I begin by apologising to the House: as I have discussed with Madam Deputy Speaker and the Minister, I cannot remain until 5 o’clock. As a result of today’s train strikes, it will take me longer to get to the airport and then back to Scotland. I appreciate their understanding of that.
I will also begin by reflecting on our late, great colleague whom this debate is named after. I was with Sir David Amess on a foreign trip less than 48 hours before he was murdered, and in many of the discussions that we had throughout the days and in the evenings—during which he led the delegation with great skill, as he always did—he mentioned how much he enjoyed this Adjournment debate, raising issues on behalf of his constituents. We can see from his contributions over the years just how passionate he was about this place, this debating Chamber and the issues he was able to highlight. It is a fitting memory of Sir David that we hold this debate at the end of each term.
The first issue I would like to raise is a national issue, and then I want to go on to more local issues in my constituency of Moray. The national issue is the news that has broken in Scotland today about Viaplay withdrawing from the UK, as referenced by the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands). That news has been met with a lot of concern. Understandably, people will be worried about their jobs, and they are in our thoughts at the moment—I should of course declare an interest as a football referee with the Scottish Football Association, including in the Scottish league cup this weekend, which is sponsored and broadcast by Viaplay. There are also concerns about the future of Viaplay’s coverage in Scotland—its coverage of the Scottish league cup and, of course, our national games.
Members who have already raised this issue have been right to highlight that the performance of Steve Clarke and his team in recent months has been something that all of us Scottish football fans have welcomed and celebrated. We are looking forward to the qualification campaign continuing after the incredible results that we have already seen. Although the news about Viaplay is concerning, I also think it is an opportunity because, like other Members across the House, I am concerned that we cannot watch our national team—the Scottish men’s team—on free-to-view TV. Despite the contract having recently been agreed between Viaplay, UEFA and the Scottish FA, there is an opportunity to review the model of delivering the national men’s football games on terrestrial TV. I hope that the BBC, STV and Channel 4 look again at the offer they can make in that regard, as getting those games on free-to-air TV would be welcomed by our fans across the country.
Let me turn to some local matters. First, I want to discuss some health-related issues. I understand that health is fully devolved to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government, but I am in a fortunate position in that I sit in both our Parliaments, and given that I have raised both these health issues in the Scottish Parliament, I would like to reiterate them here in the UK Parliament. The first is about access to GP surgeries.
There has been a significant campaign in the villages of Burghead and Hopeman to retain the surgeries in those two coastal communities, as they are vital facilities for the people living there. The Save Our Surgeries campaign has done outstanding work to raise the issue—not just locally, but on national news too. There has been a strong outpouring of support for that campaign, with thousands signing the petition to maintain at least one of the surgeries, but the response from NHS Grampian and Health & Social Care Moray has been appalling and disgraceful, and disrespectful to the people campaigning for the surgeries’ continuation.
The chief executive of NHS Grampian recently wrote to me after I raised concerns with her. She told me that part of the consultation did not include the basic question of whether the surgeries could remain open. When I highlighted that in the press, the board told me that it had missed out a word in the letter to me, which should have stated that the question was not a “main” part of the consultation. This has led many people to believe that there was never a genuine consultation to keep the surgeries in Burghead and Hopeman open and that it had been agreed from the very beginning that they would close. However, NHS Grampian did not count on the outstanding support locally for a facility in either—but hopefully both—Burghead or Hopeman. I will continue to support the campaign in any way I can.
The other health issue I want to raise is the future of consultant-led maternity services at Dr Gray’s. It is coming up to five years since our community was told that there would be a temporary downgrade of that facility for one year. In that five-year period, my wife and I have welcomed two beautiful boys into the world, four-year-old Alistair and two-year-old James. Alistair was fortunately able to be born at Dr Gray’s, but due to complications when my wife Krystle went into labour, James had to be born in Aberdeen following a blue-light journey in the back of an ambulance from Elgin. Sadly, our story and experience is shared by far too many Moray mums and families.
We have been promised time and again that the facilities will be brought back, yet we are now five years on from the original decision to downgrade it temporarily for 12 months. I welcome the fact that the new Public Health Minister has agreed to meet me, local campaigners Keep MUM and others in Moray during the summer recess to discuss this issue and to come up and see the importance of getting that full consultant-led facility open again at Dr Gray’s. The situation has been going on for far too long, and I will continue to use opportunities such as this debate and others to highlight the importance of the full restoration of the service, so that we can ensure that the outstanding staff at Dr Gray’s can continue to provide that high level of care as locally as they would like.
The other issue I want to raise is that of infrastructure. We have heard from other contributors about infrastructure projects, and one that I would like to focus on is the dualling of the A9, which is a critical route in Scotland that goes from the central belt through Perthshire and up to the highlands. Many of my constituents use the A9 daily or weekly to get to and from the north of Scotland.
Back in 2007, the SNP promised to fully dual the A9, but that promise has not been delivered. Indeed, this week The Inverness Courier hosted a summit on the dualling of the A9 that was attended by the SNP Scottish Transport Minister. It was welcome that she travelled to Inverness to hear the concerns of local residents and campaigners, but many were left unhappy with the responses they heard. Among the comments were those of Laura Hansler, who said she does not believe that the A9 will be dualled in her lifetime. She has been campaigning because she sees daily how dangerous the road is but, given the delays we have seen under the SNP Scottish Government, she does not think the road will be fully dualled in her lifetime, despite the promise that had been made.
We also heard from Bill Lobban, the convenor of Highland Council and an independent councillor, who felt that there were no answers from the meeting. Crucially, we heard from Fergus Ewing, an SNP MSP and a former Cabinet Secretary, who said that he felt it was to his shame that there has not been enough progress on dualling the route in the time his party has been in government, and that the Minister had failed to answer the three main points and concerns that came out of the summit.
