Constituency Newsletters
| Constituency Newsletter - October 2008 |
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| Saturday, 18 October 2008 18:01 |
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The Health Service continues to make the headlines. The Government has invested a huge amount in our local NHS and is ready with another £10 million investment for a new Health Centre in Colne. I find it incredibly frustrating that there are still arguments about where this health centre should be located. I am in touch with the local Primary Care Trust and with local doctors to get things moving. I don’t want Pendle Council to hold things up with endless consultation and procrastination. I shall be meeting a delegation of people from Rolls Royce to discuss the company’s future investment plans which could include a new plant in Singapore, manufacturing aero-engine fan blades. I do not want to see the company exporting key technology overseas and I am in touch with the North West Regional Development Agency and with Ministers to keep production concentrated here in Pendle. Yesterday, I visited the local Probation Service here in Nelson to learn about the good work they are doing and the challenges they face. The emphasis is on multi-agency working – working closely and co-operatively with the police, the council and other organisations to make our streets safer and to help offenders integrate back into the community. I found out more about the “Community Pay-back” Scheme, where people who have offended do unpaid work placements. These include work at the Basil Street Allotments to create an outdoor learning environment for school children and to re-establish the allotments for use by local people. Then there was “Colne in Bloom” which involved emptying flowerbeds on sixteen sites around Colne and then, much later, winter planting of the same sites. There are lots of other examples, including work done at Marsden Park in Nelson, Ballgrove Park in Colne and painting and decorating the changing rooms at the Colne Dynamos. The Community Pay-back project is a real winner and I am going to do everything I can to publicise it. A final word. The Pendle Community Safety Partnership Plan has just been published and it charts an amazing reduction in crime locally over the last four years. Burglary down by 62%. Theft of a vehicle down 32%. Theft from a vehicle down 25%. And criminal damage down 21%. These are impressive results and my thanks go to all involved. |