Recess week started with meeting the Police and Crime Commissioners team to discuss options re Anti Social Behaviour, whilst there is a lot of effort going in from everyone we desperately need to see more results. Without in any way saying that we don’t have a problem, because we do, I still thought that the recent articles in the Northern Echo were disappointing and showed our town in a much worse light than it actually is. A number of the incidents referenced were not current and were used purely for journalistic exaggeration. I also met with our Neighbourhood Inspector and would like to thank her and all her team for not only their application but their attitude which is first class and I applaud their efforts. I support their frustrations in the way the legal process works with excessive paperwork and in my opinion undue leniency and I have written to Dominic Raab, the Secretary of State for Justice, to say so.
I also had a call with the Student Loan Company in Darlington who shared with me details of their work but also of the great career opportunities they have available, please get in touch if you have an interest. For the first time since being elected I was able to visit my Rotary Club where I spoke on how Parliament works, it was a pleasure to meet people I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic and I hope you are all starting to have similar experiences. I also took the opportunity to have a team meeting between my London and Sedgefield based staff, in our Aycliffe office, this was the first time some of them have met physically and it was a pleasure to take them for lunch at The County where the food and service was, as usual, fabulous and it was lovely to see them busy. After the London team left I went to the fabulous organisation that is Treetops Occupational Therapy. It was an absolute privilege to meet the team led by Fizzwig and Dawn. I finished the day meeting the team at Teesside Airport, the developments there continue apace.
On Thursday I was interviewed by ITV Tyne Tees with regard to the travesty that was the Post Office Horizon scandal. As I have said before, I serve on the BEIS Select Committee and we have just produced a report with recommendations for Government and the Post Office on how important the victims of this are fully compensated. I then visited Gestamp to meet their senior management and had a very positive engagement. I should have been joined by the Minister for Exports but unfortunately due to Storm Dudley his train didn’t leave London. He has undertaken to reschedule as soon as possible.
Friday was an incredible day, I started at the Veterans Hub by making a hook with a visiting blacksmith and would remind you of their café facilities where all are welcome. If you get chance, call in for a snack and see the goods in their shop. I left there to join a meeting of businesses at NETPark in Sedgefield to listen to how the elements of the Levelling Up agenda should be employed best for us in the north east. One of the biggest messages was about support for education and careers as they have some fantastic opportunities developing and need people to fill them. I left them in time to visit II IV back on the Aycliffe Industrial Estate, another business that is growing and investing in our region. I finished the day with a visit to the team at the Job Centre Plus in the town centre. They are an incredible bunch of people that like nothing better than getting people into jobs. They are achieving fantastic results and indeed are one of the best teams in the Kickstart scheme. They are also seeing ever improving results for all areas including longer term unemployed. I can only thank them for all they do, some of the connections they are able to make between people and jobs have been truly life changing.
The weekend saw me at Ferryhill as there is a by-election next week before going to Sedgefield to visit a shop that had suffered with break-ins and ASB before calling at a local farm and then meeting Sharon and Ryan to discuss Youth Football opportunities. Sunday saw me head back to London ready for Westminster on Monday. This week the focus has been on two key agendas, being Covid restrictions and the Ukraine. It is fantastic that we are in a position to remove the Covid restrictions and take another step towards a more normal life. For this we must thank all those involved in the creation and roll out of the amazing vaccine programme and of course all those that did the right thing and got jabbed. The big worry this week is the extremely worrying developments in the Ukraine where it is clear that President Putin has started an invasion. I fully support the sanctions being imposed on Russia and hope against hope that this will encourage Putin to reverse his actions, I am not that hopeful and anticipate more needing to be done before anything improves.
I hope that you all did not suffer too badly with the storms that passed through last week and we start to see some better weather soon.
Paul Howell, Member of Parliament for Sedgefield