It is of real concern that although there has at least been more dialogue, there is no further action on dualling the route. We were told that when the A9 was fully dualled, the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen, which goes through my Moray constituency, would be fully dualled as well. We are no further on and, indeed, the future of the A96 dualling is now in far more doubt because the SNP brought into government the Scottish Greens, who are anti-car and anti-road building. That vital infrastructure upgrade is now under serious threat because of the Greens in government trying to stop critical networks being brought up to the level expected. Not only do my constituents want it, but businesses in Moray say that it is crucial for their future as well.
I want to stick to the time limit that has been imposed, because so many Members want to raise so many issues, but this has been a great opportunity to raise in Parliament just some of the crucial issues that I have been working on as MP for Moray and will continue to work on in the summer recess. Like others, Mr Deputy Speaker, I wish you and all Members and staff all the best for the summer recess.
I wish to speak about a number of constituency issues. First, I recently had the privilege of opening, on behalf of the company Brit European in Middlewich in my constituency, its new Vita Nova centre. Brit European started life in my constituency just under 100 years ago, with one horse-drawn milk tanker taking milk from local farms to dairy. Today, it is a leading transport logistics company with a fleet of hundreds of vehicles, provides transport solutions across the UK and into Europe, and has its own driver academy. I was so impressed with the innovative approach by Brit European—led by CEO Graham Lackey, who is supported by group sales director Rob McNinch, both of whom have travelled here to listen to this debate from the Gallery—that I want to take this opportunity to commend the company for the development of its new site. It has focused on a carbon-neutral build, working off grid and ensuring that the whole site is environmentally efficient.
Let me give some more detail. The new centre has repurposed an existing steel-frame building from elsewhere for the company’s modular building, while the driver welfare facilities, workshops, IT facilities and parts stores are all made from repurposed shipping containers. The entire site of 5.5 acres is built on a redesigned concrete slab that is 33% thinner than normal concrete foundations and has hugely reduced the carbon footprint for the whole build. Ground stabilisation techniques were used in construction to avoid digging into the ground, thereby avoiding the need to remove soil, dump it off site and replace it with quarried materials. This alone saved thousands of transported truckloads of materials.
Focusing on off grid, the Vita Nova site has a full solar array and battery power storage system, and innovative wind towers are planned that are quieter and less obtrusive than traditional large windmill turbines. Remarkably, they have been 3D-printed using recycled plastic on site, so again avoiding transport, and with no concrete foundations, they can easily be moved. They are the first of their kind in England.
As we all do today, I rise with Sir David Amess in my heart and in my thoughts. He was a great friend—a cheeky friend—and mentor to so many of us.
I am very fortunate to represent the amazing communities of Rutland and Melton, the Vale and Harborough villages, which cover 187 villages, three towns and 431 square miles. Within my constituency, we have the Hallaton hoard of Roman gold and the Stilton pork pie. I promised all Members that much would be heard of that during my time in Parliament, and I would say that I have lived up to that commitment. We also have Burrough on the Hill, where there was a great Roman fort. We have the Rutland sea dragon, otherwise known as the ichthyosaur. I put on record that it is not a dinosaur, but a marine animal of some sort. We also have the Belvoir elderflower cordial, the Rutland mosaic, which has changed our understanding of Roman history, and the beautiful Belvoir castle, where “The Crown” is filmed. This is an incredible group of communities to represent, and I am so pleased to be here and to speak about some of the campaigns on which I have been working on their behalf.
I am also delighted to see the Minister, the Vice-Chamberlain of His Majesty’s Household, on the Front Bench for this debate, and look forward to hearing her voice filling the Chamber once again.
Earlier this year—and I know that the world and the media were very keen to talk about this—we were successful in our bid to secure £23 million from the levelling-up fund for the communities of Rutland and Melton. Many asked, “Why did Rutland and Melton deserve those funds?” The answer is that we have two of the worst places in the country for social mobility. That means that when people have difficult lives, it is far more difficult for them to create the future that they and their family want—that most Conservative of values—with a determination to get better education and better opportunities. I am therefore incredibly excited that we are moving forward with this levelling-up funding.
I am honoured to speak in the Sir David Amess Adjournment debate, which the House kindly agreed some time ago to name in memory of our great friend. We still miss him, and I must confess that I do in particular —especially that famous cheeky Amess grin. I reassure the House that I am not going to try to emulate him and raise 20 different topics in half as many minutes. Nevertheless, there are five particular areas that I would like to touch on before the House adjourns for the summer.
First, as those who were here at Education questions on Monday may recall, I have launched a campaign for a new special needs school in south Essex. We already have a number of very good special needs schools in Essex, but they are now—almost without exception—heavily over-subscribed, and we simply do not have enough special needs places, particularly in the south of the county, to deal with ever increasing demand. As a result, many parents end up having to go through long appeals processes, desperately trying to get their children into an appropriate school. For those who are unsuccessful, their children are shoehorned into mainstream education, which sometimes leads to behavioural problems and even to mainstream schools themselves getting bad Ofsted reports as a result.
We need to cut through this Gordian knot and expand capacity. I am therefore talking to the cabinet member for education and lifelong learning in Essex County Council, Councillor Tony Ball, as well as Ministers at the Department for Education and a couple of local multi-academy trusts, to see whether we can find a suitable option to open a new school. I hope to have more to say about that by the time the House returns in the autumn, but for the moment I pledge to do my best on this. In that, I hope I will have the support of my constituents, especially parents with special needs children.
Secondly, we have had real problems at King Edmund School in Ashingdon, which suffered a triple whammy. First, it was closed like many other schools during covid, and secondly, it had to have a large block demolished because of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, or RAAC. The third whammy came when they demolished the building and found that it contained a large quantity of asbestos, which no one realised was there. The school had to be completely closed while the area was thoroughly decontaminated. I am glad to report to the House that the new block is now in the early stages of rising phoenix-like from the ashes. I thank the permanent secretary at the Department for Education, who at a recent meeting of the Public Accounts Committee publicly apologised to me and my constituents who were adversely affected by this difficult situation. I am assured by the headteacher, Mr Jonathan Osborn, that the apology has gone down very well with staff, parents and pupils alike, so I want to register my thanks this afternoon on their behalf.
