This is a great time of year for MPs to spend uninterrupted time at home in their constituencies and, although the weather hasn’t been the best, it’s a good time to catch up with people, spend more time with the family and catch up with local projects and issues.
Many thanks to Historic England for joining me in Chard to view the historic town centre works which they have helped execute with nationally led funding. The High Street Heritage Action Zone (HSHAZ) is delivering a total investment of £2,484,235 into Chard town centre, improving public spaces, repairing historic buildings and shopfronts, and supporting community engagement. Being an attractive destination is increasingly important for our town centres and local businesses and this is a really worthwhile scheme.
It was also great to be back in Ilminster to catch up at the Arts Centre and some local businesses, as well as a meeting about the Letters to Tomorrow project from the Great Big Green Week in June. I’m looking forward to some more interesting and hopefully useful local meetings in the coming days and weeks.
One area that is less positive at the moment is the reliability of our Royal Mail service, about which I have received lots of complaints. It seems that there are problems locally and work is being done to resolve them but there are minimum service obligations that have to be met and I am in touch with central Government to see what support can be given, and potentially other measures taken, to ensure that things are remedied swiftly. I have also written to Royal Mail and Ofcom on this issue as we need action fast. We also need to make sure that disabled access is restored to the branch in Yeovil as currently the Council works are affecting that.
I received confirmation last week that a new stand-alone Community Diagnostic Centre will open adjacent to Yeovil District Hospital as part of Government and NHS plans to reduce waiting times, increase early diagnoses and work through the Covid backlog. It will open fully in 2024 with state-of-the-art equipment to deliver CT, MRI, ultrasound, X-ray, echocardiography, cardiology, respiratory, pathology and endoscopy tests and scans. This is brilliant news and will take some pressure off GPs and acute care facilities as well as improving outcomes. We still need to do more on GP availability but this is good news and the centre will open next year.
Finally, it has been another great week for women’s sport which has such a positive effect on girls growing up as well as everyone who enjoys watching England do well. The Lionesses face Columbia in the quarter final on Saturday and our netball team secured a historic silver in their World Cup. They will be helping to inspire the next generation and long may it continue.
My offices in Yeovil and Westminster remain open throughout the summer. Do get in touch if you would like to have your say on any of the above, to book an appointment at one of my regular advice surgeries or see if I can help with a local issue by emailing [email protected] or call my office on 01935 314321.
