STAYING ALIVE !

No , not the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever but life expectancy in Crumpsall . The NHS in the form of Manchester Primary Care Trust have just published a book of statistics which amongst a whole pile of other stuff tells us that , out of 33 wards in the city , men in Crumpsall Ward had the 4th highest life expectancy and women the 3rd highest . The figures are a little out of date , covering 1999-2003 , and are on the old pre-2004 ward boundaries , but its still good to know that living in Crumpsall means living longer . However us men have got a bit of catching up to do , because our average life expectancy at 74.1 years is 6.1 years behind women's average of 80.2 years . That's one gap I definitely want to make a personal contribution to narrowing !!!

BROWN BACKS CRUMPSALL LABOUR

I've not wasted any time in lobbying soon to be leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister Gordon Brown . I met with Gordon yesterday evening following a meeting organised by the Co-op party in New Century Hall . One of the many jobs of local Councillor is to lobby goverment for policies and resources to help us regenerate our city . It's not often you get to talk to the person at the top and as the picture shows I was getting my point over with feeling . I'm personally looking forward to a Brown led Labour government and I'm equally confident that my words didn't fall on deaf ears . However , I'm going to wait and see how successful I was before revealing the content of the discussion !

SAVE OUR PONDS !

Back in the eighties the ponds at Bowker Vale were threatened with being drained and turned into a housing development site . That threat was successfully averted and in the intervening years the wildlife value of the ponds has increased enormously . Now the ponds are under threat again with a developper wanting to drain one of the ponds and turn the other into a " feature " in the middle of a housing estate linked to Blackley New Road by a monstrous bridge over the Irk . This would destroy the ecological value of the site and destroy a green haven at the heart of the city . Crumpsall's Labour Councillors are determined to fight this every step of the way and make sure it doesn't happen !

ELECTION VICTORY - now the work begins

We've been so busy with elections that we haven't been able to post any entries over the last couple of weeks . Well elections are over now and the obvious first thing to report is the election result , a stunning victory in Crumpsall and Blackley Village for sitting Councillor , Con Keegan . Con polled 1832 votes , a 9.9% increase on the previous year , giving him a majority of 1268 . Thanks to everybody who gave us their vote this year , and if you need reminding , just remember that we are Councillors all-year round for all the citizens of Crumpsall and Blackley Village .