Weekly Column: Mayor Mohammed Zaman

Our new Riverside shopping development is coming along nicely in the town centre. Hopefully it will allow Rochdale to prosper and revive the town centre with new traders who will provide for the community.

Thank you to everyone who is making the effort to develop the town for the future, making Rochdale a place where visitors can venture to enjoy themselves.

Week commencing Monday 8 – Sunday 14 October

Monday to Friday the Deputy Mayor and Mayoress, Councillor Billy Sheerin and Lynn Sheerin, kindly attended my engagements as I was on holiday. Thank you to them for covering for me.

Saturday, I got back into my routine as the Mayor and visited Heywood to judge the ‘Heywood Turns Pink’ shop displays. This is an annual event, ran for the second time this year, and is organised by St Luke’s Church in aid of Cancer Research UK for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

For this event, businesses are asked to decorate their shop windows and take part in raising funds for Cancer Research. This year, over 60 businesses took part and 8 were shortlisted for me to judge on Saturday.

 

 

Everyone who participated put in really good effort to decorate their windows with ribbons, balloons, banners, flowers and a personal one I enjoyed – flamingos. I went inside the shops and spoke to businesses too. It was a very difficult decision for me to choose only one winner.

After browsing the shops, we went to St Luke’s Church in Heywood for a good get together and to announce the winner. The winner for the best dressed window was awarded to ‘Just Lovely’ who now keeps the trophy for a year. We enjoyed live entertainment from a choir and a brass band whilst having refreshments.

Thank you to Margaret Ogden for organising this event across Heywood and her colleagues who did a really good job, even though organising such big events can be difficult. This allowed businesses to market themselves, attract new customers through their bright windows and put Heywood on the map.

I attended Littleborough Coach House for their annual Foster Carers Celebration event. I met so many foster carers who take care of young people and was proud to meet one person in particular who had been fostering for over 25 years.

Between 170 families in Rochdale this year, there are currently 281 foster children.

I was intrigued to find out the difficult side of fostering but there are also so many positives; you just need to be calm, patient and have the ambition to make others lives better in a safe and loving environment. Fostering is not a job it’s about going the extra mile to connect with a child and making them aware that they have a family who supports them.

I announced foster carers who have reached significant milestones in their fostering, but that doesn’t deflect the wonderful work that they do every day. The event also included henna and face painting, balloon modelling and entertainment was provided for all to enjoy.

Thank you to Alison Gee who organised the event and sent me an invitation, the workers at Rochdale Social Services and the carers and volunteers who continue to help make a difference to young people’s lives daily. I send blessings to you all.

Sunday, I went to Milnrow Memorial Park for the park's first ever junior parkrun. This is a free 2km running event for children aged 4 to 14 and takes place every Sunday at 9.00am.

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/123019/junior-parkrun-launched-at-milnrow-memorial-park

Unfortunately, the weather was cold, and it was raining but a large number of young people (from 4 years old!) still turned up to take part. It was an excellent event promoting health and wellbeing in young people at a nice location.

I watched and cheered on the runners as they were committed to finish the run despite the weather and I was very impressed with the turnout of over 30 runners, plus their parents and 17 volunteers. Thank you to Kathy Brown for organising the event and Barbara Bayliss for inviting me.

Hopefully, I will be able to arrange one at Broadfield Park in the near future.

 

 

On Sunday afternoon, I attended a 27th anniversary concert for the Independence of Ukraine at Rochdale Ukranian Club with Tony Lloyd. The event had very good attendance and I enjoyed conversing with senior citizens from Ukraine.

Entertainment was provided by a dancing group from Stockport and a local choir, before we learnt of the history of Ukraine Independence, followed by prayers. The day was really interesting and enjoyable as the room was full of positivity. A 1-minute silence was also held to remember those who sacrificed their lives for the independence, which does not come easy.

Many people do not know that Rochdale is linked with Lviv, a city in Ukraine, which is a beautiful location and attracts many visitors. I’m aiming to revive this link and invite an exchange between Rochdale and Lviv. I hope we can build stronger ties and stay in touch before my mayoral year is over.