IN the first of a new monthly column, Bury Council leader Cllr Rishi Shori takes you behind the scenes at the town hall

I AM delighted to be launching Bury Council’s column in our local newspaper.

Through this column, I want to take you behind the scenes of how we are working to make sure that everyone living in Bury has the best possible opportunities.

I have been in post for 18 months now and am constantly bowled over by our people. It is the people of Bury that make it the place it is, and when as a council we talk about partnership working, we find when we get out and about that it’s naturally happening.

Our communities are fantastic, which is probably why we were recently voted as the happiest place to live in Greater Manchester.

I am ambitious for Bury, and you will hear me talking a lot about building a better Bury.

However, we have seen unprecedented challenges — councils have less money and fewer resources to deliver our essential services so we have to be entrepreneurial in our approach, and in my first column I would like to concentrate on how our focus on partnership working is paying off.

There’s a lot to be proud of . . . we are just a bit shy about blowing our own trumpet, which is why it’s great when others do it for us, like the Mayor of Greater Manchester did last week when he launched his new Town Centre Challenge right here in Bury.

I was standing with Andy Burnham when he described partnership working as central to the success of his new town centre regeneration challenge.

He picked Bury as the launchpad to showcase the challenge, crediting the way we had worked to turn Bury into a modern hub for business, retail, tourism and living.

We work closely with our public, private and voluntary sector partners and The Rock is a shining example of how our team working approach benefits Bury.

It has been terrific over the past few weeks to meet so many people across the borough at our new Neighbourhood Engagement events.

We cannot and should not deliver services alone, so we are working very hard to build strong relationships with our communities.

Our Neighbourhood Engagement team has been busy bringing people together to see what is on their doorstep, whether it is a service, support group or club they can get involved with.

We have many hidden gems, such as Men in Sheds, a group in Radcliffe we have recently funded jointly with Groundwork Ambition for Ageing, which brings together retired men and women who may otherwise become lonely.

Moving forward, we need to ensure we have a resilient and skilled workforce, and we are playing our part by taking on 26 apprentices.

As the mayor’s lead for young people as well as social cohesion, I am proud that as a council we are helping improve learning and working opportunities for young people.

We need to work together to look after our environment and you may have seen my face on Greater Manchester’s Big Clean Switch publicity.

I have personally switched my energy provider at home to go “clean and green”.

It’s a great scheme and I encourage you to think about switching your energy supply over, too. You will save money as well as the environment — I’ve saved more than £300!

Finally, I appreciate the invitations to see first-hand the great work going on across our communities and listening to your ideas about how we can work better with you. Keep me posted on what’s happening in your neighbourhood and I’ll get along to as much as I can.