This is the second time I have spoken in this debate. The first time was two years ago, and I followed David Amess—I can even remember where he was sitting in the Chamber at the time. I have refreshed my memory on what I said in that debate. I raised for the first time the issue of improved public transport links north from Newbury up to Oxford, and specifically the need for a new bus route that would link Newbury to the towns and the science parks up what we call the “knowledge highway” of the A34. I am delighted that two years later, after countless surveys, leaflets, emails to constituents, meetings with Ministers, and meetings with Oxfordshire County Council, West Berkshire Council and various bus companies, the new X34 bus route will open on Monday. I want to say how grateful I am to the Government for the £2.6 million bus service improvement plan funding that was given to West Berkshire Council in recognition of the fact that rural areas are often not well connected, and I also want to put on record my thanks to Oxfordshire County Council, West Berkshire Council and Thames Travel for taking the rare and unusual step of creating a new bus route that crosses two counties.
Since it is perfectly obvious that this debate actually works, it seems as good a time as any for me to raise my next infrastructure campaign, which is for a bridge over the level crossing, or at least some part of the adjacent railway line, in Thatcham. That may sound like a small issue, but what is in fact a significant signalling problem causes residents of that town extensive delays at peak times every single day. Many of my constituents say that they wait between 45 minutes and an hour per journey when travelling to and from work. I dread to think how many hours are lost to them each day.
I have already met the Transport Secretary to discuss the problem, and I am grateful for his support so far —although I have not asked him for any money yet and I will visit the site and meet the signalling team tomorrow. My constituency predecessor, now Lord Benyon, made some initial efforts, and has told me that, if nothing else, he can explain to me where the plan to build a bridge went wrong in the past. However, I think that there are sensible, practical solutions to the infrastructure blockage problem, and I know that the magic of this debate means that the bridge will be built very soon.
I join colleagues in paying tribute to our late friend Sir David Amess. I was lucky enough to be put by the accommodation Whip on the same corridor as Sir David when I first arrived here as an MP. I will never forget the conversations that we used to have while waiting for the lifts in 1 Parliament Street, which never work. He was always interested in colleagues and what they were doing. He took a genuine interest in parliamentarians and this House. We really miss him and remember him in these times. On a happier note, I extend my good wishes to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and all the staff in the Houses of Parliament in advance of the summer recess, and wish them a very restful recess.
I am told by Hansardthat today will be my 170th mention of Carshalton and Wallington, so no prizes for guessing the topic of my speech today. I will highlight a few things that my constituents are facing, which I hope that the Minister, who I am delighted is in her place, will take away to the relevant Government Departments to pursue over the summer. I do not think that it will come as any surprise that the No. 1 issue that I get from residents on the doorstep and in my postbag— I am sure it is the same for every Member of Parliament at the moment—is concern about cost of living pressures, such as meeting the mortgage, rent payments, energy bills and other bills. I warmly welcome not only all the initiatives that the Government have taken, including the energy bill relief scheme, the household support fund, and the uprating of benefits and pensions in line with inflation, but the way the Government have tried to promote those schemes.
I know so many people who have benefited from going on the Help for Households website. They have found support that they did not know was out there. I have been trying to work alongside local stakeholders to ensure that people are adequately signposted to the support available. Together with the Department for Work and Pensions and the local jobcentre, we have set up monthly drop-in cost of living advice sessions in Roundshaw and St Helier, and we are looking to expand that to other areas of Carshalton and Wallington, particularly areas of deprivation where the need for such support is acute. Those sessions have been so well received. Every month, more and more people come to those drop-in events. I hope that the Government can encourage the DWP to continue to do that in other constituencies, because it has worked particularly well in mine.
I rise to pay tribute to Sir David, who was a good friend and a guiding hand to many of us elected in 2019.
As this debate is dedicated to Sir David Amess, who shared with me a deep love of animals, I want to put on the record my thanks to those thousands of people who voted for my Jack Russell, Clemmie, who secured second place in last year’s Westminster Dog of the Year competition. Now, Clemmie is going all out this year to secure the top dog title in the Sir David Amess public vote award, just as his beloved Vivienne did in 2021.
Let me turn now to serious matters. Darlington is at the forefront of our ambitious levelling up agenda and the past years have been hugely exciting for Darlington as we continue to go from strength to strength. Through covid and the current cost of living crisis, together with other funding, Darlington has received around £670 million in investment and support from the Government since I was elected in 2019. We are already seeing what that investment is delivering, such as the £23.3 million from the towns fund, which is improving our historic yards, Victoria Road and Northgate. Work has begun on the £139 million redevelopment of Bank Top Station. In that vein, I urge London North Eastern Railway not to close our ticket office in Darlington, which would hugely undermine this investment and make life more difficult for my disabled and elderly constituents.
As we approach the bicentenary of the passenger railway in 2025, Darlington’s rail heritage quarter is starting to take shape, with £35 million of investment from Ben Houchen and Darlington Borough Council. I am determined that our celebration of this significant milestone should be commensurate with its importance. The eyes of the world will be on Darlington and it is a perfect opportunity to showcase our nation’s rich rail heritage. I have already met Ministers and Network Rail to discuss the celebrations and I am looking forward to meeting Sir Peter Hendy to discuss how we can make them a real success.
As my hon. Friend knows, I raised this issue at Prime Minister’s questions only yesterday. I have to admit that, to my great frustration, I was not particularly delighted by the Prime Minister’s answer. On 19 January on the Floor of this House, at the Dispatch Box, and again in a written ministerial statement, the Secretary of State confirmed that pre-legislative scrutiny would be completed by the end of this parliamentary Session; essentially, that means October or November this year. There is no way that that can now be met, so I am deeply disappointed that after the Government have missed their own deadline, we have not received any form of update. Does my hon. Friend agree that pre-legislative scrutiny would enable this House to come together, and that it is wrong that that scrutiny has not yet taken place?
