All ears at equalities event

Councillor Keith Swift, Mayoress Ann Jones, Mayor Robin Parker and Paul Young at the Equalities Listening event at Middleton Arena.

Hundreds of people have had their say about council services at a listening event held this week.

The third annual Equalities Listening Event was held by the Council on Tuesday (3 February) at the new Middleton Arena, to gage residents’ views on the accessibility and equality of council services.

The event was attended by a record number of visitors. Despite the adverse weather conditions more than 190 residents came along to air their views about difficulties they face in accessing council services to a panel of senior council officers and decision makers.

There were also more than 20 stalls set up at the arena, with representatives from key council services and partners including Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and the Citizens Advice Bureau. The stalls provided information about the work these services do and how they tailor themselves to meet the needs of their customers.

Cabinet member for townships and corporate management, Councillor Keith Swift, was pleased with the two-way consultation. He said: “The stands really gave people the chance to see the how council services work and the practises they use and the feedback sessions allowed them to comment on this and suggest the changes they would like to see. This event really was a two-way session and we are pleased with the feedback we received from local residents.

"I was pleased that so many residents made an effort to come along – despite the weather – to share their views with us. We will be using their valuable comments and feeding them into our future service plans.”

Examples of how the feedback received at last year’s event had been acted on were also presented to residents:

Paul Young, head of the new Customers and Communications service at Rochdale Council said that some of actions taken by the council after acting on concerns raised during last year's event, such as enabling school children to get to special schools by public transport, building more social housing and improving employment options for disabled over-25s, showed the commitment of the council in ensuring equal opportunities and good community relations.

He said: “Hearing how our services are being received is an important part of our commitment to treat everyone fairly and we continually want to hear how we can improve our services to meet the needs of the borough’s residents.”