With Christmas around the corner, there’s no surprise that my week has had more of a festive theme, beginning on Monday where I helped to judge our Trafford Council employee festive photo competition. There were quite a few entries this year, with the winner (a festive photo of a cat) announced on Wednesday lunchtime. That lunchtime I also joined colleagues at the Town Hall and enjoyed a selection of Christmas songs courtesy of King’s Road Primary School Choir. It was lovely to welcome the children to the Town Hall and hear how excited they were for their school Christmas party and the holidays.
The festive theme continued on Thursday evening when our Deputy Leader, Cath Hynes, and I were treated to Urmston Musical Theatre’s production of Elf! The cast were superb, as were the orchestra and the staging. Everyone on stage looked like they were having a great time and that was the same for the audience too. Each night has sold out and I can understand why!
It was very much business as usual for the rest of the week. On Monday I attended a meeting of our Adult Social Care Development Board where we bring our senior leaders in Health and Care together to monitor the services we provide. I also caught up with my two Stretford & Humphrey Park Ward colleagues, Steve Adshead and Jane Slater, as we planned activities for the year ahead.
On Monday evening I joined my Executive Committee colleagues for a 2025 budget planning session. At that point we did not have sight of the UK Government’s financial settlement for Local Government, which was announced on Wednesday. There has been an increase in financial support for councils, with some benefitting more than others, and we are working through the figures to see what impact Wednesday’s announcement will have on our own financial situation. It’s worth remembering that when we published our draft budget proposals back in October, we had a £10m budget gap to bridge.
Other meetings this week included the Liverpool to Manchester Railway Board and my weekly meeting with our Chief Executive. My final public meeting of the year was a meeting of the Executive on Wednesday evening. We had a packed agenda which you can read here. Items included our Housing Allocation Policy which provided a timely reminder of the scale of housing crisis we face. We also considered proposals for a new housing development in Stretford, plans to enhance nature at the former William Wroe Golf Course in Flixton, the exploration of a Green Heat Network, a new Data Strategy, and an update on our Culture Strategy.
At the end of the week I joined colleagues for a site visit to our new Town Centre in Stretford. This was my first time back on site since May and it was good to see the progress being made on structural work. There’s new roofing either side of King Street and new brickwork on the shop fronts. The colour of the brickwork picks up on the colours of other significant buildings in Stretford, including Stretford Public Hall, which is a welcome nod to our heritage. This has been a complex project with 2023 being a year of demolition, 2024 a year of construction, and with 2025 a year of new beginnings. There’s still more work to do but it will be worth it in the long run.
Finally, aside for one more planned meeting next week, I’m almost done with meetings as we head towards Christmas and the New Year. If you celebrate, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and wish us all a Happy New Year when it comes!