Very sadly, what my hon. Friend says is correct. I pay tribute to her for her significant leadership on the issue. I have worked with her, alongside colleagues such as my hon. Friends the Members for West Bromwich East (Nicola Richards), for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) and for Crewe and Nantwich (Dr Mullan). Many of us have campaigned and pressed for a trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapy, and it is deeply saddening that we have not yet seen it.
Moving on, my constituents are still facing impossibly long waits for mental health treatment, particularly for children. I have spoken in this place many times on the need to bring down waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services. I know that Ministers are aware of the issue and working hard on it, but I again press them to do all they can to ensure that we leave no child behind. Ministers are also aware of the ongoing situation with the provision of mental health services in Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, and the recent rapid review. In recent weeks and months, we have seen continuing coverage of yet more alarming news about TEWV, particularly the work of the crisis team. I press Ministers to continue to work with me and others, and to do all they can to improve TEWV services so that my constituents can get the care they need and deserve.
Every week my team, led by the amazing Rachael Hughes Booth, handle hundreds of pieces of casework—in fact, some 31,537 since I was elected—and every day there are successes, from securing a passport so that a family can take a long-planned holiday, to getting people treatment for rare conditions or reimbursement of unpaid benefits. That, for me, is the most important part of this job.
Darlington has had a lot to celebrate over the last few years, although our community has, like everyone’s, faced significant challenges. Our town is truly on the cusp of something great. It is the honour of a lifetime to represent the people of Darlington in this place, and I will continue to work hard every day to repay the trust they have put in me.
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Colloquially called “moo poo”, methane captured from dairy farms’ slurry pits is being used to charge Brit European’s vehicles. This is 84 times better than releasing a kilogram of methane into the atmosphere, and is another world first. The rainwater harvesting system provides 85% of the site’s total water needs and is used for flushing toilets and vehicle washing, and none of the water that falls within the site can run off to the surrounding environment without being cleaned via filter tanks. In a final stage of off-grid development, Brit European is developing software and a switching system to co-ordinate all power generation, so that at any point in time it is using the most environmentally beneficial energy source available. In other words, it links the solar, wind, moo poo and battery systems together and utilises the energy they produce before going to grid.
The whole build is on a brownfield area, so the company worked with environmental experts to come up with a planting scheme to restore the site to its pre-industrial state. It is believed the site was first industrialised in the late 1800s. Work includes carefully selected trees and shrubs, bat and bird boxes, and measures to encourage animals such as hedgehogs.
Even more admirable is Brit European’s generous offer through the Road Haulage Association to pass on this innovation to other transport or logistics businesses across the country. This exemplary innovation has not been easy, but when Graham Lackey is asked why he has done this, he replies, “To reach sustainability as a business is simply the right thing to do, for my children and their future.” It gives me great pleasure to commend Brit European’s innovative work today. I am very proud to have such a forward-looking company in my constituency.
Elsewhere in my constituency are the steep inclines of Mow Cop. Will the Government consider improving the guidance for local authorities on winter gritting? On Mow Cop, there are several rural roads that are not gritted in the winter and can therefore be impassable for vehicles in the winter months, leading to more traffic on the remaining open roads, preventing safe access by emergency services, stopping social care workers visiting elderly members of the rural population and children going to and from school on local authority transport, and cutting off those who live in our rural settlements. As Councillor Patrick Redstone, who has long been campaigning for better gritting on Mow Cop, says, these roads are not mere “rat runs”; they are, as one of my constituents called them, arteries of the rural community. Will the Government review the current guidance for local authorities on winter gritting, with a view to strengthening local council obligations?
Another company in my constituency is SpanSet Ltd, which has been manufacturing there for over 50 years. This progressive international company wants to invest in solar energy generation at its factory site, but its plans have been halved by the local electricity network’s operators restrictions. The issue relates to the capacity of network infrastructure to receive back any excess energy generated. SpanSet is asking why, at a time when renewable energy generation and reducing energy imports are so important, the system disincentivises local network operators supporting companies that want to invest in green energy and even forces them to reduce or vetoes schemes. As this is a technical question, I ask the Minister responding to today’s debate to support my request for a meeting between SpanSet and someone from the Department for Business and Trade to discuss the matter further.
Next, I join constituents in objecting to the proposed closure of Congleton station’s ticket office. As one constituent writes:
“The service provided for all customers, especially the disabled, is essential for the safety of all”.
Another says:
“This is unacceptable as the ticket office is always busy—at times the queue can be outside the door—and the staff are very helpful.”
Last but by no means least, I have campaigned in this House for many years on family hubs, and I was delighted when the Government provided money for them across the country. I commend New Life church in Congleton for the holistic support it offers individuals and families, young and old—including a food bank, running parenting courses, providing job and benefits support, offering mental health support and much more. In the light of these services, New Life church should be recognised as a family hub, or at the very least as a spoke of a family hub. Some time ago, I took representatives from Cheshire East Council to New Life, and no one could fail to be impressed by the work that is going on with families. Since then, discussions have been ongoing for some time between Cheshire East Council officers and others for New Life to be formally recognised as at least a family hub spoke. May I use this debate to urge Cheshire East Council to make a decision, award funding to New Life and grant it spoke status?
Before I close, may I just put on record my deepest thanks to my parliamentary assistant Chloe Black? She has worked for me for many years and provided exemplary service, and I wish her all the best as she embarks on her new career as a geography teacher.
The priority now is making sure that we can get everything in place to meet the deadlines we have set. As a result, we will build the Borough market of the midlands in Melton Mowbray, as well as an entire new tourism offer within Rutland. We will build a medical hub, which will design the technologies of the future to support our loved ones to live for longer. That includes informing people when their elderly loved ones are dehydrated and need to be given tablets to swallow, or if they have had a heart attack or fallen down the stairs. That will attract medical talent to Rutland and give us first access to those technologies. We will finally build an older people’s medical technology hub in the UK.
