Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Posted By: Zulfiqar Ali
Date Posted: 21/12/2007

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

When I was appointed as the portfollio holder for Community Cohesion and Housing it was the proudest moment of my political career so far. However, I knew that I had an important and challenging job ahead of me and its around this time of year that we all look at our achievements and aspirations for next year.

I have worked hard this year on bringing cohesion to our richly diverse Borough and I have tried to make people proud of being Rochdalian no matter what their ethnic or religious background may be. I have worked closely with various voluntary groups, government representatives and colleagues to bring our community closer together. However, with the way the world is at the moment, I realise that I still have an important job to continue next year in making sure our community stays as together as it is.

In terms of housing, I was proud to announce that the first Council houses will be built in Rochdale in 20 years. This is truely great news for our Borough. I know the importance of affordable social housing and I will be working hard next year to make sure that we achieve more of this.

Lastly I just want to say that it has been a privelege to serve you on the cabinet this year and I wish every person in the Borough a successful 2008.