Whilst last week was dominated by budget coverage, this week felt like a return to ‘business as usual’. Clearly the Council’s financial situation has remained high on my agenda, and I would encourage you to read my post from last week, if you have not done already, for my reflections on the situation.
This week is National Apprenticeship Week, and I am so proud of the work our staff at Trafford do to recruit and nurture apprentices. I met one of our success stories, Ciaran, at the start of the week and he was telling me about his journey from being an apprentice to securing a role with our IT team. He’s become an integral part of the team and works incredibly hard. He also aspires to go further with his career and I know colleagues at the Council will do their best to support him.
On Monday afternoon I joined my ward colleagues, Jane and Steve, on the doorstep in Stretford. We spent an hour speaking with residents before heading back to the town hall for another meeting with Executive colleagues.
The highlight of Tuesday was our annual Time to Shine employee recognition awards. Trafford Council would be nothing without our workforce delivering services every single day. Time to Shine provides an opportunity to recognise some of the extraordinary achievements of individuals and teams working across the authority. The theme of this year’s event was culture, and I was delighted to see participants include very talented students from Trafford Music Service, Poetry courtesy of Young Identity, and an appearance from Postman Pat (rescued by Waterside Arts a couple of years ago!). It was a wonderful afternoon. After the event I attended a school governors meeting, followed by a meeting of Labour Group.
On Wednesday I chaired a meeting of the Council’s Finance and Change Committee where we are already starting work on our 2026/27 budget. Medium term financial planning isn’t unusual- and it is one of the reasons why our financial planning and reporting received good feedback from the independent financial body Cipfa. Later that day I was back out on the doorstep with Steve and Jane in Stretford where we had the opportunity to speak with more residents in our ward.
Towards the end of the week I enjoyed attending two ‘ribbon cutting’ events. The first was in Altrincham where I attended a celebration marking the first anniversary the opening of H&MV Engineering’s Regional Office. H&MV is a leading global provider of specialist Design, Engineering and Construction Services across a variety of key sectors including data centres, renewables, utilities & generation. During the visit I got to hear about the opportunities the business provides to young graduates and their ambition for further expansion. They also spoke about Altrincham with great passion- quite right too! I was given the role of ribbon-cutter, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I also joined my colleague Karina at the official opening ceremony of a new building at Delamere Special School in Flixton. The building houses a new cookery classroom and an arts and crafts classroom. It was funded by a very generous donation from a charitable trust and the School’s PTA funded a lot of the fittings and utensils. The classrooms are a wonderful addition to the school and will be put to very good use by the children. It was lovely to meet the donors, hear from the Headteacher who spoke with such pride for the school, and see how well members of the PTA work together and support the school. It was a privilege to meet some of the school children too, who were keen to show off their new classrooms.