In the long term, we need more beyond this immediate cash injection. I am talking about fair funding. I have touched on the need to insert social mobility, a core Conservative value, into the way we fund local government. I know it is unlikely that the funding formulas will get the overhaul this country needs, but I met the Chancellor yesterday and am working to see if we can get social mobility included alongside deprivation in the funding formula. That would better recognise that sometimes, in the most deprived areas in our country, people still have access to a jobcentre or to employment or training opportunities within a 10-minute walk. When you see rural poverty, Mr Deputy Speaker, it stays with you and you do not forget it, because those individuals may not have access to buses or petrol for their cars, nor the ability to go to shops or medical care or anything else. That is why I am fighting to put social mobility into our funding formulas.
On the streets of Rutland and Melton, the most common issue raised with me is healthcare. I am therefore delighted that the £1.5 million refurbishment of Rutland Memorial Hospital was completed in March—it is looking wonderful—and that the £450 million for Leicester hospitals is going ahead, but there is more to be done. I have secured agreement for the first MRI scanner ever to be positioned in Rutland, and I am now working to get the final funding put in place by the Government, so I am grateful to them. As part of that, I am working to get Medbourne GP practice reopened. We need it up and running and in that community spoke—it is important.
A wider concern that I have about healthcare in our area is that I have recently identified that access to community paediatricians is far below what it should be. In Melton, the maximum wait is 102 weeks, and in Rutland it is 106 weeks for a child to see a paediatrician to get support. That is not good enough, and I will be working to see what we can do.
On national healthcare, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) for meeting my constituent Phil Newby, who went to the High Court for the right to end his own life because of the appalling conditions in which he has to live. I was grateful to my hon. Friend for ensuring that private meeting, so that Phil could give evidence before he potentially loses the ability to speak.
I am also delighted that working with the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Dan Carden), who has become a good friend across the aisle, we have secured a right to protect the rights of loved ones to have visitors when they are in hospital, following my campaign during the pandemic to make sure that partners are never locked out again. I am delighted that we have secured that national change.
As a rural constituency, travel continues to be a major issue in Rutland and Melton, but after 40 years—some say 50 or 60 years—I have finally delivered the Melton Mowbray distributor road. The bypass is in the ground, the spades are there and it is being built. We are meeting deadline after deadline. People said it would never happen, but it is happening and people can see it all around them. It is such good news.
I am still working to secure more progress on the A1. It has one of the worst accident records in the UK. I have secured six substantial safety upgrades to the A1, all of which are now complete. I, too, suffered the pain of driving up and down as it was closed over the past few months, but we got the security and safety upgrades that we needed. I have also noticed a big uptick in littering and fly-tipping along the A1, which is deeply disappointing. I am pleased that we have secured the increase in fly-tipping fines that many of us have been fighting for. I hope those fines start to be used.
Turning to Bottesford in the north of my constituency, we have made some progress at the A52 junction. I know it is not enough, but we will be getting vehicle-activated speed signs early next year, and that is progress. I brought National Highways to Bottesford. It met my constituents, and I am disappointed that it is still not willing to do the full junction renovations that we need, but we are making progress.
On education, it has been a big year for Rutland. We have secured regeneration funding for 11 schools across my constituency and, following the biggest increase in funding for education announced the other day by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, we will now see £75 million put into education across Rutland and Melton, and that is absolutely right. I pay tribute to the staff and, in particular, the headteacher, Carl, at Casterton College. They recently saw an appalling incident where, following storms, much of the building collapsed. We had fortunately already secured it a place in the school rebuilding programme, and following that incident we have a timeline with delivery in 2025, which is fantastic news.
I was pleased to host my first annual parish and town council summits over the past year. They were a chance to hear from local communities and local people who know what local people want. As part of that, we have been fighting for funds from the community ownership fund. I am delighted that four out of four applications were successful in Rutland and Melton: the Black Horse at Grimston, the Barrowden village hall, the Bell at Frisby, which is doing amazingly, and the hub at Thurnby, where we broke ground a few months ago. It is fantastic to see local communities getting the investment they need to build community spaces.
While I am on communities, I will mention the amazing charity For Rutland. It raises funds every year to fund specialist advisers for our citizens advice bureau. Elizabeth Mills and Trish Ruddle are sweethearts of Rutland and absolute heroes. People book tickets over a year in advance for the For Rutland charity clothes sale, travelling from as far as Edinburgh and Cornwall to take part, so I thank them for all they do.
I will move quickly through my final points. I am delighted that in the Oakham Heights estate, we have finally managed to get residents on the board, and there will be a full handover of the estate to residents. We fought to make sure that local people had a say.
I continue my campaign against the Mallard Pass solar plant in my constituency, and the Government know that I will be tabling two new clauses to the Energy Bill: the first is to rip out Uyghur slave labour solar panels, and the second is to ensure that we do not build on the best and most versatile land of grade 3a and above, and that 3b land continues to be seen as such.
I turn to casework and the silent victories MPs have that few people ever hear about. My team and I have supported almost 6,000 residents since last September, receiving a staggering 13,000 emails, and I am delighted that we continue to have wins for people who come to us in their darkest days, when every other door has been closed in their face. I pay tribute in particular to my extraordinary senior caseworker, Lisa, who will fight and fight until she gets people the outcomes they deserve and makes their voices heard, and to Emma, who supports her and ran an incredible matching service for Ukrainian refugees last year, through which we helped over 400 families find a home here in the UK.
I reiterate my thanks to the entire House for its support in electing me as Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. It has been an enormous privilege and joy. It is so important to have the opportunity to bring forward important pieces of work, such as our recent report on hostage taking. We will soon publish reports on the Wagner network and our Indo-Pacific inquiry. I thank the Clerks of the Committee, Chris, Medha, Johnny, Sasha, Ken, Ashlee, Daniela, Lucy, Hannah, Clare, Toni and those I may have forgotten, as well as David Clark in the Speaker’s Office, who has been a steadfast support to me.
I also pay tribute to Alison and Ted and all the security team of the House, who are often forgotten but who have been incredibly helpful to me over the last year in the face of significant challenges. I thank them for all they do to keep the House safe, as well as Mr Speaker and his family.
