Councillor Iftikhar Ahmed cooks up a special thank you

Councillor Ahmed gets ready to cook up a special thank you to council staff

Councillor Iftikhar Ahmed will swap the chamber for the kitchen when he cooks up a Biryani as a special ‘thank you’ to council and health staff.

Staff have been invited to enjoy Councillor Ahmed’s culinary skills at Wardleworth Community Centre on Thursday 27 July.

The curry night is a special thank you after adult care services, in partnership with Pennine Acute Hospitals and HMR CCG, won the ‘health and social care’ award for its pioneering Intermediate Tier Service at the recent Local Government Chronicle awards ceremony.

Councillor Ahmed said: “I wanted to say a huge thank you to staff for all their hard work and there’s no better way to celebrate than with a Biryani. The award was richly deserved. We have a very talented and committed team across the service, which is always a recipe for success. I am looking forward to dishing out plenty of praise, along with the very best in Asian cuisine.”

Sheila Downey, the council’s director of adult services, said: “It’s a lovely gesture from Iftikhar, who promised he would say thank you to staff, but I wasn’t sure what he was cooking up. He has been true to his word and it has all the ingredients for a fantastic evening.”