I’ve spent a lot of time in Longford Park in recent weeks, which makes sense as it’s our Borough Park and there’s always lots happening there.  My week started with the official opening of the refurbished tennis courts at the park- which has come about because of a partnership between the Lawn Tennis Association, Friends of Longford Park and Trafford Council.  The courts looked fantastic and have already proven very popular; I’m pleased to see Ashton Park benefiting from this scheme too.

Later on Sunday morning I attended one of our Trafford Music Service summer concerts.  I like to choose a different range of performers each season and this time I enjoyed hearing from very talented children aged between 5 and 7.  There was singing, woodwind, brass and percussion.  It’s always lovely to see people beginning their music journey- it reminds me of my early violin efforts almost 40 years ago!

On Monday I had a full day at the town hall- including meetings and being part of an interview panel for the new Chair of Trafford Leisure.  I also had the great pleasure of meeting Trafford participants from the Greater Manchester Civic Leadership scheme.  This is a programme that seeks to address underrepresentation in senior roles across the public sector.  It was a privilege to meet three very inspiring women, hear about the change they’d like to see and the barriers still in place across society and politics.  It’s important we do as much as we can to dismantle institutional barriers and tackle both conscious and unconscious bias.  I also met more of our work experience students and heard about how they would be spending their week with us.

Tuesday was another day based mainly at the Town Hall- where I had meetings with my Executive colleagues and catch-ups with members of the Labour Group.  During the day I joined Cllr George Devlin at a meeting with L&Q where we discussed their ongoing refurbishment programme and new developments- including at Trafford Waters where we’d been a couple of weeks before.

In contrast, much of my Wednesday was spent out of the Town Hall.  During the day I joined Cllr Eve Parker for a meeting with the senior management team at Imperial War Museum North.  We had a lot to discuss, including the exciting proposals regarding Old Trafford Regeneration.  During our visit we were taken on a tour of the museum’s latest exhibition, Chila Welcomes You, which was a wonderful mix of neon, sound, vision and archives.  The exhibition is on until the end of August and well worth a visit.

Later that day I spoke at an event in Manchester where we celebrated another first for Trafford- a collaboration between Deep Green and Trafford Leisure, where heat from a data centre will be captured and used to heat the swimming pool at Move Urmston.  This not only supports our journey to net zero, but it also saves the leisure centre a significant amount in terms of energy costs, which can then be used to support other leisure initiatives.  It was a great evening to be part of; well done to Trafford Leisure and Deep Green for delivering a fantastic initiative.

On Thursday I attended our latest Let’s Talk session for Trafford Council colleagues before heading to Sale for a meeting of our Corporate Parenting Board.  The meeting was held at our TalkShop and was a very valuable opportunity to hear directly from young people regarding their experience of care.  I do hope we follow a similar format for future meetings.  After this I dropped by Sale Moor to do a bit of doorknocking with colleagues there before heading to Altrincham for a meeting of Altrincham & Sale West Constituency Labour Party.  I was a member of the constituency for the first decade of my party membership and it’s always a bit surreal to make a reappearance as guest speaker.  It was lovely to see the familiar faces of people I have known for decades, as well as seeing some of the wonderful activists I campaigned with last year.  I look forward to returning with further updates about what we’re doing as a Labour Council.

Friday was a quieter day, which was just as well as my email inbox was beginning to get out of hand.  I therefore spent much of the day on catch up but also travelled over to Peel’s HQ for an update on the many developments taking place around Trafford City.  I then joined a late afternoon doorstep session with Longford Ward colleagues.

Finally, on Saturday I rounded off my week with another visit to Longford Park.  This time I was there to participate in ParkRun following a request from St Matthew’s Primary School.  The school were taking over ParkRun that morning and asked me to come down to support, which I was delighted to do.  It was lovely to see the school involved and I was very relieved to cross the finish line with their support along the way.  It was my first Parkrun in almost seven years so I was also pleased with the 29:20 time I secured!