This week Parliament continued with the debate on the Queen’s Speech, I was able to contribute last Wednesday and raised the importance of jobs and how they create opportunity which in turn can feed aspirations, a key attribute we all need to improve our situations.
On Thursday you may have seen that the Prime Minister visited Ferryhill along with Julia Gillard, who was the Australian Prime Minister from 2010-2013. They were there to meet virtually with Uhuru Kenyatta, the President of Kenya, who was in a school in Nairobi. School children from Ferryhill and Kenya shared the announcement of funding to support girls to get 12 years of quality education. It was fabulous to see the excitement from the children seeing Boris in their school and his engagement with them was also lovely to see. After we left Cleves Cross Primary, I took the Prime Minister to meet a couple of my staff and Joe Quinn, the new Conservative County Councillor in Ferryhill, to Ferryhill Station. We were able to show him the importance of the potential reopening of the train station here and explain how game changing it would be for the local economy.
I continued the theme of schools on Friday and had a fantastic few hours visiting Byerley Park and Walworth Primary Schools in Newton Aycliffe and Sedgefield Primary School. The schools admirably demonstrated the achievements made in sport and activities. Hannah, Layla, Dominic, Evie, Ruby and Harry from Byerley Park Primary School explained to me how their activities worked and how they had Captain Taskivator giving them challenges and indeed they then designed some challenges themselves. At Walworth School I met Paul from Go Well (aka Captain Taskivator) and they had a Colour Run in progress, this is something to behold, as is mentioned elsewhere in this magazine. Maybe once social distancing ends, I could encourage some of the Aycliffe Councillors to join me to try this! At Sedgefield Primary School I also met with Sarah Price, the Manager of the Go Well Team, a Community Interest Company (Not for Profit) who are working across the Sedgefield constituency to inspire and build healthy active futures.
Last week I also joined a round table discussion entitled ‘Pride of place: building social infrastructure in left behind areas’. This had Lord Greenhalgh, Lord Heseltine and Professor Michael Kenny as key speakers. The discussion was around how to restore civic pride and engagement in so called ‘Left Behind’ areas.
Monday, of course, has seen the further relaxation of lockdown with indoor hospitality opening for small groups. I am sure that, like me, many of you may have ventured out for a pint or a meal with friends. If you do, please be sensible and remember Hands, Face, Space and Fresh Air is something to continue as it helps minimise any risks of having to return to further lockdowns. We have also seen some pockets of concern around the country with the Indian Variant, so called as it was first identified in India. The Government is attacking this with surge testing, in the short term this is more effective than more vaccinations as the vaccines take a couple of weeks to become fully effective. My understanding is that of those affected a disproportionate amount are people who have had the opportunity for vaccine but declined it. This just further illustrates how important it is to take up your opportunity when you get it and to also follow through with the second jab when it is due.
We are continuing to collect the Town Centre surveys and will let you know the results shortly. I notice we had a letter in last week suggesting I should not be looking to invest in the Town Centre as I would be supporting a private business. Let me assure everyone that anything we do will be fully transparent and an appropriate use of public funds. At this stage, all I am trying to establish is what people would like us to try and achieve.
Please remember to continue to be sensible and whilst we can do more, common sense tells you that it is best to continue the Hands, Face, Space and Fresh Air protocols for a while yet. Stay Safe.
Paul Howell
Member of Parliament for Sedgefield
