Trafford Labour Trafford Labour supports residents in Altrincham, Sale, Stretford, Urmston, Partington and Old Trafford

January 2025 came to a close this week and although it does sound like a cliché, this has felt like an incredibly long month given the number of things that have been happening. This week we had a meeting of the Executive, Council, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. We had significant national coverage of plans for Old Trafford Regeneration, and on top of this we also welcomed guests for our Local Government Association Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC).
I’ve mentioned the CPC before- it’s where a group comprising senior officers and councillors spend four days visiting a council. At the end of the week the council is provided with initial feedback before a report on the visit is published a couple of months later. We last had a CPC in 2016 and a lot has happened since then. Over the course of this week, the CPC team considered evidence we had put together, carried out 50 meetings, and spoke to over 240 people- from within and outside the organisation. I attended the introductory session, met with the lead member of the team, joined the group on a regeneration tour of Trafford, and joined the Ambitions for Children focus session. At the end of each day I would join the Chief Executive for informal feedback and then received a summary of feedback at the end of the week.
I’m grateful for the time the team spent with us this week and am really pleased with the initial feedback received. I will share the formal report once it has been published.
At the same time this was happening, Trafford was receiving national attention following the Chancellor’s public backing of plans for Old Trafford Regeneration. It’s great to have national recognition for what will be an incredibly exciting regeneration scheme. I featured on BBC Breakfast earlier in the week and we also discussed regeneration of the wider Wharfside area at our meeting of the Executive on Monday evening. During that meeting we also agreed a new Housing Strategy, discussed school place sufficiency, endorsed a new neighbourhood health plan and launched a new Digital Strategy. You can watch the meeting Here: Executive – 27 January 2025.
On Wednesday we had January’s meeting of Council where the Labour Group tabled a motion on action we need to take following the flooding incidents at the start of this month. During the course of the meeting we agreed to accept some amendments suggested by the Green Group- a good example of cross-party work. Initially the Conservative Group tabled an amendment that equated to climate change denial. They had some sense to withdraw that motion prior to the council, but made some bizarre interventions during the debate nonetheless.
We then moved to discuss the very serious issue of Child Sexual Exploitation, Child Criminal Exploitation and other forms of abuse. This is an issue where we should always have survivors at the forefront of our minds. An issue we should treat with the utmost seriousness. Every elected member has a duty to educate themselves and be aware of exploitation. During the course of the evening there were some very powerful speeches from people across different parties. I would continue to urge all members of the council to place survivors at the forefront of their minds when approaching this issue. I would also like to place on record my thanks to our Trafford SHINE team for the support they continue to give children and young people, you can read the most recent Complex Safeguarding Report here. You can also view the full meeting of Council here: Council – 29th January 2025.
I spent the first part of Friday in Stockport for January’s meeting of Greater Manchester Combined Authority. I could only stay for part of the meeting as I had to return to Trafford Town Hall for our CPC feedback. However during the meeting I welcomed the plans for Old Trafford Regeneration and spoke again regarding the flooding we experienced at the New Year. You can watch the meeting here: Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Finally, as I finish this update, other highlights of the week include attending the preview launch of ‘A Taste of Altrincham’- which looks like a very exciting food and drink festival, attended a meeting of our Adult Social Care Development Board, and paid a visit to Trafford Ecology Park to do a spot of filming!