14 November 2025

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your weekend. I was honoured to attend the Remembrance Sunday Service in Stockton on Sunday and pay my respects to our Armed Forces and their families. Thankfully, my voice had returned, and I was able to give a reading during the church service.

This week has been relatively quiet with official meetings, but I have had lots of catch ups with officers and members. It also gave me the opportunity to catch up with emails and case work.

I started off my week on Monday with a lovely event celebrating one year of The Junction Multibank supporting families across Tees Valley. In the past year, the Multibank has distributed over 2 million essential items to families and individuals in our region.

On Tuesday afternoon, I headed over Teesside Airport for an Education, Employment and Skills (EES) Advisory Group meeting for the Tees Valley Combined Authority (TVCA). The EES group works to make the most of the resources we have across the Tees Valley to improve employment and education prospects for all ages.

On Wednesday, I recorded audio for my Leader's update in the November 2025 edition of Stockton-on-Tees News. Our November edition highlights what a progressive year 2025 has been for Stockton-on-Tees, celebrating wonderful achievements and community news from around the Borough. Look out for your copy of Stockton-on-Tees News landing on doormats from Monday 17 November. If you prefer to listen, you can visit our Spotify page to access audio versions of Stockton-on-Tees News.

Yesterday, I chaired the Cabinet meeting where we discussed Council Motions, the Anti Racism Charter and School Performance data.

Today I am visiting Sainsbury's at Whitehouse Farm to support the Usdaw Trade Union Rep, Peter Currie to promote a national campaign. Usdaw's Freedom from Fear Campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers. The campaign is to raise public awareness that this is unacceptable behaviour, and give workers the confidence to speak out, report abuse and not accept it as part of the job.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend.