It’s been three months since my last weekly update- but I have a reasonable excuse!  If you read my last review in July you’ll have seen that I was due to have minor surgery, which took place and left me wearing a cast on one of my arms up until last Tuesday.  I’ve now progressed to a wrist splint and physio which makes it a lot easier to type and therefore return to writing a weekly update.  It goes without saying that I’m incredibly grateful to the Trauma and Orthopaedics team at Trafford General Hospital for the care they have given me over the summer.

Although some things have been a little more challenging over recent months, I’m fortunate enough to be in a role where I can keep working as best I can and there’s been a lot to do over the summer at the council. However I’ll keep the focus of this update on my activities over the past week.

It was my birthday earlier this week and I spent much of it at our latest Trafford Partnership event- where local organisations from across the Borough come together to look at how we make the most of opportunities.  This session’s theme focussed on climate change and its impact on health and inequalities.  We had some brilliant speakers from both climate and public health backgrounds, and it was fascinating to consider how many links there are between our changing climate and how it can impact on our physical and mental health.  Various ideas were shared between partners and these will be followed up over the coming months.

Our local environment and wellbeing became a theme for the rest of my week.  For instance, our libraries have been involved in Green Libraries Week and it was good to see two initiatives at Stretford Library- one was a clothes swap and the other was a litter pick that my ward colleagues Jane Slater really enjoyed getting involved with!

In the meantime, Sale Library became a focal point for an event to mark World Mental Health Day.  I joined our Mayor, Amy Whyte, to see the unveiling of ‘A Different Light’ by Ekun Richard.  It is a sculpture that aims to promote mental health awareness.  It was great to hear from Louise who designed this sculpture (one of six on display across Manchester) and it was also good to see the involvement of BueSci.  We were also treated to some music and very powerful poetry.  A big thank you to our library teams for all the events they have supported this week.

On Thursday morning I was delighted to join Cllr Aidan Williams and members of our Public Health team as we hosted Mayor Andy Burnham and Dame Sarah Storey at Seymour Park Community Primary’s School Street.  As part of the visit I joined Clara and Quinn as they scooted to school and I also met long-standing school street volunteer and community champion Sally.  This is an incredibly successful school street and it was lovely to see children and their families enjoy the extra road space and avoiding fumes from car emissions.  I hope we can see the school street initiative expand over the months and years to come.

On Thursday afternoon I based myself at Stretford Library where I had a few online meetings before holding my advice surgery for residents of Stretford & Humphrey Park.  Immediately after that I walked over to Stretford Public Hall to join a roundtable discussion about air pollution in the Stretford area.  I was really pleased to take part in the discussion and was also pleased to see Liz from our Public Health team present to talk about how air pollution is measured.  There were a range of views in the room, but the conversation was both constructive and respectful.  I found several of the contributions to the discussion incredibly valuable, as did Jane Slater who was there with me.

Finally, on Friday I was back at the Town Hall for a couple of meetings, including one of my regular catch ups with Altrincham & Sale West MP Connor Rand- who was telling me about his busy week in Parliament.  It was good to hear how much he is enjoying representing his constituents.

I’ll finish there and I’ve typed a bit more than I was anticipating, but it’s good to feel that things are beginning to return to normal again.