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Print11:20 am, March 4, 2010
Business owners to grill Rochdale’s parliamentary candidates
By Michael Fahy
A group set up to represent independent retailers in Rochdale is to host a debate allowing local business owners the opportunity to cross-examine the town’s three main parliamentary candidates.
Voice of Rochdale Independents is holding The Big Debate Live on March 15th at the Best Western Broadfield Park Hotel in Rochdale at 6.30pm. The town’s sitting MP, Liberal Democrat Paul Rowen, Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate Simon Danczuk and Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate Mudasir Dean will all answer questions at the event, which is being chaired by BBC Radio Manchester presenter Eamonn O’Neal.
Voice of Rochdale Independents’ chair Paul Turner-Mitchell said that the plan was to adopt the leadership-style debate proposed on a national level and adopting it locally to “enable local politicians to re-engage and reconnect with local people on local issues which affect their everyday lives”.
“This debate will focus on the town centre, which is a huge issue local and a focal point of the community,” he said.
Voice of Rochdale Independents was set up last year to put pressure on government bodies to improve the town centre. A survey published last month by the Local Data Company named Rochdale as the second-worst town in the region for vacant shop units.
COMMENTS? mfahy@crain.com
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