Weekly Column: Mayor Mohammed Zaman

Before I begin my weekly update of events, I would like to mark the end of Ramadan and send Eid greetings to all as we share the joy of this month.

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Week commencing Monday 12 – Sunday 17 June

At the start of the week, I had the honour of paying a special visit to a couple in their home as they celebrated 70 years of marriage. I presented them with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and wish them all the happiness as they continue to grow together.

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On Tuesday, I attended The Tutor Trust Summer Reception at Manchester Museum. The Tutor Trust are an organisation who work throughout Greater Manchester, including Rochdale, and tutor children on English and Maths to transform their lives and help them gain more achievements.

I respect this as I think it is important to invest in children’s futures through their core subjects.

The event was well attended by teachers, councillors and other mayors from around Greater Manchester, as we all networked and found out about the tutor’s experiences in their areas.

I went to Marland Hill Primary School for an Eid Summer Fair. I was told that the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, once attended this school when he lived in Rochdale before he moved to Bristol.

We arranged to send letters to Sajid in hopes that he would come back and visit the school.

The head boy and girl showed me around as we looked at over 70 different stalls filled with food, sweets, Eid costumes and mehndi.

I want to praise the parents and teachers association here as they put in a lot of work to allow events like this to happen.

To mark one year since the Grenfell tragedy, I had one minute of silence to remember the victims. There were so many Muslim families involved in the fire and I prayed for those who couldn’t be with us this year to celebrate Eid and Ramadan.

I went to Castlemere Community Centre for an Eid Chand Raat event which had around 50 stalls selling bangles and beautiful clothing, as well as having mehndi sessions, face painting, a tombola and a chocolate fountain for all to enjoy.

We also went to Castlemere Banqueting Hall for an Iftar, where the food went very fast! So many activities to take part in attracted many people from outside of the borough.

I then attended Middleton Arena for Hopwood Hall’s Further Education Awards Ceremony.

I enjoyed this event very much as it was nice to see a lot of young people doing well in their vocational courses. It was especially nice to see people who cannot go to university still pursuing qualifications and moving on in their life.

I thank Derek and all the team at Hopwood for organising the wonderful event as they encourage, appreciate and market the college very well.

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Friday was Eid and I went to Springhill Hospice, which is one of my chosen charities for the year, to give awards to volunteers in the Palliative Care department.

I really appreciate what these volunteers do and how they go out of their way to spend time with people who really need them in their last moments.

There was a nice presentation given about palliative care and why the hospice does it, followed by me presenting certificates and then trophies to people who had spent more time in the department.

This job is not easy and takes a lot of courage and this was shown through some very emotional poems that were read portraying families experiences and bringing the room to tears.

I want to fund some special awards from the Mayor of Rochdale and make it an annual event so the trainers who train volunteers from all types of backgrounds are also credited.

The weekend saw me at Norden Carnival as I led the way with Liz McInnes and the Deputy Mayor Billy Sheerin with a Rochdale Township in Bloom banner.

There were so many people on either sides of the road greeting and cheering us on the walk, it was good for all families.

I would like to bring one of these carnivals to Rochdale town centre or Deeplish as we don’t have anything like this.

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I also went to Rochdale Bowling Club for a Ladies Bowling League Presentation. Around 60 ladies attended, and they were all very welcoming.

After the final, I presented the winning team with their cup and was then shown around the building to learn of the club’s history.

The group raised £100 for the Mayor’s charity and I invited them to the Mayor’s Parlour to discuss their dream of having a bigger and better bowling venue.