The Leader's blog

Special birthday celebrations for Trafford

Trafford will shortly be celebrating a special milestone - its 50^th year! 

It was on 1 April 1974 when we received the honorary Royal Borough Charter, an act that would formally create the new local authority of Trafford. During that time the borough has gone from strength to strength and in my opinion is one of the best places to live and work in the country.

I hope you have been enjoying our social media posts celebrating 50 years of Trafford with the famous people who are part of the borough’s history and the images from the last half a century.

 My family moved to Trafford shortly before my first birthday so to have been the Mayor of the borough and now Leader of the Council has been a great honour.

As this is my last blog before the May local and Greater Manchester mayoral elections, I would urge you to go out and exercise your democratic right, whatever your political persuasion. Remember you will need photographic identification if you are voting in person. Find out more about the elections.

While this borough remains such a wonderful place there have been pressures on us in terms of our finances. I make no apologies for reminding everyone that setting a budget this year was one of the toughest challenges I have faced in politics and we need fairer funding for the borough.

Despite this we are still providing much needed services and there are some exciting things happening.

We have unveiled ambitious plans for Wharfside to develop the land around Manchester United and the Manchester Ship Canal  I would urge residents and businesses to have their say Council Leader urges everyone to give views on Wharfside plans. We are also continuing our multi-million pound transformation of Stretford town centre. New milestone for Stretford transformation.

Having a thriving arts and culture scene is important to me so I was delighted with the announcement that Oyez Arts group will take over the lease at Altrincham Town Hall Arts group to take over the lease at Altrincham Town Hall.

During the coming months we will also be spending millions on keeping your roads maintained One Trafford Partnership nears completion of £5.1 million highway improvement programme and your waste collected and investing in new homes and improving our town centres.

Finally, I must give a plug to Trafford LIVE will be back again this year and which will be part of the borough’s 50^th celebrations. The event will take place at Trafford Town Hall and Lancashire Cricket Club on Sunday, July 7 and there will be plenty of entertainment and fun for everyone. Put a note in your diaries and I hope to see you there!

Best wishes

Tom