Newspaper column 6 January 2022 - Looking forward

 

Well this is my first column of 2022, again written in December to fit in with newspaper print deadlines, and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

After spending my last column reflecting back on events and achievements from 2021, for this week’s edition I wanted to look forward to what we can expect for 2022.

I will be continuing to work with local NHS and colleagues in Government to bring forward the exciting plans for a new Women and Children’s Hospital at Treliske. These plans are now well under way and I hope to see them break ground on this site in 2022. This will provide important new facilities for women and children across Cornwall as well as take pressure off existing services.

The work has already started on the dualling of the A30 between Carland Cross and Chiverton Cross, and I look forward to this continuing at pace through 2022 with completion now on the horizon. Once this upgrade is completed it will completely change the face of travel along Cornwall’s main road, unlocking economical benefits and removing what is always a nightmare of travel for local people and visitors alike over the summer months.

I will also continue to work with the Department for Education and Cornwall Council on bringing forward the plans for a new secondary school in the northern part of the constituency to better service the Perranporth, St Newlyn East and Goonhavern communities. This has been long-needed and will take the pressure off schools in Truro where a lot of these areas currently feed into.

I also look forward to seeing the Towns Funds bid for Truro continue to bear fruit and work with local people, businesses and organisations, as well as Cornwall Council and the Government to bring these exciting plans which will transform our city, forward. As well as plans for Truro, it is important that Falmouth and Penryn does not get left behind and I will continue to lobby Government on bringing forward funding to truly level up these communities.

I will also be working with our police to understand the impact of the funding in Falmouth and Penryn to combat violence against women and girls and will be making the case for this scheme to be expanded across Cornwall, something which has the support of our Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez as part of her recently announced Police and Crime Plan for Devon and Cornwall.

These are just a few of the local priorities that I hope to continue to deliver for you as your Member of Parliament over the coming year and I look forward to continuing to deliver for you as your caring and compassionate constituency MP in 2022 and beyond.

My office has now reopened following the Christmas break. 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, so please do get in touch should you wish to meet me about any matters that I can be of assistance with.

Newspaper column 30 December 2021 - Looking back

This is my final column of the year for 2021 and what a year it has been!

I hope you were all able to enjoy Christmas and take some time to mark this special day.

In my final column for 2021, which is written on before 23 December to fit in with the print deadlines of our local press, I wanted to look back through the year, on some of the big issues, locally and nationally that have been part of my work for you.

2021 has again been dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with restrictions and changes to our lives that we would have not considered only years ago. However what separated 2021 from the previous year was the rollout of our vaccination programme, which we were able to accomplish far more quickly than our continental neighbours now we have left the EU, and get a greater percentage of our population vaccinated, quicker than virtually every other country in the world. This is a colossal achievement and thank you to everyone in our NHS, armed forces and volunteers who have done their bit in making the programme such a success.

Away from COVID-19 the UK hosted two major global conferences this year, the G7 and COP26. Cornwall was put in the world’s spotlight in the first of these major events, with the G7 Leaders Summit hosted at Carbis Bay, and in particular the world’s media was lucky enough to be based in Falmouth for the duration. This was an incredible opportunity for Cornwall to shine, and shine we did, putting our best foot forward on the world stage and showcasing everything we have to offer. I was delighted to meet several of the world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, and it was brilliant to talk to these VIP’s about what Cornwall has to offer, as well as some of the challenges we face.

Over the summer I was pleased to once again highlight the work of an important charity, this time Cornwall Wildlife Trust, with a coast to coast fundraising walk from the sunny south coast at Portholland to the equally sunny north coast at Perranporth. This was a fantastic day and it was great to walk through so many of our communities and meet local people along the way, dropping into the Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s HQ, and talking about their work, and raising over £1,000 from generous donors. I look forward to planning another effort for 2022.

Over the summer I also ran the first of my constituency village tours, using the summer break from Parliament to hold several well-attended constituency advice surgeries in villages around our constituency  - something which restrictions did not allow me to hold in 2020 but which I hope will become a regular occurrence in the future – part of my work to make myself as accessible as possible for the people I am there to serve and represent.

Throughout the year I have been pleased to continue to successfully work with the Government to bring more funding to Cornwall, in particular funding to keep the streets safer in Falmouth and Penryn, money to upgrade and create new facilities at Tresliske, funding to regenerate Truro through the Towns Fund, money to help keep some of our most beloved attractions and culture and heritage venues open with the Culture Recovery Fund, and in particular funding for the Hall for Cornwall, which has now reopened, and the continued dualling of the A30 which is now well under way. There will always be more to do, and I am committed to doing all I can to ensure Truro and Falmouth continues to get our fair share of Government money now and in the future.

Finally I have to give a big thanks to my Constituency Office and Parliamentary team who have worked incredibly hard to support me and our constituency over the past year. They have had another really busy year, often having to work in challenging circumstances, and have responded to  over 18,000 enquiries during this time. Thank you so much to all who have worked for during this time Jordan, James, Karen, Ruth, Huw, Jack and Toni, I could not do my job without you as my support.

