It was an exciting start to the week, I travelled to neighbouring Salford on Monday to participate in Greater Manchester’s annual Green Summit.

The conference was held at The Lowry Theatre – it was great to see such a packed audience – and to deliver a presentation on the progress that has been made since colleagues previously met.

In my role as the GM Portfolio Holder for Green-City Region, I also spoke about my observations as we work to develop a climate resilient region and strive to reach our carbon neutrality target by 2038.

Here are just a few exciting projects currently in the pipeline:

• The decarbonisation of public buildings and supporting renewable energy
• Development of the Green Spaces Fund and Community Recycling Initiative
• Delivering low emission buses, expanding our active travel and electric vehicle charging networks
• Supporting residents through the Your Homes Better and Recycle for GM programmes
• Supporting businesses through the Bee Net Zero scheme and the Energy Innovation Agency

There is, of course, far more to do but I’m pleased we are making such great progress across the board – and our focus now will be to accelerate scale and speed of delivery.

You can access further information about the Green Summit by clicking here.

I was based at the Town Hall on Tuesday where I attended internal meetings, however, in the afternoon I travelled to Stretford Public Hall.

The purpose of my visit was to attend the Stretford Town Centre Forum – first launched in July – to join the discussion on how businesses and community stakeholders can develop and unleash the area’s potential through investment and innovation.

It was good to see different stakeholders come together and further information can be accessed here.

In the evening, I was thrilled to be reselected by local party members as Labour’s candidate for Stretford and Humphrey Park at next year’s Local Election.

2024 will be the sixth time I’ve stood as a candidate in the area I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues for putting their trust in me – being a ward councillor is a position I feel very privileged to hold.  I’m also very fortunate to have two amazing ward colleagues in Steve Adshead and Jane Slater.

I spent much of Wednesday catching up on emails and meeting colleagues at the Town Hall.

However, on Thursday, I was delighted to speak at a summit arranged for leaders from across different areas of Trafford Council.

During my presentation, I looked back at what we’ve achieved as a council over the last few years as well as the opportunities we have to look forward to.  I also took the time to shine a light on our rich cultural, sporting and industrial heritage- something I want us all to celebrate more as Trafford turns 50 next year!

Thank you to everyone who attended and participated throughout the day.

Finally, I’m pleased to say that next week’s round up will be written by my colleague, Cath Hynes, in her capacity as Deputy Leader and Executive Member for Leisure, Arts, Culture and Heritage.

I will look forward to reading her review as I know there some really exciting projects happing within her portfolio.

As always, have an enjoyable weekend.

Best wishes,

Tom.