Listeners get a chance to meet mayor

GOOD TO TALK . . .Mayor Cllr Derek Heffernan on air with Dave McGealy.

THE mayor of Oldham was a special guest at Oldham Community Radio this week.

Councillor Derek Heffernan shared his life's story on air during the station's Chance to Meet section on Wednesday.

Station manager Dave McGealy led the discussion which covered the mayor's school years, employment, his entry into politics and progression to mayoralty.

DJ McGealy joked about the mayor's second choice of music for the show, Sergei Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Variation 18.

He said: "Thank goodness you were so specific, I'd have hated to get the wrong one."

Their conversation covered the mayor's "happy school days" followed by his employment at John Lewis as department manager in lady's dress fabrics.

Sharing about his first meeting with his now wife Mayoress Di, he said: "When we were introduced we were not impressed with each other."

McGealy added: "But she saw passed the grumpy façade."

Following their marriage in Liverpool, the family moved to Essex in 1972 when Councillor Heffernan took up a 12-month post at an oil refinery.

The mayor said: "We piled our Morris Traveller high, put the furniture into storage and moved off to Essex.

"From the roof to the top of the roof rack was five feet and I stood on the bonnet to pack it.

"I only got checked out by the police when they drove past me."

Discussing his interest in politics, the mayor said: "I was the only seven-year-old who read the front of the newspaper. I was always interested in the political life but it wasn't active until I moved to Austerlands and was elected to the council."

Councillor Heffernan said of Oldham: "It is the most generous borough in Greater Manchester."