Rowen hails disability conference a great success!

12.00.00am GMT Tue 4th Mar 2008

Rochdale MP Paul Rowen has hailed his disability conference a 'huge success'. The North West Disability Conference attracted over 100 people throughout the day. Guest Speaker at the Conference was Liberal Democrat Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Danny Alexander MP.

Delegates at the Conference included representatives from Leonard Cheshire Disability, Kidz Aware and Special Abilities, the Step by Step Living Network, Action- on-Access, the Rochdale District Disability Action Group, the Liberal Democrat Disability Association amongst others.

Paul Rowen MP said: "I shall be publishing the results of the Workshops at the Conference on my web site early next week. I was pleased with the turn out and we tackled some crucial issues especially on transport, accessibility, employment and education. We shall be looking into a number of key issues raised and how we tackle them on both a local and national level. It is hugely important as an MP to listen and act on resident's concerns and this event was part of our effort under the Leadership of Nick Clegg MP to host public consultation events."

Danny Alexander MP told the Conference, "It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity to be here. It is a sad fact that despite there being 11 million disabled people in the UK, almost one fifth of the population, that the question of how this country should treat the disabled is not asked enough, the debate over the right approach seldom had, the answer rarely satisfactory and the reality even worse. For these reasons this conference is an important event and I congratulate my colleague and friend Paul Rowen for hosting it here in his home town of Rochdale."