As this is my first review of 2025, I’d like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. However, I know the start of this year has been both challenging and distressing for residents faced with flooding. New Year brought exceptionally heavy rainfall, overwhelming our rivers and existing drainage infrastructure. In response, council officers worked with the Police, Fire & Rescue Service, One Trafford colleagues, the Environment Agency and United Utilities. Local residents and businesses also supported one another. Flooding can have a devastating impact on homes and livelihoods and as we move into recovery, all agencies will be reviewing the response to this extreme weather event, including what we can learn for future incidents.
Unfortunately we are likely to see more extreme weather events in future. We’re likely to see the frequency of such events increase as well. This is one of the reasons why Addressing the Climate Crisis is one of the Borough’s top five priorities. We must continue to align with the Greater Manchester Integrated Water Management Plan , we need to incorporate more sustainable urban drainage schemes into our built environment, we must also lobby national Government regarding investment in our existing water management infrastructure. I’m planning site visits with relevant officers to areas of the Borough faced with the most significant issues in the first few days of 2025 to help my understanding.
The wet weather then gave way to our first cold snap of the winter and I know a lot of residents have asked about Trafford’s gritting operation. All councillors are notified about when gritters are going to be out (and at roughly what time). The vehicles follow priority routes across the Borough and can sometimes be sent out again during the course of a day. One example of this is Thursday when snow fell on gritted roads between 7am and 8am that morning. You can read more about gritting and winter maintenance here.
Weather aside, my first full week of the year has been spent at a lot of meetings at the Town Hall. These have ranged from catchups to specific meetings relating to the services we deliver. However I did manage to get out on a few occasions. It was good to see trustees from Altrincham & Hale Muslim Association on Friday, and earlier in the week I visited Victoria Park Junior School in my capacity as Lead Governor for Health and Safety- where I caught up on all things Health & Safety with the School’s Business Manager.
The main highlight of the week was when Trafford joined the Bee Network. This is where our buses came back under local control for the first time since October 1986. Thinking back to then, I was in my first few weeks at Heyes Lane infant School and had just started getting the school bus home. So for most of my life buses in the area were deregulated. Having seen how much better the London bus network was compared to Manchester during my student days, I was always keen to see Greater Manchester have an integrated public transport system we can all be proud of. Sunday marked another chapter in this journey and at 6.40am I was delighted to be the first passenger departing Altrincham Interchange on a bus under local control since October 1986.
The following day I joined colleagues at an event celebrating all buses across Greater Manchester being back under local control. This has been a complex exercise, and the delivery of this project wouldn’t have been possible without so many people working behind the scenes to bring the vision Andy Burnham and local leaders -past and present- had to life. A true example of devolution at its best.