The final ball for Wyre Forest’s civic year was the Bewdley Mayor’s Ball at the Bewdley Ramada. Cllr Barbara Stallwood and her husband Mark held a tremendous evening celebrating the success of her year as Mayor.
Mark Garnier was a guest of Stourport resident John Dover at the HQ of Care Farm UK at Holt, south of Stourport on Severn. Care Farm UK is an organisation that seeks to help individuals find stability in their lives through activities surrounding farming. People who have been helped include recovering drug users, rehabilitating offenders, mental health patients, people with special educational needs and newly retired ex service personnel, as well as many others who benefit from being given the responsibility of nurturing crops and animal husbandry.
Every year Kidderminster College awards its outstanding students at an awards ceremony to challenge the Oscars. Mark, as a governor of Kidderminster College, regularly attends these evenings and this was no exception.
Mark Garnier was joined by Conservative MEP Malcolm Harbour and other local activists to gather signatures calling for a referendum on the EU Constitution. The petition was signed by many local residents, angry at the Government’s manifesto U-turn to hold a referendum on the crucial Lisbon Treaty – a document that changes Britain’s relationship with the EU.
Cllr Marcus Hart, together with his Mayoress and fiancé Abby, celebrated the end of his year as Kidderminster’s youngest Mayor with an excellent evening at the Gainsborough hotel. Mark and Caroline Garnier came along to help with the celebrations, donating a bottle of House of Commons whiskey signed by Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague to help raise money for the Mayor’s charities.
Wyre Forest learners are taking a second hit from the Government. Coming shortly after 40 Wyre Forest driving instructors, learners and parents took a 1,300 name petition to 10 Downing Street, appealing against the closure of Kidderminster’s driving test centre, the Government has today hit Wyre Forest yet again. The Government has announced increases in the cost of driving tests by an average of almost 20 percent for drivers and motorcyclists.
The Learning and Skills Council has recently announced that it will be freezing its capital programme. This means that 144 projects across the country, given ‘in principle’ approval, will be put on hold. For Worcestershire this means that no projects at all will go ahead at the moment; for Kidderminster, it means there is uncertainty over the Sladen School redevelopment.
40 Wyre Forest Driving Instructors Deliver Petition to Gordon Brown. The campaign to save Kidderminster driving test centre was taken to the very highest level today when 40 local driving instructors went to 10 Downing Street.
Mark Garnier and Kidderminster Mayor Marcus Hart were amongst a group jailed by Kemp Hospice. The only way to be released was to raise bail. Mark and Marcus between them raised over £1,000 and the whole event raised over £5,000 for Kemp Hospice. The bail money was delivered by Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Andrew Mitchell MP, who was visiting the town at the invitation of Mark to meet with local Fairtrade representatives.
Mark Garnier, Wyre Forest’s Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, today launched a Repossession Advice Pack with practical advice for homeowners across Wyre Forestworried about meeting their mortgage repayments. The Pack gives step-by-step advice to households who fear that they may not be able to keep up their monthly mortgage payments, and tells people how to avoid making their situation worse. It can be downloaded from here (PDF file).
