Council listening event

Councillor Daalat Ali, Mayoress Councillor Cecile Biant, and Mayor Councillor Surinder Biant) meet staff at the event

Representatives of Rochdale borough's voluntary and community groups got together last week to talk about how council services could be made more accessible to the public.

The annual ‘Equalities Listening Event’, held at Middleton Arena was aimed at giving residents a chance to air views about how council services are being delivered in the borough.

Organised by Rochdale Borough Council, staff from services across the council provided information about council services and facilitated work group sessions.

The people attending were asked to identify what prevented them from accessing services and securing employment, and whether they found specific difficulties as men, women, younger people, older people, people with disabilities, people with caring responsibilities, LBGT and those from black and ethnic minority communities.

As well as finding out what could be done to make services easier to use, the event also publicised good practice already in place and raised awareness of services that groups and residents may not have been aware of.

There was a musical interlude featuring a performance from the Carers Choir, an exhibition of local support services and a poetry reading from Norman Warwick (Just Poets).

The session was part of the council’s commitment to ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and to make sure residents get a say in how council services are run. The event complements work done all year round to improve services by listening to user feedback.

Councillor Daalat Ali, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Communities said: “We want to help make the council better for everyone and feedback from events such as this helps to shape what we do and how we do it. Everyone has a right to equal access to opportunities in life, including representation, services and employment by the council.

"There were some really productive discussions and we learnt a lot. We will be planning to make changes as a result of the feedback, and it is putting what we have learnt into practice that makes events like this really worthwhile.”