Dear Constituent,

Hello and welcome to this early Easter edition of the Denton and Reddish Weekly News.

There's been lots on this week across Denton and Reddish, including Citizens Awards and a mammoth tree planting effort with Friends of the Horses Field. Scroll down to find out more!

I hope you have a fantastic long weekend and a peaceful Easter Sunday.

In May, I'll be taking to the skies in a Wing Walk for 9-year old Florence. Florence has a rare life-limiting degenerative condition called #GM1. We're raising money for Florence and her family to make wonderful memories. If you can, please click below to donate.

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has blasted the Government’s failure to tackle raw sewage discharge, after Labour analysis revealed that, in 2022, there were 3,580 hours of sewage discharged into the River Tame and the local environment.

Labour’s analysis of Environment Agency data reveals that 1,088 sewage dumping events have taken place locally in the last year, and increase of 183 from 2021. This equates to a new sewage spill every 8 hours.

Gwynne has long-called on the Government to act on river pollution. The River Tame, which runs through the local area, is one of the most polluted waterways in the world, something that Gwynne has branded a “shameful indictment of Tory inaction”.

Across the country since 2016, a new sewage dumping event has taken place an average of every two-and-a-half-minutes, with rivers, lakes, seas and beaches having faced a staggering 1,276 years’ worth of raw sewage over just a seven-year period. Sewage discharges have more than doubled since 2016, coinciding with the current Environment Secretary Therese Coffey’s decision to cut funding for environmental protection during her tenure as Water Minister.

Commenting, Andrew Gwynne said: 

“These are dreadful statistics, and are a shameful indictment of Tory inaction.

“The River Tame is one of the most polluted waterways in the world, I have raised this fact countless times with Ministers and urged them to get serious about tackling sewage discharges. There seems to be no urgency and no recognition of how bad the problem is.

“Labour are the only party who are committed to ending the Tory sewage scandal. We need to see automatic fines levied to  failing water bosses, end systematic sewage dumping and protect our precious local environments.”

Jim McMahon OBE MP, Shadow Environment Secretary said: 

“That the Tories have allowed villages, towns, and cities across the country to be treated as open sewers shows that they have no respect for places where people live, work and holiday.

“Communities across Denton and Reddish should be able to just enjoy the place where they live without having to worrying about encountering filthy raw sewage.

“The next Labour Government will end the Tory sewage scandal, delivering mandatory monitoring on all sewage outlets, introducing automatic fines for discharges, setting ambitious targets for stopping systematic sewage dumping and ensuring that water bosses are held to account for negligence.”

I’m sure if your post box is anything like mine, you’ll be getting lots of party-political leaflets as we approach local elections on the 4th of May.

This year’s local elections are particularly important because they are an ‘all-out’ contest. Thanks to the 2022 Local Government Boundary Changes, all 57 seats on Tameside Council, three per ward, are up for grabs.

I tend to think of local elections as the humbler brother of a General Election. They don’t receive anything like the same degree of national media coverage, but in actual fact are even more important when it comes to local issues.

Where a General Election focusses on who represents you on a national stage and who ends up with the coveted keys to 10 Downing Street, the local elections are instead concerned about how you are represented in your local council. Your Councillors worry about what is happening on your street, lead local campaigns and deal with casework ranging from housing to crime to bin collections.

I served as a Local Councillor for 9 years before I became a Member of Parliament, so know all too well just how hard Councillors work for relatively little fanfare. That’s why, irrespective of your political allegiances, I urge you to vote in the upcoming local elections.

A reminder too that this year you will be required to take photographic ID with you to the polling booth. I have made no secret of the fact that I think this new rule is totally pointless, won’t do anything to tackle (incredibly rare) voter fraud and actually risks reducing voter turnout. Unfortunately, it is the will of the national Government of the day, so we have to work with it.

Valid forms of photo ID include – but are not limited to – your UK passport, driving license (provisional or full), Older Person’s Bus Pass or a National identity card.  The full list of valid ID can be found at www.electoralcommission.org.uk.

If you don’t have an accepted form of ID, you can apply for a free Voter Authority Certificate, again through the electoral commission website. I don’t want to see voter turnout reduced, so spread the word about bringing photo ID with friends and family.

We all have a right to vote for who represents us. That right is the cornerstone of our democracy and can make a huge difference. So please, register to vote, remember your photo ID, and use your voice.

Ladbroke Wood Litterpick 

Great to join the Friends of Ladbroke Wood for their litterpick session at Jackson Gardens last weekend. About 20 residents joined in the mammoth clean-up.

I focused on the entrance to the site from Windmill Lane (by the Brickworks) which was utterly filthy with litter. It’s as clean as anything now!

 PALM SUNDAY

Thank you to the wonderful people at Christ Church and St George’s in Denton for dropping a beautiful Easter gift at my house on Palm Sunday. It’s a beautiful and thoughtful thing to do. Thank you!

*The bag of Mini-Eggs very quickly got snaffled by the mini-Gwynnie!

 Friends of the Horses Field

What a fun time I had out with the Friends of the Horses Field Dane Bank and Team Denton West Councillors yesterday planting trees on the edge of Horses Field.

A big thank you to City of Trees staff for coming to show us all the ropes, and to the Horses Field committee members for organising the event.

Good to see lots of willing volunteers join in too. That’s 500 new trees planted.

CITIZENS’ AWARDS: Chris Clarke and Stephen Martin

Yesterday morning Councillor Allison Gwynne and I caught up with a team of Friends of the Tame Valley volunteers who were out to plant another wildflower meadow at the entrance to the valley on Fairlea.

We were there to present Chris and Steve with Citizens Awards for all their hard work and dedication to the Tame Valley. Chris is Treasurer of the Group and has been a member since its formation. He’s often seen wading in the river Tame removing debris from the river bank around Jet Amber Fields. Chris also organises a lot of the corporate social responsibility days throughout the year.

Steve is a local resident who started volunteering by litterpicking in the Upper Haughton and Whittles Meadows. Since then he has organised and led volunteer activity for the Friends Group on this side of the valley, including: invasive species removal, riverbank clearance, woodland maintenance and wildflower planting.

Both are absolute stars and this recognition is well deserved. Thanks both for your love and care for our Tame Valley.

Delivering in Denton South 

I had a lovely sunny evening in Denton South on Monday helping Councillor Claire Reid and Jack Naylor to deliver the last of their Team Denton South direct mails to residents ahead of the start of the local election campaign.  

Then it was off to the Bay Horse to wet my whistle!

Together Centre Easter Fair  

Nice to pop over to The Together Centre in Dukinfield to show support for their Easter Fair yesterday. The place was absolutely jam packed, which was great to see.

A huge well done to all the centre staff and volunteers, and of course to Jackie and Dawson Lane for all the time they put in to make this centre a real hub of the Dukinfield community!

I can neither confirm nor deny I *eventually* won an Easter egg on the chocolate tombola.

📅 Parliament is currently in recess and will return on the 17th April.

 READ: Some of you may have spotted that Stockport was recently included in the Sunday Times' ‘Best Places to Live in the UK’ 2023 list.

This speaks to some incredible improvements that have been made over the last decade in the area. A wide-ranging regeneration scheme, the brainchild of the previous Labour administration, has made a huge difference to transport, housing and more.

In this week's Stockport Express, I've written about why this vital work must continue.

Read the full piece here.