Make Poverty History march comes to Cheadle

5.53.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 22nd Jun 2005

Mark Hunter signs the Make Poverty History petition

Councillor Mark Hunter has given his backing to Make Poverty History Marchers who today set off from the Trinity United Reformed Church in Cheadle heading ultimately for the Gleneagles G8 Summit in Scotland at the start of July.

Yesterday evening Mark met nine marchers at Trinity Church as part of a celebration of their journey so far. The marchers led by Simon Topping of the Jubilee Debt Campaign set off from Victoria Square in Birmingham City Centre on Saturday 18th June and will arrive in Gleneagles on July 5th . Their arrival will coincide with the beginning of the summit of G8 world leaders who will be considering plans to tackle global poverty.

Mark Hunter said "It was a fantastic experience to meet the marchers and to add my support with members of the Cheadle community to the key aims of the Make Poverty History Debt March 2005 Campaign - the headlines for which are 'Trade Justice', 'Drop the Debt' and 'More and Better Aid'. This is all about people power. The marchers that I met are hoping to meet directly with Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George Bush to let them know that local people at every stage along their route are publicly calling for urgent action to tackle the poverty that leads to 30,000 avoidable deaths every day around the world."

Councillor Hunter added "I am particularly proud as Leader of the Council that we are also playing our part locally. We are about to celebrate with the people of Cheadle the borough's second anniversary as a Fairtrade town - an initiative operating in our area that promotes products from developing countries which ensure that a fair price is paid to farmers or local manufacturers."

"This is about acting locally and acting globally to tackle horrific poverty and injustice. It was an honour to be invited to the celebration event at Trinity Church where the marchers were staying last night. Thanks to the marchers the call for action by world leaders to tackle global poverty will now go direct from Cheadle to the Summit - I wish them well for the rest of their journey."