week long ‘Reading Comes Alive’ celebrations between 31st July- 6th August. A series of lively and informative free events will be taking place throughout the week in Merseyway Shopping Centre precinct, including:

· Saturday 31st July 10am-4pm and Sunday 1st August 11am-4pm – “Summer Reading” – what’s hot and what’s not; find out about the best of summer reading

· Monday 2nd August – “Help yourself to better health” – help and support from organisations such as Stockport Health Trainers, stop smoking, weight management and alcohol NHS services and Disability Stockport

· Tuesday 3rd August 10am-4pm – “Your Heritage Your History” – a chance to find out more about Stockport’s fascinating history

· Wednesday 4th August 10am-4pm – “Making the Most of Your Money” – free help, information and specialist advice on everything from how to manage your debt to claiming benefits, fuel efficiency in the home to discounts on leisure facilities.

· Thursday 5th August 10am-4pm – “Stories Come Alive” – lots of books to share with babies and children

· Friday 6th August 10am-1pm – “Going the extra mile” – find out more about the Home Library Service in Stockport

Look out for more information in Stockport libraries about the week of events, ring 0161 217 6009 or email libraries@stockport.gov.uk.

From the Council:

Stockport has been awarded nine Green Flag Awards and one Green Pennant Award for 2010-11, in recognition of the high standard of its parks and open spaces.

Three parks were entered for the first time and all were successful: Diamond Jubilee Park, North Reddish Park and Shaw Health Park.

The following parks retained their Green Flags: Adswood Park, Brinnington Park, Hallam Gardens, Heaton Norris Park, Oak Meadow and Reddish Vale Country Park.

This brings the total number of sites that are at Green Flag standard across the borough to 20. To be eligible for a Green Flag Award, sites must be freely accessible to the public and meet strict criteria including being safe and secure, clean and well maintained, support conservation and heritage and encourage strong community involvement.

Meanwhile Gatley Carrs was successfully submitted for the Green Pennant Award. The Green Pennant Award recognises high quality green spaces that are managed by voluntary and community groups, in this case Gatley Carrs Conservation Group. For more information on Stockport’s parks visit www.stockport.gov.uk/parks or call 0161 217 6111.

There was an armed robbery at Cheadle Post Office this morning (Thursday 29th July) at 9.30am.

The robbers stole a security van with money, dumped it on Bruntwood Park and crossed the park on foot to another vehicle.

No-one was injured in the robbery.  If you have any information that might help the police, please contact them.

Gatley Carrs - the village’s hidden gem of a nature reserve - has received a Green Pennant award. Mark Hunter, Pam King, Mayor Hazel Lees and I went along for the award ceremony and somehow managed to dodge the rain.

Congratulations to everyone at the Gatley Carrs Conservation Group who’s hard work has turned this former builders’ rubble tip into such a lovely place.

View Gatley Carrs in a larger map

Stockport Council’s Corporate Resource, Management & Governance Scrutiny (CRMG) Committee met last night.  Its job is to keep an eye on how the council operates internally - the “back office” side of things.

As a new item, we discussed the Council’s use of RIPA, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

RIPA provides a framework for a variety of public bodies - including councils, the police, the Benefits Agency and others - to use covert surveillance to gather evidence against members of the public suspected of breaking the law.

It’s been pretty controversial, with a typical Daily Mail comment against it being

When it was passed in 2000, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act attracted little public attention.

Those who did take an interest were informed that, far from being a cause for alarm, it would offer greater protection from Big Brother by regulating for the first time spying by the police and the security services.

Yet in only eight years, RIPA has become one of the most powerful tools of the surveillance state, used almost without restraint by councils determined to catch anybody daring to put their rubbish out on the wrong day.

It hasn’t been used for that in Stockport.

Stockport Council, we now know, used RIPA seven times in 2008 and seven times in 2009.  It wasn’t used to catch people putting out their bins on the wrong day, or to catch dog walkers.  It’s mainly been used to tackle anti-social behaviour and illegal selling of alcohol to children when other methods of gathering evidence have failed.

