Out & About

On Sunday Mark and his family joined Parish Council Chairman Douglas Godwin and many other Rock residents to tidy up the district. Starting at Rock village hall, the local ‘Big Tidy Up’ concentrated on the rural lanes around the village where litter is thrown from car windows. 

The big event this week is the Conservative Conference in Manchester. This afternoon, Mark Garnier contributed to an important fringe debate about the importance of prevention being better than cure. Despite having a background in medicine limited to just being a patient, Mark was able to use his economics and business background to talk through the important issues that investment now in preventative medicine will produce savings in both treatment and social costs later.

Mark Garnier spent an afternoon meeting with Kidderminster Town Centre Manager Jackie Roberts to learn more about what is happening with Kidderminster's retail economy. The good news is: its OK. Whilst some town centres across the country are seeing 25% vacancy rates, Kidderminster is currently just below 10% and that is a credit to the team that have been running the town.

The opening event for the Kidderminster Arts Festival was the Town Crier Competition, with six town criers from around the region competing with each other over judging classes such as clarity, loudness, confidence and partner’s attire.