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Email from Anne Snelgrove MP

Posted by Anne Snelgrove, MP for South Swindon, at 01:23, Thu 2 February 2006:

A very happy New Year to all constituents and supporters and thank you for signing up to hear from me.

Swindon has many challenges to face in the year ahead – although I would prefer to see them as opportunities for renewed prosperity and improvement in opportunities and quality of life for residents. Since my election in May, I have taken up many issues and will be working hard this year for progress. My promotion to Parliamentary Private Secretary within six months of election in May was a great surprise and has meant a lot of extra work but it has also enabled me to be very directly involved with the reorganisation of local Health Services in Swindon, which has been controversial. At the beginning of the year I spent a day shadowing the Chair of a local Primary Care Trust to gain more experience of this incredibly important local service.

It was great to welcome the Prime Minister to Swindon to launch the Respect Action Plan. The people who met the PM were impressed with his commitment and genuine concern for those who suffer from antisocial behaviour. Our own Bob Wright, who is a local party member and has been working on community issues in Central Ward, asked Tony whether the process of taking action on asbos can be made quicker and easier so that local residents can protect their communities. The answer, he was pleased to learn, is that the new plans will make it quicker and easier. Local headlines about people whose lives had been turned around by having an anti-social behaviour order or a parenting order served on them, made the case for swift and positive action. We were all pleased to read that one Swindon woman claimed that Tony Blair had made her a better parent and although the other parties relentlessly attack these measures, it showed that they do work. The Respect plan is not just about coming down hard on people who make life difficult for others; there are measures to support families under pressure and extra money to provide activities for young people. Please contact me if you would like more details.

The plans for the new Science Museum are very exciting and I will attended a 'stakeholder meeting' at the Council on 4th January to discuss these. I have also been in touch with the Minister for Culture, David Lammy, and was delighted by his positive response. David is one of the youngest Ministers in government and is known for his energetic approach. To have his support is great. I will continue to work on this and will press him to come and visit the site this year.

This year I would also like to see the town's art collection get the prominence it deserves. It has been called the best collection of modern art outside London but at present it is one of Swindon's best kept secrets and a lot of the work is in storage.

One of the issues for local people in 2005 was the development plans for the County Ground. Whilst I would like to see Swindon's Football Club re-invigorated and the opportunity taken for regeneration of the area, problems of parking, traffic and the preservation of green space must be addressed to the satisfaction of residents in the area.

Although the Planning Application to build the new university site was controversial, this was supported by Swindon Borough Council and plans passed by the independent Planning Inspector. I welcomed the widening of the buffer zone around Coate water and hope that this precious site is respected by the developers.

There will be advantages for Swindon in welcoming one of the most respected universities in the UK, the University of Bath, to provide a state of the art Higher Education facility to make sure that our young people have access to more of the best learning and skills training. I will be meeting soon with the Vice-chancellor of the University to discuss this further.

I have also arranged a meeting early this year between Swindon's head teachers and the Education Minister, Bill Rammell, to discuss Swindon's education and funding. I hope this will be the beginning of a very positive dialogue.

Despite the best efforts of some in the media to make us believe we are on the verge of disaster in the UK, our economy is enjoying its longest period of growth while employment is high, interest rates and inflation are low. Hospital waiting lists and times are falling, crime is down and our children have had the best-ever exam results.

Britain today benefits from record police numbers and fear of anti-social behaviour is falling. We have successfully combined productivity higher than Germany and Japan, with a minimum wage of over £5 per hour and lifting 700,000 children out of poverty since 1997.

Internationally, we are trebling the UK aid budget; for every pound of UK aid spent in 1997, we will be spending by 2008 three pounds. The UK-chaired G8 Summit this year saw commitments to double aid by 2010 - an extra US $50 billion globally, including $25 billion for Africa - and to provide debt cancellation for up to 38 HIPC (heavily indebted poorer countries) worth US $55 billion.

This month, I am visiting the Yemen with Oxfam as part of a cross party delegation to see the work going on in developing countries. I was very pleased to have been invited to see for myself what is happening.

For most of January, my time at the House of Commons was taken up with the Animal Welfare Bill, as a member of the Standing Committee scrutinising the regulations contained in the Bill.

I have also made an appeal through the pages of the Advertiser for constituents' opinion on the smoking ban. The government will deliver its manifesto pledge for a ban in public places, but with some exemptions for pubs and clubs that do not serve food. In addition to this, we will have a free vote on whether there should be a total ban. I am pleased at this move as I think it shows maturity as a party and I want to represent the views of constituents when it comes to the vote.

The Prime Minister said in his New Year message that 2006 is a year in which critical decisions have to be got right if we are to sustain prosperity and fast-improving public services for the long-term.

On schools, local health services, pensions, welfare, the Respect agenda and energy, we face big choices which will decide how prepared we are for the challenges of the future.

This is as true in Swindon as in the rest of the UK. We have the opportunity for funding from the Labour government that has already provided money for improvements to our health services, schools and the borough council. I want this to be the year we grasp this chance for change and work together for the future prosperity of Swindon. I am busy most weekends getting out and about in the constituency. Much of my time is taken with knocking on doors talking to people or holding meetings where the public can air their views. Let me know if you are interested. You can contact me by email on annesnelgrovemp@parliament.uk or by calling my constituency office on 01793 615444. My website also has news of what I am doing at www.annesnelgrove.labour.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.