Westminster Week
Posted by Kitty Ussher, MP for Burnley, at 11:21, Mon 24 September 2007:
Dear Friend,
A big man, with a big heart, who has left big shoes that will be impossible to fill”. These were the words of the Rev Philip Chew of St Stephens Church in Oxford Road, Burnley Wood at the funeral of Brian Fenn, much loved father, grandfather and strident campaigner for his local community. I couldn’t agree more. I had huge respect for the man, for his dedication and hard work and the depth with which he cared about his community and his country. I had hoped he would be a candidate in the council elections next year; his contribution to the town that he loved would have been invaluable. His funeral was a moving occasion and he will be sorely missed.
By co-incidence it was back to Burnley Wood that afternoon for a one-off surgery at the Terracefields Development Trust. A number of local residents came to see me concerned that they did not know what would be happening to their properties in the future. I find it heartbreaking that people are delaying essential maintenance to their homes because they don’t know what the council’s plans are, and I urge the council to give as much long-term certainty as soon as possible.
This week we launched our school Christmas card competition. As last year, the winning design will be used on my official MP card that gets sent all over the world as well as to the prime minister and hundreds of people in Burnley. This is a real opportunity to showcase the talent of our young people and I encourage all our schools to send in lots of entries. We also accept individual entries on the form printed in today’s Burnley Express.
After a busy surgery in Colne Road on Saturday I visited the new “Nisa” mini-supermarket that’s set up in Duke Bar. They were celebrating their opening and I passed by to congratulate them, and used the opportunity to get the shopping done at the same time. I then had a few house calls to make whilst being constantly interrupted with goal updates by my husband who had gone to the Blackpool match at Turf Moor. We ended up joining the celebrations at the United Reform Church on Bethesda Street in the town centre for the ordination of their new minister, Liz Jowett. It was good to be able to welcome her personally to the town and I look forward to our work together.
On Sunday it was off to Ightenhill for their annual summer fair, which managed to avoid being rained off despite the dire forecasts. Congratulations to the organisers on a great event. My daughter had fun on the kids rides and bouncy castle while I declined, for the second time this year, the kind invitation of the BNP to go in their village stocks and get pelted with tomatoes.
On Monday I got recalled back to London at short notice to support the Chancellor in his work calming public fears over effect on the UK banks of fall-out from the difficult housing market in America. The issue is that the upheaval in America has reduced confidence in the system as a whole, stopping banks lending to each other in the usual way. This eventually prevented Northern Rock accessing the routine financing it was used to getting so it turned to the Bank of England to fill the gap. The effect was to ensure the company could continue its business as usual but to put matters beyond doubt, the Chancellor then confirmed on Monday that the government would be guaranteeing deposits in the bank.
I should be back in the constituency at the end of the week for my surgeries after Labour Party conference, so see you then.
Kind Regards,
Kitty Ussher MP
6 ways to contact Kitty Ussher MP
Write to: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA or 2 Victoria Street, Burnley BB11 1DD Phone: 01282 450840 Fax: 01282 839623 By email: ussherk@parliament.uk On-line: www.kittyussher.com In person: Next surgeries are Friday 28th September - 3.30pm - 5.00pm The Enterprise Centre, Valley Street (off Rossendale Road) and Saturday 29th September 10am - 12am Asda, Princess Way.
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