I will wrap up by saying an enormous thank you to my team. Without them, I would be lost and would not have the joy that we sometimes forget to find in this role. These are people who stand by and truly believe in the communities we fight for and communities around the world such as those in the Balkans, Ukraine and beyond. I thank Lisa, Emma, Alex, Amelia and Harry, and I wish everyone a wonderful summer recess.
On a related matter, Hockley Primary School has also unfortunately been discovered to be suffering from RAAC. Having recently checked with the Academies Enterprise Trust, which runs the school, it is in the midst of a detailed engineering survey, assisted by the Department, to assess the extent of the problem. In the meantime, other AET schools in the Hockley area, including Plumberow and Greensward, have rallied round to provide alternative places for Hockley schoolchildren.
We await the results of the engineering survey with great interest, but I am doing everything I can in the meantime to facilitate the provision at least of temporary classrooms for the autumn term on the Hockley Primary School site itself. If that cannot be achieved—I very much hope it can—I will work with AET to ensure that there is some kind of plan B, perhaps continuing to use some of the nearby schools.
Thirdly, we have a very unfortunate situation in Wickford, whereby both the town’s main supermarkets are closed pending redevelopment, and the old market in Wickford High Street has had to close and is looking for an alternative venue. Many other Members wish to speak today, so to cut a very long story short, my Wickford constituents have been left facing something of a perfect storm regarding their ability to shop locally. I am doing everything I can to persuade Basildon Council to find a new site, even a temporary one, to allow Wickford market to reopen, and also to persuade Aldi, which is in the process of rebuilding and expanding its supermarket in Wickford, to keep to its ambitious timetable and make sure that the store is open before Christmas this year.
My Wickford constituents are also frustrated by the fact that Abellio Greater Anglia knocked down half their train station without having a proper plan to rebuild it. I have raised this issue with Abellio on multiple occasions, and I now understand it is close to submitting a planning application for a new station design to Basildon Council this summer, which would hopefully allow construction to begin sometime next year. It is important that Abellio keeps to that timetable, and I intend to remain very much on its case until it does so.
That leads me on to the related matter of ticket offices, not just in Wickford, but at all the other stations in my constituency. I fully intend to respond to the consultation about proposals to close ticket offices prior to the deadline next week, but suffice it to say at this juncture that I am opposed to the proposals, which are a mistake. The savings that might be generated from doing so are more than outweighed by the potential inconvenience for travellers, particularly those who are visually impaired or otherwise disabled. The other Monday morning when I was waiting on the platform at Rayleigh station, I even saw that—lo and behold—the ticket machine was not working. In short, I believe the game is not worth the candle. I very much hope that Ministers—including the rail Minister, who is a decent chap and to whom I spoke personally about this recently—and the train operators might yet be persuaded to reconsider.
Fourthly, I want to raise some issues relating to sheltered housing accommodation in my constituency. Some in the House with good memories might remember my previously referring to a sheltered housing scheme known as Sangster Court—also known as “Gangster Court”—in Rayleigh, run by Notting Hill Genesis. Such has been my frustration with NHG over the years that, in the last Sir David Amess summer Adjournment debate, on 21 July last year, I said in the House:
“I can only express the hope that Notting Hill Genesis will soon be overtaken by a larger and more professional housing association that will do a much better job for my constituents.”—[Official Report, 21 July 2022; Vol. 718, c. 1178.]
I was therefore delighted to receive a letter only yesterday from Mr Matthew Cornwall-Jones, the group director of assets and sustainability for NHG, confirming that it now intends to sell on the sheltered accommodation it currently owns in Essex, including in my Rayleigh and Wickford constituency. I am not sure whether that will be met with joyous rejoicing in Sangster Court, but it was certainly met with approval in my office yesterday. I very much hope we will be able to find another major social housing provider, such as perhaps Sanctuary, which has had its own issues but is now gradually improving, to take over NHG’s properties in Essex and run them more successfully.
In addition, I have had some dreadful experiences with a property management company called FirstPort, which manages a number of privately run sheltered housing facilities in my constituency. Ironically, as part of its branding, it claims to “prioritise customer service”—well, you could have fooled me! For instance, at King Georges Court in Rayleigh it took FirstPort more than seven months to fix a lift. Partly as a result, some very ill elderly residents had to be carried down flights of steps by ambulance paramedics, who were doing their best, because the lift was not working. I am glad to report to the House that the lift is now finally functioning again, but FirstPort could hardly have made a worse job of it if it had tried. The concept of any sense of urgency seems totally alien to it.
Furthermore, FirstPort runs another facility called Oak Lodge in Hockley, which I visited recently at the invitation of the residents, only to see a number of maintenance defects, including a back fence that was effectively falling down and had not been repaired despite multiple complaints by the residents. Incidentally, they were also upset by increases in their bills, especially their energy bills, which they regarded as completely disproportionate. FirstPort is particularly poor at replying to correspondence, including from Members of Parliament. I put on record today that I very much hope it will follow Notting Hill Genesis’s example and hand its homes over to someone more competent to run them. I do not know what the non-executive directors of FirstPort do all day, but holding the company’s executive directors properly to account does not exactly seem to be their top priority.
Fifthly, everyone who knew Sir David is well aware that he was a great animal lover, so it is partly in his memory that I am supporting the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation’s “The Crate Escape” campaign to phase out the use of cruel farrowing crates for sows and their piglets—and the sooner the better. Sir David was very keen on this issue, and I hope and believe that we will get there in the end.
Lastly, Mr Deputy Speaker, I take this opportunity to thank you, all our colleagues, all the staff of the House, my excellent Westminster team, Adele, Oliver, Felix and Mellissa, and all my supporters in my constituency. I hope they all have a relaxing summer recess and that we can all reassemble safely in the autumn. I thank the House.
I want to raise, briefly, two further issues. Another campaign that I have been running for about two years involves the waiting times faced by families seeking a diagnosis of either autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder from the West Berkshire child and adolescent mental health service. When I became the local MP, the waiting time was frequently as long as three years, and I heard heartbreaking stories about children who were unable to access the curriculum, or were experiencing serious social difficulties and in some instances were not even at school.
