Last week, the new chief executive of NHS England published his report on the state of the NHS and its long term future. It was a welcome report. It concludes that the NHS has improved dramatically in the last few years – the truly shocking spectacle of patients in Mid Staffordshire having to drink water from a flower vase and being neglected in their own filth just over five years ago is something that can never be allowed to happen again and it is right that we have come a long way from the previous situation. But the report also says the NHS can have a better future and that more money spent on improved treatments, and responding to the ageing population, is crucial. Some of this extra spend can come as a result of more efficiencies and slashing unnecessary waste; it can also come as a result of NHS trusts collecting money owed to them by foreign health authorities as a result of foreigners receiving treatment.
Mark Garnier is delighted that 9 projects in Wyre Forest have been awarded grants since April 2014 Over the past decade the Big Lottery Fund have awarded nearly £6 billion to projects of all sizes. The funding is an excellent resource to charities and community groups and helps them to make a real impact in the community.
As I knock on people’s doors and chat to people in the street, the issue of immigration and our EU membership comes up the whole time. On EU membership, they ask why we can’t have a referendum right now. The answer is simple.
New proposals aim to enhance emergency response Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest’s MP, today met with Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service (HWFR) chief Mark Yates. The meeting was arranged in response to the recent announcement of proposed changes to the provision of emergency services in Wyre Forest.
There has been a lot of hyperbole spoken in the last few days about seismic shifts in the political landscape. Rightly so: the first elected MP of any party is a big deal – Richard Taylor here in Wyre Forest, George Galloway for Respect, Caroline Lucas for the Green Party; all are representatives of political parties not seen in Parliament before. It is the same for UKIP, Twenty years after it started as a party campaigning for our exit from the EU. Douglas Carswell campaigned on his track record as a constituency MP to get re-elected with a significant majority. But the really stunning result was the by-election in Manchester where UKIP came second to Labour by just 600 votes.
Mark Garnier MP is pleased with latest figures which show another fall in unemployment Wyre Forest Figures released today by the Office for National Statistics show that the number of unemployed claimants in Wyre Forest in September was 1,107 which represents 2.4% of the economically active population.
The party conference season is slowly trundling to a close, and not before time, I hear many people say! But this season is more important than most. Next year is a general election year and the parties are putting forward how they will behave in government. This time, however, whilst the Conservatives and Labour are proposing what they will do as the government, the Liberal Democrats are talking about how they will behave as a coalition partner; what they will do to stop the larger parties (with maybe 8 times the electoral support of the Lib Dems) putting forward their manifestos as promised in the election and as voted for by the electorate. IN that respect, this will be a very different election.
Mark Garnier MP has welcomed figures showing a significant fall in crime Figures released by the North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership (NWCSP) show that there were 952 fewer offences last year recorded across Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest. The biggest reduction was crime relating to the night time economy. There was also a decrease in the number of people who thought that anti-social behaviour was a problem in their area.
Mark Garnier MP invited the Big Lottery to come to Wyre Forest to meet with local charities, schools and parish and town clerks on Tuesday 7th October at St George’s Hall, Bewdley. Representatives from the Big Lottery Fund did a workshop providing over 50 local bodies with the confidence and necessary tools to be able to apply for the Awards for All grant. This grant is available to voluntary and community groups and charities, charitable or not for profit organisations, parish and town councils and is between £300 and £10,000.
Wyre Forest MP is delighted that the Greater Birmingham & Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) has successfully bid to establish the National College for High Speed Rail in Birmingham Birmingham’s status as a centre of excellence for rail engineering has been secured. Birmingham will be the home of the governing board which will be established to oversee the development of the college. The project will be shared between Birmingham and Doncaster.
