Parliamentary Recess
Posted by Linda Gilroy, MP for Plymouth, Sutton, at 10:24, Mon 27 July 2009:
I will be spending the majority of recess working in Plymouth.
I will be holding my usual meetings with constituents and also with key officials - from the City Council, Derriford Hospital, Devon & Cornwall Police, the University and so forth. Such work is not unique to recess – it is something I do every week when I return to Plymouth from London, usually very late on a Thursday evening and then work all day Friday and quite often through the weekend too.
On Friday I enjoyed attending the launch of the Blue Mile Project (www.theblueproject.org/1170). I sponsored an exhibition for them in the House of Commons – and hope I played a small part through this of getting them recognition in the Olympic Programme which we were marking today through this. I took away several action points to help them get further recognition. I did an interview with Radio Cornwall in the Car on the way to the Primary Care Trust who have their HQ up at Derriford and spent just over two hours receiving briefings with Alison Seabeck MP on everything from their Strategic Plans to deliver health care in Plymouth to things I had asked for on Dementia, Depression, Swine Flu and Breast Cancer Services - some of which came from issues raised by constituents, the rest of which is part of my maintaining oversight of what we are doing to deliver on things that were in the manifesto 2005.
Among specific projects I will be working on over the next few months are:
- Opposing Plymouth City Council’s plans to privatise Citybus - You can follow the campaign at www.lindagilroy.org.uk/citybus – and don’t forget to sign the petition on the Number 10 website at http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PlymouthCityBus/
- Responding to the Walker Review on Water Metering & Charging - Specifically I will be writing to Local Authorities in Devon and Cornwall to ask them to work with me to argue that the cost of cleaning are local beaches should be seen as a national good – and should not be borne by South West Water customers alone. You can follow my water campaign at www.lindagilroy.org.uk/water.
- Returning to London with a delegation from the Devonport Strategy Group, to meet with Defence Ministers to discuss ways of supporting the dockyard and naval base.
- Preparing for the South West Grand Committee - On September 3rd the Minister for the South West, Jim Knight, will be coming to Exeter, where the region’s MPs will be questioning him about the government’s policy toward our area. I will be present in my role as Assistant Regional Minister.
- Attending both the Labour Party conference and the Co-operative Party Conference.
I will of course be taking sometime off for myself, although no more – indeed, probably a good deal less - than the statutory 28 days allocation that all full time employees in this country enjoy.
What I have described is probably 1% of what I will be doing. You can keep up-to-date with my work - not just in Recess but all year round- at www.lindagilroy.org.uk/news and from time to time I post on twitter and Facebook too, though this depends on how much else there is to do admin and action wise!
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