Heywood Councillor leads the way on Facebook!

Heywood North Councillor Peter Rush can count on over 400 'friends' after embracing popular social networking site 'Facebook.' Councillor Rush, who represents Heywood North, is now linked up with well over 300 Heywood residents. He has already been dealing with numerous complaints and claims that this is another 'effective new way of serving the people of Heywood.'

Councillor Peter Rush said, "I believe that elected representatives should be easy to reach which is why I decided to join up to Facebook. The impact that social networking sites can have in engaging the public into politics is immense. You only have to look at the campaign ran by President-Elect Barack Obama last year to realise the positive power of sites such as Facebook can have on a wider audience.

"It took a while to get my head around using Facebook but I am slowly getting there. I find it an extremely useful way of talking to the people of Heywood and I want to thank everyone in Heywood that has signed me up so far. Please feel free to add me as a friend or to contact me with any issues that you may have."

Councillor Rush, whose list of friends include Heywood's Olympic hero Keri-Anne Payne, local band The Sticks, Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg MP and regular visitor to Heywood and good friend, Simon Hughes MP, also stated that he found Facebook a great way of engaging the younger voter into politics.

Councillor Rush said: "Unfortunately, the younger people of Heywood are far less likely to vote when compared to their parents or grandparents, yet many hold very strong views on local and national issues and want their voice heard. So far, Facebook has become a really useful way of enabling them to raise issues with me -local transport being the number one issue recently - and most of them are really positive about me being on there."