I am already a third of the way through my Mayoral year and I am enjoying every minute. To reiterate a key message from my last column, it is such a humbling experience to visit so many inspiring organisations, businesses and volunteers who make up the fabric of our borough.
Once again, the last few weeks has seen a packed and varied Mayoral diary, but with one key theme shining through on my visits, namely the inspiring human stories that paint a picture of a thriving, culturally rich and diverse borough that makes me proud to be representing you as its civic head.
One of the most important occasions was marking the 80th anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, when the guns finally went quiet and the Allied forces secured the peace and defeated Nazi Germany. The community came together, as it always does, with a lovely twilight service at Rochdale Cenotaph, a beacon lighting service at Castleton Memorial and poignant commemorations at Heywood Memorial Gardens and Middleton Memorial Gardens. Many thanks to members of our Armed Forces community, councillors and residents who attended these moving commemoration services, which once again showed our borough at its very best.
I also welcomed 102-year-old veteran Ken Wright at Rochdale Town Hall for afternoon tea. Rochdale resident Ken is one of the last surviving World War II veterans in our borough. It was a great honour to thank Ken, who is such a lovely man, for his service and to present him with special mayoral certificate for helping to protect our freedoms, liberty and values. Thank you, Ken, for your service.
Continuing on the Armed Forces theme, I attended the poignant Royal British Legion annual church service at St George’s Church, Tyldesley, with most of the mayors from across Greater Manchester. The service honoured service personnel past and present. Lest we forget.
Another inspiring person I met was longstanding Rochdale Harriers member, Colin Robinson. The Harrier’s president has been an active member of the club for over 70 years. An outstanding athlete, he has represented Rochdale on the international scene in cross country racing and is one of the finest sports people to come out of the town. I was proud to be at a special celebration to mark Colin’s outstanding career, with over 100 athletes, friends and family turning out to celebrate his 70 years with the club. In my speech I mentioned his outstanding service, loyalty to the club and how he has inspired generations of athletes. Keep on running, Colin.
The sporting prowess of our borough was underlined by a very special visit, when I welcomed Rochdale walking footballers Dave Brookes, Alan Thompson and Terry Williams. The trio have flown the flag for the borough on the international stage, representing England at this growing sport. Dave plays for England over 65s, while Alan and Terry have represented the national over 75s team. The over 65s were crowned winners but, sadly, the over 75s lost out to Norway on penalties at the tournament in Sweden. However, the message to take away is please stay active. Age should never be a barrier to achieving your goals. Congratulations to all 3 England players, doing our borough proud.
I have attended many other wonderful events over recent weeks. These include the Rochdale Classic Car Show, at our beautiful Falinge Park, which was a very pleasant afternoon. Our stunning parks took centre stage for the council’s Feel Good Family Picnic events which, as always, were a popular attraction during the school holidays. I attended a couple of the days. The events get bigger and better by the year, underlined by an increase in people attending from last year. Well done to everyone involved.
Our parks, open spaces and townships always look absolutely stunning, so I was very proud to welcome the in bloom judges to our borough. The delightful displays across the townships don’t happen by accident, they are a credit to council staff and many volunteers who spend hours making our towns and villages look picturesque. Yet another example of the amazing work volunteers do to make our borough such a great place to live, work and grow up in.
The White Ribbon Campaign, which aims to end men’s violence against women by encouraging men and boys to make the White Ribbon promise, is a very important campaign. No one should ever use, excuse, or remain silent about men’s violence against women. It was great to see scores of men taking part in the council’s White Ribbon football tournament at Heywood Sports Village. I had a very enjoyable evening watching the football and handing out the prizes. A huge thanks to everyone who played their part in this successful evening, raising awareness and enjoying some sport.
I have always enjoyed a good quiz, so it was good to see a packed house at Milnrow Cricket Club for one of my charity events. Many thanks to councillor Andy Kelly for his excellent questions, which tested people across a range of subjects with the standard of quizzing extremely high and, more importantly, some very generous contributions to my charities. Thank you.
I also enjoyed a very nice visit from the North West Chinese Association. They have been around for over 20 years and we had a really good chat about their work across the region.
I regularly talk about the contribution our volunteers make to community life, so I was very honoured to show our poet laureate, Sammy Weaver, and one of our poets in residence, Alende Amisi, round the borough. I am thrilled to welcome Alende and our other poet in residence, Sasha Mostafa, two fantastic young talents and ambassadors for Rochdale, who I am sure will have an inspirational impact on the young people they work with in the coming months.
A quick mention of other important events I have represented the borough at. These include the Springhill Hospice summer garden event, super hero day at Rochdale Hornets and Pakistan Independence Day. As I said, a really busy few weeks and that is just a snapshot of my packed diary and busy schedule.
I want to say a huge and personal thanks to my dedicated charities. Throughout the year my Mayoral work continues to raise funds for Springhill Hospice, Jolly Josh, Awakening Minds, Papyrus, Women’s Housing Action Group and the Johnny Alfred Musical Memorial.
All these organisations do amazing work, supported by wonderful teams of staff and volunteers. Donations to my charities can be sent to:
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