I want to start my review by reflecting on the most important event I attended this week: Trafford’s Holocaust Memorial Day held at the Waterside in Sale on Thursday.  I attend this event each year and had the opportunity to provide some closing remarks this year.

There is a theme to each Holocaust Memorial Day and this year’s is the fragility of freedom.  That theme featured throughout the afternoon in the form of song, art, drama, poetry and through giving voice to the accounts of survivors.  The afternoon brought people of different generations and faiths together to remember the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of people murdered under Nazi persecution from other groups.  We also remembered the inhumanity that led to the genocidal slaughters in Rwanda, Cambodia, Sudan and at Srebrenica.

It is easy today to look at the world and be filled with despair.  But our Holocaust Memorial Day event, and in particular the powerful contributions made by our children and young people, gave those attending some hope.  We came together to pay our respects to holocaust victims in the best way possible.  And I believe that bit by bit, we can improve our borough and our communities.

So long as we hope, we can be free to make our world a better place for everyone.

I’d like to thank Sandra and Barby who have organised our event in Trafford each year for so many years.  They always put together a sensitive, inclusive, and thought-provoking programme.

It was also a privilege to join the Mayor of Trafford at the Greater Manchester Holocaust Memorial Day event held in Manchester. This was another opportunity for representatives from faith and community organisations to join together to mark the occasion by lighting candles of remembrance.

Much of the rest of my week was taken up with meetings -both virtual and at the Town Hall- including some productive catch ups with executive members and ward councillors.  Our Deputy Leader, Cath Hynes, joined me at those meetings.

It was great to receive an update form Cllr Liz Patel, Executive Member for Economy and Regeneration, who is working with officers on how we deliver several exciting regeneration projects across the Borough.

We also met with Cllr Aidan Williams, Executive Member for Climate Change, to discuss work being undertaken within his portfolio, including our plans to improve our street infrastructure to support safer walking, wheeling and cycling.

Brooklands ward is represented by fantastic Labour councillors, so it was also great to see one of our newest councillors, Bilal Babar, and hear about how his first year is going so far.

On Thursday Morning, I chaired the Green City-Region Partnership Board. As always, it was a busy agenda with a colossal amount of work happening within this vitally important sector.

Members discussed a wide range of topics, such as, the Greater Manchester Environment Fund (GMEF), which is the largest city-region investment opportunity for nature in the UK, and a first of its kind.  I would encourage anyone interested in finding out more on the subject to click here.

We also discussed the fantastic GM ‘Powering our Schools Campaign’ aimed at encouraging schools to think about the benefits of installing solar panels on their buildings. Further information can be found by clicking here.  And the meeting’s full agenda can be accessed here.

On Friday, I travelled to Stockport Town Hall to attend the monthly GMCA meeting. I did not present a paper at this meeting; however I did have the opportunity to join the tributes made to Sir Tony Lloyd at the beginning of the meeting.  I also voiced my support for a strategy that looks at how to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our Greater Manchester road network by 2040 as well as providing safe and equitable travel for all. It was a busy agenda which can be found by clicking the following link.

Best wishes,

Tom.