Newspaper column 9 September 2021 - Going back to Parliament and a look back on Recess

This week sees Parliament return after the Summer Recess. The rest of this year’s Parliamentary schedule promises to be a busy one as the Government continues to deal with the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and look at other long-reaching issues, such as housing and planning, the NHS and social care, the Elections Bill, the benefits system and our environment, as well as the fall out from the Afghanistan situation.

With my role on the Environmental Audit Committee in Parliament I am looking forward to continuing to work with colleagues from across Parliament to ensure that the policies and programmes of government departments and non-departmental public bodies contribute to environmental protection and sustainable development, and to audit their performance against sustainable development and environmental protection targets.

Over the past couple of weeks, during Summer Recess it was a real pleasure to take part in my first Village Surgery Tour. This is something I had always planned to do since my election as your Member of Parliament but was prevented in doing so last year by COVID-19 restrictions. Recess gives me more time in our constituency and this means I can expand from my traditional constituency advice surgery venues of Truro and Falmouth and visit some of our other wonderful communities. To this end, over the last couple of weeks I have visited Perranporth, Chacewater, St Mawes, Mylor, Probus and St Newlyn East. It was good to see so many people and talk about the issues, local and national, that matter to you. I have gone away with a lot of work on your behalf and look forward to reporting back further on some of the issues that have come up, in the future. Please do let me know if you would like me to visit your village on subsequent surgery tours and I will be delighted to come along and see you.

Finally at the weekend, it was a real honour to be part of the celebrations as the Tour of Britain passed through Truro. This was an incredibly well-organised race, both from the event organisers and also those who came out locally to see the entrants pass through our city. A special shout out must go to the Old Bakery for putting on the stage, and Jan Allen for MC'ing the bikes. It was amazing to see Truro so full of life and energy after a difficult previous 18 months and I look forward to seeing more events on Lemon Quay in the future, to go along with the imminent reopening of the Hall for Cornwall. The Tour of Britain Cornwall Stage itself was a real success and another example where Cornwall has been presented in an exceptional light for an internationally renowned event.

As ever, if you need my assistance with anything then my team and I are here to help. Please get in touch with me by email at Cherilyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk , or by telephone on 01872 229698. I have now restarted my regular constituency advice surgeries, held in a covid-safe environment at my office, so please do get in touch should you wish to meet me about any matters that I can be of assistance with.