I think that every family in my constituency who is affected by that is well aware that I have been campaigning to bring waiting times down to a 12-month maximum. We have had a great deal of support from the Government: in 2021, West Berkshire CAMHS received an additional £1.6 million to reduce waiting times and, as a result, it was able, over time, to recruit 27 more healthcare professionals. It set itself a firm target of seeing all children seeking an autism diagnosis within two years by March this year. It is currently 96% of the way towards meeting that: only a handful of cases are taking longer than that. However, in the most recent phone call I received from the service, I was told that the 12-month target was still a challenge because of an 84% increase in the number of children being referred for autism diagnoses. At this stage, it is not clear to the service or to me why that is the case, but it will obviously require more attention. The present approach is to triage the children with the highest need so that they do not wait any longer than a year, but I am determined to drive down overall waiting times to a year for all those families. I will continue my campaign to achieve that and will seek assistance from Ministers as to how it can be done.
Finally, I want to say something about water quality. My area is covered by Thames Water, which has, I have to say, been working with me constructively since the implementation of the Environment Act 2021. Three chalk streams run through my constituency, and Thames Water pledged that this summer it would produce a waste- water management plan setting out how it would achieve an 80% reduction in the use of storm overflows into the chalk streams by 2030. That was a firm commitment.
While I was keen to work with the water company, I also wrote to Ofwat on 25 May asking whether it would consider tying bonus payments and shareholder dividends to environmental performance. I did not mean that in a discretionary sense. I suggested that, if any water company is fined for illegal discharges, it should be mandated that it does not pay bonuses to senior managers or dividends to shareholders and that, given that bankers lose their bonuses if they break the law, so should water company executives. I received an encouraging response from Ofwat, but it is not really a matter of dispute that Thames Water is in a state of flux, with the resignation of its chief executive officer, and we do not know what its future holds. I put it on the record that when Parliament returns I hope that we will have much greater clarity on the future of Thames Water, and that we can continue to work constructively, both through what I hope will be the publication of its wastewater management plan and through tougher sanctions implemented by Ofwat to ensure that we get there.
I move on to some news that I was sad to receive yesterday: the Environment Agency is about to issue an intention to approve the increase in the amount of waste that the incinerator in Beddington can burn. The incinerator was approved—championed, in fact—by the Liberal Democrats. I am not surprised that once again none of them could be bothered to turn up today. The Lib Dem-run council has again let down residents of Carshalton and Wallington regarding this monstrosity of an incinerator, which was forced on residents against their will. We were told at the time, “This will be it. No need to worry—of course it’s not going to burn more and more waste.” This extra capacity is not needed. It can burn the household waste from the four boroughs that it receives waste from at the moment absolutely fine without needing to increase capacity. I would like the Government to again look at the permit variation processes for incinerators. If the permitted amount of incineration in this country were built, we would have more than double the Government’s own estimated need for incineration. It is not conducive to our net zero ambitions. We need to look at why we have massive overcapacity in the planning system for incineration. I hope that the Government will continue to look at that in detail.
Next, I come to what is no doubt the issue of the hour in London, and in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election: ULEZ. We inner and outer London MPs bang on about ULEZ, but it is important to continue raising the issue. I cannot overstate the damage that ULEZ will do to businesses, to the poorest and to charities in my constituency, and across the whole of Greater London and outside it. I am thinking particularly of those constituencies in which people do not have the right to vote to get rid of the man who is imposing ULEZ on us: the Mayor of London. He has the audacity to say that people should get out of their cars and on to public transport, yet in my constituency he has scrapped the Go Sutton bus and the Tramlink extension. He has announced the new superloop—in my constituency, that is just a reannouncement of a bus route that has been there for over a decade. He has announced no new services whatsoever. There is nothing coming to help people make that transition to public transport; there is absolutely no support in place. In central London, he is cutting the historic No. 11 bus route, and the scrappage scheme has proved an absolute flop.
I welcome the fact that the Government have a very strong line on ULEZ, but we should continue to make it absolutely clear that it should not go ahead. I look forward to hearing the judgment of the judicial review, hopefully by the end of the month.
In the time left to me, I would quickly like to touch on education, an area of particular concern for my constituents. We have some of the best schools in the country; they feature in the top 10 schools for grade results every single year, and the teachers in my constituency do an absolutely fabulous job, day in, day out. I am absolutely thrilled that the Government have recognised that, and awarded a record funding increase of nearly £110 million to schools in Carshalton and Wallington. That is incredibly welcome.
In order to give all our young people the best start in life, could I encourage the Government to continue looking into the issue of childcare? The reforms that have been made are absolutely welcome, but there is certainly more to do. We on the Women and Equalities Committee can tell the Government that childcare issues adversely affect women in particular, as it is almost always women who bear the brunt of them. We hope that the Government will look to go further in their childcare reforms, but I welcome the efforts made so far.
I am delighted that my hon. Friend the Member for Newbury (Laura Farris) mentioned special educational needs in her speech. I join her in urging the Government to go further and faster with their ambitions to bring down waiting times for an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, because the waiting times are completely out of control. In my constituency, many families who cannot afford to are being forced to go private to get a diagnosis. Of course, under the Children and Families Act 2014, a diagnosis is supposedly not needed to get an education, health and care plan, but almost entirely, children are being refused EHCPs unless they have one. We are up against a brick wall, to be honest, when it comes to dealing with child and adolescent mental health services in my constituency. I am sure that it is the same across the country.
I know that the Government, and in particular the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes (Maria Caulfield), are grasping the issue with both hands, and are very keen to get it sorted. I welcome that, and I wish the Under-Secretary every success, but I hope that the Government can come back to us in the autumn with a more fleshed-out action plan for getting waiting times down, and allowing children to fulfil their potential.
