Last week ended with a party last Sunday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Newton Press at their offices in Aycliffe Business Park. This is a true family business that continues to follow the ethos of the founder Syd Howarth. I am sure he would be very proud of how Chris, Paul, Stu and the team continue to be such an important part of our community. It was good to see a number of friends there and many thanks go to everyone involved.
The week had started on Monday with me travelling to London, as usual, on the Hitachi built Azuma train. Considering the distance I commute to Westminster I always feel lucky that I can normally get door to door in around 3 hours. Definitely better than driving which would take twice as long. Once there, my week started with the London team before a Teams call with Durham County Council officers on a couple of issues. I then headed into the Chamber and was able to get the defence ministers to congratulate Newton Aycliffe’s Bill Cooksey for his efforts in the Great North Run. I then went to a dinner at the RAF Club, hosted by the Armed Forces All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), of which I am a a member. As you would expect, our Bill was definitely in the conversation, the guest of honour was Air Vice Marshall, Tim Jones, who is Assistant Chief of the Air Staff who passed on his personal congratulations for Bill.
Tuesday started with a back bench discussion on devolution before some time with my team and then the usual opportunities to drop in on groups promoting their interests. This week included the Women’s Institutes work on rivers. I had a meeting with the Northern Research Group discussing our plans for the Conservative Conference at the end of the month. Later I had the privilege of joining Veterans at No 10 Downing Street to celebrate their service with Ministers – this included Joe Jordan and Philip Reynolds who are establishing the Veterans Skills Academy in Newton Aycliffe. The usual Transport Select Committee planning meeting, ready for Wednesday, followed. That evening I joined a round table with Barclays where we discussed many things including where they thought the economy was heading, they were more optimistic than I anticipated, and also bank closures. My suggestion to them was that rather than get to the last bank, before a Banking Hub is initiated, why can’t they do it at the penultimate branch and give the public more comfort.
Early start in Westminster on Wednesday to meet our Farmers at the NFU Farming Breakfast meeting to promote British Farming week. From there it was straight to the Transport Select Committee which was also starting early due to a full agenda. We had the Closure of Ticket Offices as our agenda and had many different witnesses. These included leaders of the Train Operating Companies, Union Leaders, as well as representatives of many passenger groups. It was then off to a meeting with the Chancellor before going to Prime Minister’s Questions. Then a busy afternoon started with the Treasury team weekly meeting before some drop ins, these were for Macmillan re Cancer Support, Suicide Prevention Week and a report launch on Coeliac disease. I also fitted in the joint meeting between myself and Peter Gibson, MP for Darlington, with the leadership of Darlington Borough Council. This is both the political and officials and was the first time since Darlington Council went back to Labour control, which has taken some organising. Wednesday also saw a reception hosted by Hitachi UK for many of their own divisions as well as trading partners and others. I have many productive meetings with the Hitachi team and it was a pleasure to catch up with the team again and to appreciate the many different pieces of the Hitachi UK operations.
Then it was a late evening train out to Shrivenham ready to spend Thursday and Friday at the National Defence Academy to receive insights into military structures, operations and decision making processes. It was a very valuable couple of days, after which it was the 5 hour train journey home. Next week starts with Questions to the Home Office but is only sitting for 2 days, as we enter conference recess, so I will be able to spend lots of time in the constituency and we will have a number of surgeries. If you want us for anything, call Aycliffe 790580 or email Paul.Howell.MP@Parliament.UK