Another busy week in Westminster as we tackled how the Emergency Services Mobile Communications project being managed by the Home Office is progressing in the Public Accounts Committee. This is a huge Government project to invest in the next generation of emergency communications which will be available for mobile operators to use as well. For our most rural corners of the constituency this will be a useful addition to widen our mobile reach to places like the top end of the Coquet Valley and other sparsely populated areas.
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As a longstanding trustee of the Belsay Trust, I caught up with colleagues and local rural businesses to discuss tourism numbers, the new framework which English Heritage is now working under, and plans for growth in 2017. I have also been meeting with a number of small businesses across the patch, especially in the tourism sector, who are receiving their business rates for the coming financial year, and which have been hiked. If you or a friend running a small business have had the same experience, I would be keen to hear the details as I tackle the Valuation Office Agency on the reasons for this sudden increase. Please email my office to [email protected] .
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It was a great pleasure to meet the new Bishop of Newcastle, Christine Hardman, in the House of Commons. She is most impressive and clearly has a great vision for our region. I will be working with her and the Diocese on local issues, but most especially on ways to improve the life chances of our Northumbrian children through educational attainment. The Church of England has many schools across the county which provide an excellent education, but there is always more to do and I am keen to see closer working relationships between all our schools to maximise opportunities for the next generation.
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We had a big public consultation meeting with healthcare leaders to discuss the temporary closure of our inpatient beds at Rothbury community hospital. It was clear to those from the NHS teams just how passionate we all are about finding ways to make better use of these beds, from the packed room and heartfelt comments made by all who spoke. I will keep you all posted of the formal consultation process once it kicks off – for my money, we need to find a way to ensure palliative care and respite care provision continue to be available, and provision of lower level nursing support for those who still need that level of supervision after acute hospital admission before going back home.
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On Wednesday, I & my colleague Johnny Mercer MP, had the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister to discuss our vision for an Armed Forces Covenant Minister to ensure that we provide a proper joined-up Covenant commitment across our country. I’ll keep you posted on progress, but you can see more detail here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/734274/Sunday-express-shield-crusade-Theresa-May-Armed-Forces-Covenant-Minister
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On the transport front, I visited the Highways England public consultation event on Saturday in Alnwick to see the latest plans on routes for the A1 dualling & improvements – it’s all coming together! Please feed in your thoughts to: http://roads.highways.gov.uk/projects/the-a1-in-northumberland/
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I am also now working with the Belford Rail User group to progress the Belford platform and station improvements they have long campaigned for.
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The Boundary Commission held their formal consultation meetings in Newcastle this week at which I presented my view of how they should create three Northumberland seats from the present four, which ensures our North Northmberland seat is a cohesive, market towns based grouping. We shall see what they decide, and if they have heard our call for a rural seat, next year. It’s not too late to share your views at https://www.bce2018.org.uk/node/6486.
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