It was another busy start to the week, however I was fortunate to be based at Trafford Town Hall where I spent much of my time catching up on emails and preparing for the week ahead.

On Monday evening, I met with members of the executive to discuss our priorities.  I’m very fortunate to have such great team who, like me, want to see our communities prosper and thrive.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I attended several meetings, including a catch up with Stan from Trafford Handball.

Stan and his colleagues have done an amazing job over the last few years and have made Trafford Handball one of the leading clubs in the UK.

I also met with executives from Your Housing Group to discuss how they plan to address complaints from residents about damp and mould issues.

I was reassured to hear that they are working proactively to tackle any problems – and I can report that all our housing providers recently attended a scrutiny meeting, which  you can read more about here: Report (trafford.gov.uk).

On Wednesday evening, I attended a public meeting at Stretford Public Hall with ward colleagues, Jane Slater and Steve Adshead, where local residents questioned us on plans to regenerate Stretford Town Centre.

On Thursday morning, I visited Assura’s office base in Altrincham to hear about the company’s aspiration to rollout net zero carbon across properties they own.

It was really interesting to hear about their aspiration to reach net zero carbon by 2040. I know local businesses have a very important part to play as we aim to meet our carbon targets across Greater Manchester and beyond.

That evening it was lovely to join Labour Party friends at a surprise an 85th birthday party for Peter Baugh.

I’ve known Peter since I was 15, when I first joined the Labour Party, the evening offered a chance for us all to catch up and also to reminisce about Peter’s wife and a dear friend, Jane Baugh, who is still missed.

I spent much of Friday in Bury for this month’s meeting of Greater Manchester Combined Authority. It was another packed agenda and you can read more about what we discussed here: Greater Manchester Combined Authority (greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk)

On Friday evening, I was fortunate to attend the Care Experience Celebration and Awards Ceremony held at Gorse Hill Studios.

This was an event organised by young people from our Aftercare Forum and they did an amazing job- some great music, drama and comedy as well as recognition of some of our inspiring care experienced young people.

Thank you for inviting me and a huge congratulations to everyone!

I’ll sign off now, but as always, have a great weekend.

Best wishes,

Tom.