Over 60 people attended Rochdale's first ever Climate Change Conference held at Richmond Hall last Saturday. There was a variety of guests including Lib Dem Deputy Leader - Vince Cable MP, Chris Davies MEP, Atifa Shah -Rochdale's Youth Member of Parliament, Frank Kennedy - Friends of the Earth, Councillor Anne Metcalfe as well as representatives from the Friends of Healey Dell and Save Spodden Valley Action Group.
First and foremost, I got into local politics because, like many of you, I believe we face a stark choice in Rochdale; either to get to grips with the Town's enormous challenges today or face irreversible decline tomorrow. However, the re-invention of post-industrial Rochdale is something which cannot happen unless everyone feels a sense of ownership and responsibility for where Rochdale is headed. That, in my view, can only happen if we start at street-level up, rather than the other way round.
Councillor Peter Rush has criticised the handling of a 'public' meeting to discuss the flooding problems in Heywood. The meeting held last Friday, caused controversy in Heywood as many residents were effectively barred from the meeting.
Dundee Liberal Democrats have today (Sunday 1st October) expressed great concern that energy company Scottish and Southern's announcement of bill increases for their seven million domestic users.
Green-fingered gardeners harvested the fruits of their labours at a glittering Chesterfield in Bloom presentation evening in the Winding Wheel. Thousands of pounds worth of prizes were handed out to the winners of the 14 categories in the contest, which attracted over 100 entries.
With the majority of Britain's nuclear power stations due to close in the next 20 years, the debate about our nuclear future is heating up once again. Arguments deployed by the nuclear lobby are, however, very easily cooled.
