11 March 2026
STOCKPORT — Stockport Council is about to review how well it communicates with residents — but some locals are asking whether the council has actually been listening. The Scrutiny Review Panel’s report on External Communications: Effectiveness and Value for Money will be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday, 17 March at Fred Perry House, and Padden Brook residents are hoping it finally addresses their 19-month wait for answers.
Since early 2024, the community has been raising the alarm about their beloved W1 woodland site, a local green space untouched since the 1960s. Day by day, residents say, it has been destroyed, while attempts to get updates from the council went unanswered.
A local resident and woodland campaigner didn’t mince words: “Our woodland has been disappearing before our eyes for 19 months, and the council barely sent a peep. It feels like the Scrutiny Review is just ticking boxes while our W1 site disappears.”
The report will cover all council communications, from press releases and emails to social media, assessing whether messages are timely, clear, and reaching those who need them. But for Padden Brook, residents say, the damage is done — unless the council acts quickly.
Cabinet will decide which recommendations to adopt. Residents hope this isn’t just another review that looks good on paper, and that Padden Brook finally gets a response — before more history vanishes from their woodland site.
Those wanting to see the report or follow the Cabinet discussion can find it on Stockport Council’s democracy portal.
I have been censored on Facebook recently, but Facebook found I had done nothing wrong. Let’s continue to expose the insanity that stands in for good governance at Stockport Council. Instead of getting the best people at the top for their high wages, we get the incompetence of Buggin’s turn.
Of course it’s “just another review that looks good on paper”, that’s the way it’s done. When my children were at school, and I & others were trying to get the school dinners improved, we saw our school get an award from Stockport council for their ‘excellent school dinners’, only to find that it had all been a paper exercise — no one had actually visited the school or SEEN a school dinner there.