The Leader's blog

Helping Greater Manchester go green!

For those of you who don’t know, each of the ten council leaders in Greater Manchester is given a portfolio to oversee as part our cabinet role within Greater Manchester Combined Authority - and following the recent council elections I have been given a new area of responsibility as that of Green City-Region Lead.

It is a wide ranging and high-profile portfolio and, as you can imagine, there is a lot on the ‘green agenda’ at the moment including the Clean Air Plan and making the region carbon-neutral by 2038.

We are ambitious in Greater Manchester and my aim, along with the other local leaders, is to make the area one of the leading Green city-regions in Britain. It is not going to be easy but I am up for the challenge!

One of our objectives as a Council is to make Trafford a successful and thriving place. That’s why I am delighted we have approved a new Small Business Loan Fund to provide much-needed help to businesses across the borough.

The fund will offer help to businesses starting out and to existing small and medium sized organisations by providing loans at an affordable rate.

It will meet a gap in the support available to businesses in the borough and shows we are committed to local businesses and growing our economy.

Elsewhere, Trafford has certainly been a winner during the Cricket World Cup. The matches we have hosted have been brilliant entertainment with thousands of people coming to the borough to catch a glimpse of the action.

We’ve got two games left to host, including a semi-final, and fingers crossed England can make it to the knock out stage. Whatever happens, Old Trafford will be packed to the rafters for the remaining matches and the area has definitely been shown in a positive light. Our reputation for hosting world class events has once again been enhanced.  

Finally, I am going to give another plug to Trafford Live, on Sunday July 21. We’ve teamed up with Lancashire Cricket Club to put on the free festival outside the town hall that will showcase the borough’s sports, history and culture and offers something for everyone. I hope you can come along and enjoy the fun.