Stockport’s a winner in the Age-Friendly Challenge

Five Stockport neighbourhoods were honoured at an award ceremony, hosted by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, after winning the Age-Friendly Neighbourhoods Challenge.

Representatives from Brinnington, Cheadle, Heatons, Marple and Reddish along with other areas in GM came together to celebrate, share good practice, and be welcomed into a new city region-wide age-friendly neighbourhoods network.

The judging panel commended the winning Stockport neighbourhoods as having great examples of GP practices working with the local community to improve health and services for older residents.

In all fifty-three neighbourhoods across the region have now been recognised as age-friendly, or making excellent progress to becoming age-friendly.

The awards recognise the hard work that organisations and older people across Greater Manchester have carried out to make their area a great place to grow older.

Mayor Andy Burnham said: “I launched this challenge in 2018 to unearth the positive work I know is going on in Greater Manchester, to find practical examples of what age-friendly really means, and to share best practice across the city-region.

“The response to this challenge has been fantastic. The variety of age-friendly work displayed from all our winners clearly shows the commitment from our local communities to make sure that people in Greater Manchester are living not just longer, but happier and healthier too.”

Dr. James Higgins, a GP at Brinnington Health Centre, said ”Stockport has an older than average population so it’s really important that we make it an age friendly place to live in.

“We’re proud that the hard work our community and patients have put in to improve the lives of older people in Brinnington has been recognised with this award.

“It is also great to see that, by working together with local charities and an army of wonderful volunteers, we can really help a community for the better.

“We’d like to congratulate the other four age friendly winners in Stockport. Together we’re helping to make the borough an even better place to grow old in.”

Cllr Jude Wells, Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Health and Assistant Portfolio lead for Age Friendly Greater Manchester, said: “It’s great to see local people, groups and organisations sharing their skills, talents and energy and coming together to make Brinnington, Cheadle, the Heatons, Marple and Reddish an even better place to live and grow older.”

An age-friendly neighbourhood is a place where: residents are committed to looking out for each other, older people feel they can have a say in what’s going on in their local area, and there are spaces where people can get together.

The awards also show that each area is committed to helping older people feel independent, safe and secure, and informed about what is going on in their local area.