Council leader's column: the Bee Network, wireless masts, North West in Bloom and new banking and customer advice services at Heywood Library

Neil Emmott is the leader of Rochdale Council and a councillor for West Middleton.

This month he dedicates his column to a range of topics including the Bee Network, wireless masts, North West in Bloom and new banking and customer advice services at Heywood Library.

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It was an honour to welcome colleagues from across Greater Manchester to Rochdale, as a new range of tickets were announced to tie in with the launch of the Bee Network.

The excellent Bee Network is a plan for more accessible and integrated transport, bringing together local trams and buses and, further down the line, local train services. It represents great value for passengers, making combined bus and tram travel around 20 percent cheaper when it launches in September, marking the moment buses come back under local control for the first time in a generation.

Armed Forces Day was marked with special ceremonies at Number One Riverside in Rochdale, and Middleton Memorial Gardens. As always, I was proud to pay tribute to the outstanding contribution of our Armed Forces community. The day was about paying respects to our Armed Forces, past and present, who have always led the way in protecting the freedoms, liberty and values we cherish so much.

As a council, we have always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with our Armed Forces community. We are proactive in our approach to providing support and understand the difficulties many face during and after transition from service. We are always there for you.

Residents across the borough have raised concerns with me and other councillors about wireless masts springing up in local communities, often without any prior knowledge or communication from these companies. I have raised my concerns directly with the government and the regulator, OFCOM.

This week I had a meeting with OFCOM, which was extremely positive. As I said at the meeting, I am not opposed to widening access to the intranet, but we already have excellent underground infrastructure in place across the borough.

I don’t want wider digital access to be done on the cheap, so I was pleased that OFCOM have committed to writing to me with a possible way forward. I will keep on raising residents’ concerns on this important issue.

It was a great pleasure to welcome Ukrainian MP Halyna Vasylchenko to Rochdale. Mrs Vasylchenko, who sits in the Ukraininan Parliament Verkhovna Radd, was visiting the borough as a guest of Rochdale MP, Tony Lloyd.

I briefed the MP on our ambitious regeneration schemes, the support we are providing to the local Ukrainian community, and the vital funding we have secured from the government.

Halyna is an excellent Member of Parliament and a superb representative for the Ukrainian community at home and abroad. It was a pleasure to welcome her to Rochdale and she was extremely grateful for the support and solidarity we are extending to our Ukrainian friends.

As leader of the council, I am proud of the assistance we have provided friends from day one of this conflict and I reassured Haylna of our continued and unerring support.

We recently welcomed North West in Bloom judges to our borough. Our parks, floral displays, community projects, and town centres look outstanding, thanks to our dedicated teams, volunteer groups, schools, local businesses, Rochdale BID, and the many community groups, who have pulled out all the stops again.

Last year Rochdale was entered in the national Britain in Bloom competition, where the town took the top spot as Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) judges voted Rochdale as the best small city in the UK and the best in the category. It’s always good to welcome the In Bloom judges, as we showcase our green and clean borough to a wider audience.

There is so much to be proud of our borough, and by working together, we hope to reign supreme again as we go for gold across all four townships.

In further good news for our borough, Heywood Library is branching out after Barclays signed up to provide a new banking and customer advice service. The partnership follows the recent closure of the bank’s Heywood town centre branch. The library service means Barclays customers can continue to access in-person financial support, help with day-to-day finances, and support with money management.

Libraries will always be a place to go and learn, read, borrow books and access our computers to access digital services, but they are also about widening our library offer. When the local Barclays closed, this was the perfect opportunity to retain a vital service in the town and build on our excellent partnership with local businesses.

Spotland Bridge Mill, the new base for our Rochdale north and south health and social care integrated neighbourhood teams, is now up and running.

The refurbished building sees our adult care and NHS staff working alongside each other, as part of our vision to deliver fully integrated working across our borough. The teams will be ensuring our residents continue to receive high quality, value for money services.

This is another example of the links we have built between the council and our local health services, helping to reduce the gaps that have always existed between local authorities and the NHS. That in turn is leading to more joined-up care, better patient experiences; helping to reduce health inequalities and improve our residents’ lives.

Another Rochdale success story to be proud of.