I want to touch on policing, as I am sure many colleagues will. Historically, my quiet corner of south London has been known as one of the safer boroughs of London. The London Boroughs of Sutton and of Richmond upon Thames are often in competition with each other to be the safest London borough to live in. However, post pandemic, there seems to have been a concerning increase in what some might view as low-level crime, but it is truly worrying to the people who experience it. I cannot begin to say how many times, as I am scrolling on Facebook or Nextdoor in particular, I see Ring doorbell footage of people going up and down residential streets at night, trying car doors and front doors—not always with success, but their doings are often linked to crimes elsewhere in the area.
I welcome that the Met has now changed its approach and agreed to attend every single call-out for burglary, for example. That has resulted in several thousand additional arrests in London for this crime and that is to be welcomed. I hope that the Home Secretary will be able to reiterate our ambition to bring down crime. I am very supportive of the Met’s action plan for London, but we do need a police and crime commissioner for London who gets that and wants to tackle that. We do not have that with our current Mayor, so I sincerely hope that Londoners will see fit to get rid of this failing Mayor in a year’s time.
Let me finish up on the NHS. As someone who has worked in the NHS, who was born at St Helier Hospital in south London, and whose life was saved not once but twice by the staff at St Helier, I thank the Government—truly—and say how grateful I am that they have listened to NHS staff and agreed that St Helier Hospital not only has to stay, but needs that additional investment to improve the hospital, because it is in a dire state of disrepair at the moment. That has now been delivered. On top of that, there is an agreement to deliver a second hospital in Sutton, to protect A&E and maternity in the London Borough of Sutton and also to increase the amount of services that our local NHS provides, including, importantly, introducing cancer surgery. This is as a result of a brand-new partnership with the Royal Marsden Hospital, which we are so lucky to have in Sutton. This means that cancer patients living in Sutton will no longer have to go to Chelsea to get their cancer surgery. This is fantastic news for local patients and I commend the Government for doing that. We look forward to seeing some enabling works taking place this year, and to getting spades in the ground very shortly.
Finally, I echo the calls to thank our staff who put up with so much. They are often on the frontline, dealing with all of the abuse and all of the casework that comes in. They truly are to be commended for what they do. I thank Andy, Harry, Dan, Erik, Jo, Lynne, Max and Archie, who are my amazing team and who do so much to support me. They are just as dedicated to Carshalton and Wallington, and I really want to wish them all the best for the summer recess as well. Thank you very much for your time, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I thank the staff of the House for everything they do for us. I wish everyone a happy summer.
I am delighted that a permanent location at Brunswick Street has been chosen for the Darlington economic campus, where more than 80% of the new jobs that have come to Darlington are going to local people from the region, allowing people to stay local but go far.
Connectivity in Darlington is not just about the railways, and I continue to press on several important transport issues for my constituents. Pushing for a northern link road between junction 59 on the A1 and Great Burdon on the A66 to alleviate the congestion faced by constituents in the north of Darlington is high on my agenda. I am delighted to see the Chamber so full for this debate, because immediately after it I will be presenting a petition on car parking charges in Darlington. I encourage Members to stay for that. We have also faced serious issues with buses, and I continue to press Arriva to maintain its current services in Darlington, on which some of the most vulnerable people in my community depend.
Everyone deserves to feel safe in their communities, and I have done much work in this place to ensure that is the case in Darlington. We have secured more than £1 million from the safer streets fund, which is having a huge impact on making our town centre safer. As a town with a thriving night time economy, that is of great importance. Part of that funding was used to open Number Forty, on Skinnergate, which provides a safe space for people on a night out.
Off-road bikes have long been a cause for concern in Darlington, and I have raised the issue many times in the House. I praise Durham constabulary’s Operation Endurance, which is focused on tackling the scourge of off-road bikes. I am pleased to say that it is starting to have an appreciable impact, but I will continue to campaign for further steps to tackle the problem in Darlington. As part of that we must improve 101 response times—something I am pleased that Rob Potts, the Conservative candidate for Durham police and crime commissioner, has committed to. I look forward to campaigning with him to help deliver vital improvements.
Education is our silver bullet to ensure that every child has the best start in life and is able to achieve their full potential. I welcome the Government’s decision to offer teachers a 6.5% pay rise. The announcement of a new special school for Darlington will be hugely beneficial. The additional provision of 48 places for children with special educational needs in Darlington is much needed.
My reading lobster, Seb, has had a busy year meeting many parliamentarians, including the Prime Minister and Mr Speaker himself. The Skerne Park Academy reading lobster scheme is hugely admirable, helping to inspire a lifelong love of reading in children.
Darlington College is now delivering T-levels, and I was delighted to be at the opening of the brand-new engineering block, the Ingenium centre, along with the Secretary of State for Education. The centre has been delivered with £2.96 million of funding that we secured from the towns fund. Such new opportunities for local people in Darlington will enable them to fully reach their potential and find good, well-paid and secure employment into the future.
I have almost completed at least one visit to every school in Darlington—I have visited some of them many times—and I look forward to visiting the last two remaining on the list in September. In a similar vein, I continue to make progress on my visits to all faith establishments across the town.
I have a long connection to the hospice sector— I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests—having served as a trustee for a hospice in Northallerton for more than a decade. As co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on hospice and end of life care, I have had the platform to raise the concerns of this vital sector over the past few months. I have been pleased to bring together all the Tees valley MPs on a cross-party basis to stand up for our Tees valley hospices and call on our local integrated care board to properly fund them. I will always continue to push for further support and recognition of these important organisations, such as St Teresa’s in Darlington, which do so much good work.
Monday marked 10 years since we legalised same-sex marriages. We should be incredibly proud of the progress we have made and how far we have come on LGBT equality. I welcome the progress that we have been making towards our ambition to end new HIV transmissions by 2030. Rolling out opt-out testing to areas of high prevalence would be a huge boon in our fight against the virus, and I again call on the Government to make that happen. It would be a win-win—for public health and the public purse.
I very much welcome this week’s publication of the Etherton review and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister’s apology from the Dispatch Box yesterday. I also call on the Government to bring forward swiftly a trans-inclusive conversion therapy ban, for which we have been waiting far too long. We must stamp out this form of abuse.
Finally, I thank staff across the House and all my team for all that they do. I wish everyone a happy recess.