I was away for a few days last week, but I was able to have the leader of the House, Mark Spencer MP, and the Rail Minister, Wendy Morton MP, join local Councillors, including David Sutton-Lloyd and Tony Stubbs from Aycliffe and Joe Quinn from Ferryhill, in a visit to the site of Ferryhill Railway Station. This is a key focus for me as I would like to see this station back as a passenger station, it would initially form a link into Teesside, potentially also with a stop at Sedgefield. This would link communities to job opportunities. It would also be the first station on the old Leamside line route and will add weight to the agenda to open it up further. Having these two senior ministers visit creates further support to the efforts that are ongoing and increases my optimism that this will be delivered.
On Saturday I had the pleasure of joining the Newton Aycliffe Dog Training Club for their open day. Phil Atkinson and his team at BTS Fabrications have been kind enough to allow them the use of some of their land near the factory and the club put time and effort into making the space fit for their needs. The day was to promote the club and its activities, and I was delighted to perform an opening ceremony along with the Deputy Mayor of Great Aycliffe, Councillor Neville Jones and Councillor Joanne Jones. I applaud them for their efforts and wish them well. I went on to a Kids Fun Day at the Flintlock in Cornforth; called at Ferryhill to see Ferryhill Athletic starting their home season before popping into Moore Lane to see the end of the first innings of the cricket. Many congratulations to the team for securing their place in the league.
After the Bank Holiday it was back to the office to catch up with casework and plan our work for the new session in Westminster. We also had a number of visits, including to two incredible businesses based on NETPark near Sedgefield, one that is active in the alternate semiconductor market, this involves making semiconductors from material other than silica. They are expanding significantly and investing in a new facility near Durham to complement their operations in Sedgefield, Cambridge and elsewhere. The other is working on heat storage solutions that could be very significant in addressing some of the supply frustrations arising from renewable energy. I always find it exhilarating that we have such innovative businesses right here in Sedgefield that can provide great solutions for our challenges and amazing careers for our young people.
I also made a trip to visit the North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) at their call centre in Wynyard. The service has invested significantly and is producing some great results. It was interesting to see how they structure their response to callers. They are currently recruiting, and you do not necessarily require a medical background for some of the roles. If you are interested, you can check them out – https://www.neas.nhs.uk/careers.aspx
Of course, the biggest issue for the service is response times and, as we all know, this is mainly driven by the time to despatch into hospitals which in turn is mainly driven by the issues hospitals have in discharging patients, particularly into care. I will continue to raise the need for a solution to the Health Secretary of State and his team. As you know I met with a constituent last week with some suggestions and these will be forwarded when we return to Westminster next week after recess.
On Wednesday I am also scheduled to visit the Treasury team at the Darlington Economic Campus for a briefing on what work has been relocated to here from Whitehall. I continue to share with the Chancellor the problems of the businesses and constituents and, as stated before, his role is to have the Treasury team working full throttle to have fully informed options available to the new PM in September.
As always, if you want to contact me, please give us a call on 01325 790580 or email me at paul.howell.mp@parliament.uk