Anyone who gets to serve their community in Parliament is lucky, but I am especially lucky to be one of the few MPs who represent the place they come from. Denton is home for me and has been since childhood, so it is with particular pride that I am able to speak in Parliament on behalf of my friends and neighbours across the town, as well as those in Audenshaw, Dukinfield, Haughton Green, Heaton Chapel, Heaton Norris and Reddish.
Being an MP also gives me the opportunity to get involved in such an amazing variety of different activities, visiting community groups and attending events all over the constituency. This has reinforced for me (as if it needed reinforcing!) how lucky I am to live in a place with such a strong sense of community, where people look out for each other and love getting involved.
There are so many examples of groups that give up their time to make things better for our community – Denton West End Community Library, Dane Bank Greenspace, Friends of Horses Field, St Mary’s Foodbank in Haughton Green, Forever Green – the list goes on and on.
Then there’s Eventfull Community Team who put on fantastic events – most recently a Magical Woodland Trail in our beautiful Tame Valley. The team have been rightfully recognised for their work, being shortlisted for an award by the Royal British Legion for their remembrance events this year in Denton South.
The strength of community spirit in Denton was also seen a few weekends back at the march to save our Tame Valley, standing up to developers who want to allow the Bredbury Parkway industrial estate to spread further into the green spaces of the Tame Valley. Hundreds of people turned out to tell them to think again.
We are really lucky in Denton to have such a strong sense of community and we should never forget how important this is. There are so many ways to take part and I’d really encourage anyone reading this who isn’t currently getting involved to give it a go – you certainly won’t regret it!
As for me, I’m really looking forward to all the great events coming up over the next few months, particularly the Denton Carnival on the 8 September – hopefully I’ll see you there!