Former Labour Councillor Karen Danczuk and Independent MEP Steven Woolfe visited local businesses in Rochdale this week.
The tour included visiting the Town Hall as well as admiring the new developments in the town and inclusivity was a heavy theme throughout the visit.
Mr Woolfe discussed how there are very few working-class voices in parliament at a senior level in politics.
In agreement, Mrs Danczuk said: “I feel some MP’s like to “take care of us” and think we’re not “intelligent” enough to know what right for our towns.”
Part of the tour included visiting vocation training centre Alternative Constitution Education.
During the visit, they discussed the opportunities the centre provides for its students which strides to “Build confidence in the workplace setting”, as well as “proving a pathway to further learning”.
When discussing the lack of MP visits to the centre, Mrs Danczuk expressed her outraged stating: “I am very disappointed that Tony Lloyd has not visited here in 12 months!”
This was followed by a tour of the facilitates on offer, all of which are part of the 40 AQA accredited courses redivided by the centre.
This ranges from bricklaying, woodwork, vehicle mechanics, plastering as well as hairdressing.
English, maths and science are also provided as part of compulsory education.
The tour then moved on to Meadows, a specialist care home offering residential placements to young people up the 18 years old.
During the meeting, austerity was said to have been a major detriment to the home in which they are “constantly having to reduce costs” in order to stay afloat.
Concern was also raised at the lack of training schemes provided in the UK, which led to the home having to dedicate a lot of its time and resources to internal training.
It was suggested that such an issue could be rectified with the return of technical colleges to the area, providing fully focused courses to provide the training, allowing more time to be spent providing care.
