Now the festive holiday period has ended, I sincerely hope it was an enjoyable break for everyone.

It’s back to council business now and it has certainly been a busy start to the new year.

On Monday, I was delighted to visit Victoria Park Infant School with my ward colleague, Cllr Jane Slater, to help council officers with the latest trial of our ‘School Streets’ scheme.

The initiative places temporary restrictions on traffic on a couple of roads around the school at drop-off and pick-up times with the aim of increasing safety, decreasing pollution, and encouraging walking, wheeling or cycling to school.

Henshaw and Howard streets were closed separately this week with plans to shut both on Thursday, 18 January, the end of the trial period.

I’m pleased to say the feedback I’ve heard from parents, carers, teachers, residents, and motorists, has been extremely positive so far.

A consultation period with all parties is currently underway.

There are also volunteer opportunities available for those wishing to support the scheme – for further information contact the school directly.

Jane also joined me at a catch-up meeting with Marie Curie to discuss end of life care and bereavement policy in Trafford.  It was a very valuable meeting about a very important subject.

On Tuesday, I chaired the Ambitions for Children Board. I am always pleased to hear about the work being undertaken to ensure the borough’s children and families receive the right help as we continue our improvement journey with Children’s Services.

There is some fantastic work being done to deliver strong and effective support, which I very much welcome.

During the afternoon, I met with several Labour councillors for a one-to-one catch up. These meetings are great opportunity for members to discuss topics within their neighbourhoods.

Much of Wednesday was spent at the Town Hall preparing for meetings and catching up with emails so it was good to be able to get back out to Victoria Park Infant School in the afternoon to help with another School Street session.

On Thursday, I spent the day at the Town Hall where I had a couple of meetings around the themes of planning and regeneration.

I also started to prepare for meetings over the following week.

At the end of the day, I attended our latest Corporate Parenting Board where councillors are joined by colleagues from Children’s Services, foster carers and partners from education and health.

Most importantly, we are joined by looked after and care experienced young people – and get the opportunity to hear directly from them about their aspirations and concerns.

This time we got to see some artworks put together by young people, including members of Trafford’s Care Leavers Forum.

It was a very effective way for them to convey their experiences as younger people and an excellent opportunity to communicate what they rightly expect from us as Corporate Parents.

On Friday, I attended a meeting in my Greater Manchester Green City-Region role looking at how best we progress heat network zones across the area.

District heat networks will play an incredibly important role in helping us reach our net zero carbon goal by 2038.

And finally, over the course of the week I have been working with council officers and colleagues on options to balance our council budget for 2024/25.

You will recall that I have previously said Trafford Council funding has fallen by 60pc in real-terms since 2010.

This situation has a significant impact on the services we’re able to deliver- services I know residents really value.

I therefore wrote to the Secretary of State, Michael Gove, before Christmas to call for fairer funding and immediate financial relief to help us continue to deliver local services.

As of yet I’ve not yet received a response.

The government needs to act fast to avert a crisis in local government finance for councils across the country.

I’ll sign off now. Have a good weekend.

Tom.