Mayor in emotional address on tragedy
THE Mayor of Oldham told how friends from his walking group narrowly survived a rockfall which killed four climbers who were scaling the world’s second highest mountain.
Mayor Javid Iqbal told a meeting of the borough’s health scrutiny committee that fears were raised for the fate of a team of ‘Kramblers’ – the name for a Kashmir walking group – who had been on an expedi- tion to K2 in the Himalayas. “We’ve spent the weekend worrying and thinking about them because we received notifications that there was a rockfall and a number of walkers had been injured,” he said
“Fortunately our group are okay but two of the Japanese walkers are unfortunately deceased and two of the Australian walkers are deceased.
“Our condolences to them, but our group have contacted us and they are safe and they are hopefully returning tomorrow to the rendezvous point and then it’s a 12-hour drive to the city and a 26-hour bus trip from the city to Islamabad, so that’s how far and rural this location is.”
Mayor Iqbal is a member of the Kramblers, and told the committee he hopes that the team will be able to take part in the Oldham Way walk on July 29.
It is his ambition during his mayoral year to promote health and wellbeing, and specifically to get people in the borough out walking.
He told members he wanted to ‘lead by example.’
“It was inspirational for a lot of people and I think I’m setting some standards for mayors following on”, he said.
“We’ve got a number of activities and we’re just trying to encourage our local residents to participate and we’re trying to inspire people to come and take the first step, join us to a better health and wellbeing.”
He added: “We are trying to inspire employers to give our younger generation opportunity irrespective of, health and wellbeing, education, employment, work experience – we just need to give them an opportunity.”
The Oldham Way walk will take place on July 28 and 29. It is a 40-mile walk split over two days starting from Daisy Nook. On August 12 there will be a health and wellbeing event at Alexandra Park in Oldham, with further walking and cycling events in September which are being backed by the mayor.