Councillors on the CRMG Scrutiny committee will be getting a quarterly report on how RIPA is being used by the Council so we can keep an eye on it.

Overall, I’ve long had concerns about the RIPA legislation - whether it’s too broadly drafted and gives too much power to the various public bodies that use it.  The Coalition government is considering changes and it may be that authorising RIPA requests moves from the Council to  Magistrates.

However, Stockport Council’s use of the legislation seems to me to be both appropriate and proportionate at present, and I look forward to monitoring it and ensuring it stays that way.

The Cheadle Muslim Association Fun Day last Sunday passed off without the pouring rain we had yesterday, and was the best attended I can remember.

The event, at the mosque in Heald Green, is for the whole community and is well attended by muslims and non-muslims alike.

Attractions on Sunday included stalls selling everything from curries to jewellery, a bouncy slide, football, cricket, tours of the mosque and a magic show and archery demonstration for the kids.

I was able to demonstrate my rather limited athletic prowess, leading my team to fifth place (out of six) after the relay race, egg and spoon race, sack race and tug of war.  The highlight was a tug-of-war between the winning team and the mosque committee.  To make it a little fairer, the committee were assisted by three fine member of our neighbourhood policing team and that swung a tight 2-1 victory for the committee and police.

These fun days get better every year and I can genuinely say it’s a good and very enjoyable afternoon out for the family.

From the Council:

Children at Orrishmere Primary School in Cheadle Hulme won first prize in the Stockport Young Entrepreneurs competition for the second year running. The children ran a company called ‘The Money Tree’ which gave out micro loans of £2 and challenged pupils to make as much money as they could. Children gave half of their profits and the £2 loan back to the school. The profits amounted to over £1,000! They received their trophy from Ruth Badger runner-up in the BBC TV series The Apprentice. Ms Badger is treating the winners to a business lunch at one of Manchester’s top restaurants. Runners up were Queens Road Primary School’s ‘Clock Clickerz’ who worked with their business mentor Phil Millar from Creative Apparel in Cheadle to design and produce personalised clocks.The best trade stand at the final, voted for by other children at the event, was Cheadle Heath Primary School’s ‘Pom Pom Pets’ who produced pom pom animals, complete with adoption certificates.

Over 250 children, some as young as seven, from 15 schools, were given £500 through extended schools funding to set-up and run a small business. They did their own market research and designed, produced, advertised and sold a product. Each child had a role within the ‘company’ such as finance director or marketing manager. Every school was supported by a business mentor - a local businessperson - who generously gave their time and expertise to help the pupils.

The finale, in front of over 600 people at Stockport Town Hall, was in the style of the Dragon’s Den. The children ran trade stands displaying their products with the school’s business links acting as ‘Dragons’ interviewing and judging them on criteria such as originality of design.

Going around Gatley and Cheadle this morning, I spotted a few of the green comms boxes with graffiti daubed on them in white paint.

I’ve reported ones on Peckforton Close, Clifton Drive and Springfield Road, which should (on past peformance) be cleaned pretty quickly.

If you spot any more, please report them. Just email streetscene@stockport.gov.uk with the location of the graffiti, or let Pam or myself know.

For some time, every council has opened up its accounts - down the the last receipt and invoice - for any member of the public to inspect. This happens for one month a year and your opportunity to view Stockport’s finances in detail ends next Friday, 30th July.

From the Council:

A notice has now been published advising that until Friday, 30 July “any person interested, on application initially to Business Services Directorate, Stopford House, Piccadilly, Stockport, SK1 3XE, telephone 0161 480 4949, ext 4124, may at the appropriate offices of the Council inspect and make copies of the accounts of the Council and the residuary body for the period ended 31st March 2010 and all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating thereto.”

A copy of the public notice can be viewed here (pdf).