For next week’s column I will be looking forward to 2022 and the work I hope to be doing for you next year. In the meantime, may I wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Newspaper column 23 December - Christmas message

Well Parliament has now risen for the Christmas Recess and this is my penultimate column of 2021.

What with the new Omnicron variant and the additional measures it has sadly been necessary for us all to take to help prevent its spread and assist our NHS in getting as many people to get their booster as possible, December has been a challenging month to cap off a difficult year.

Again, in the past week I have been blown away by the continued work of our local NHS, community pharmacies, and volunteers in doing their best to ensure the vaccine programme has been running at full capacity. I have requested and received walk-in booster sites in Truro and Falmouth that have been in operation regularly over the past week, and we must all do our bit to get behind the vaccine programme to ensure we can all be protected.

As of Saturday, national figures showed that more than 27million people have now had their booster vaccine, with daily figures of more than 800,000 people getting their booster jab a day. 47.2% of the population over the age of 12 have now had their booster vaccination, a colossal acheivement, and I would like to thank all those who have played their part in getting us this far.

In the last week of Parliament as well as my normal work as MP, I also spent time sitting on the Committee for the Finance Bill, the mechanism for renewing annual taxes, delivering new tax proposals and maintaining administration of the tax system, I met with the Health Minister to discuss additional support for Treliske Hospital, had the last meeting of the year of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss, and met with the team at the Knowledge Spa at Treliske. I also had my final constituency advice surgery of the year to discuss everything from climate change to Brexit with local residents.

As Parliament has now risen for the Recess, I will be hoping to spend some time with my family over Christmas, not just celebrating the meaning of this festive holiday but also reflecting back over the past year, while looking forward to what is to come in 2022. I hope you are all able to have some time to mark the day and celebrate it in the way you choose to.

My thanks as ever, to those who will be working over this time, our emergency services, NHS, carers, and armed forces (who have also been of magnificent service with the additional booster measures), as well as others, who do their bit, now and always to keep our country running all year round.

May I wish all readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy and health New Year.

My office will be closing from midday on Thursday 23rd December and will reopen on Tuesday 4^th January. I’d like to thank my excellent Constituency and Parliamentary team for their hard work on my behalf over another difficult year. You can still email me at cheriyn.mackrory.mp@parliament.uk and my team and I will get back to you as soon as we are able to.

Newspaper column 16 December 2021 - New Covid Measures and the Booster Programme

They say that a week is a long time in politics, and this past week has also shown that this is also the case in our fight against COVID-19.

As I write this, on Tuesday 14 December, in Parliament we will, this evening, be voting on new COVID-19 regulations, which were formalised yesterday evening, and announced by our Prime Minister on Sunday night.

This was in response to the continued and rapid spread of the new Omicron variant of COVID-19. On Sunday, the UK reported 1,239 additional confirmed cases of Omicron - the highest daily rise and nearly double the previous high recorded on Saturday. As of Monday, the total number of cases of the variant stood at 3,137 in the UK.

On Monday, Sajid Javid, the Health and Social Care Secretary told us that the Omicron variant now represented 20% of cases in England - and was expected to become the dominant variant in London within 48 hours.

The measures we are voting on today (Tuesday) ’Plan B’, are:

·         The new rules on face masks which came into force last week. Under these restrictions, face coverings have become compulsory in most indoor settings, except for pubs and restaurants.

·         The introduction of a Covid pass which would ensure that someone can enter a large venue, if they can prove they are fully vaccinated or have a negative lateral flow test. This is not the same as a vaccine passport, as you do not need to prove you are vaccinated in order to attend events.

·         A measure allowing fully-vaccinated people who have been exposed to a positive Covid case to avoid self-isolation if they take daily lateral flow tests, and receive a negative result.

These measures contain very limited restrictions compared to measures in force across Europe and in particular, the final measure described above, actually provides less restrictions than we have had previously, in allowing people who take daily lateral flow tests with negative results to avoid isolation and get on with their day to day lives – this has to be welcomed.

On balance I will be supporting these measures, although I am disappointed that they need to be considered. We will review and vote again in the New Year and hopefully the situation will be different. It has taken me many days to decide what to. I have spoken to many constituents and the feeling is genuinely mixed, but the majority feel we are not out of this yet.

I don’t want restrictions to go on and on and there has to be an end point. As much as I wanted us to be there, we are not quite there yet.

Our response to the Omicron variant has to be led by our vaccination programme. The Prime Minister and NHS England have launched an urgent national Omicron appeal for the public to Get Boosted Now, all adults will now be offered a booster jab by the New Year, bringing the target forward by one month.

The NHS will be given everything it needs to get jabs in arms as the UK responds to the Omicron variant, which will include:

·         New vaccination sites set up across the country, including mobile pop-up sites, which I am pushing for additional capacity locally in Truro and Falmouth

·         Increasing opening times for vaccination sites, to 7 days a week with more appointments early in the morning, in the evening and at weekends

·         50 military planning experts will help coordinate the national effort by supporting the NHS with logistics of the rollout

·         Reprioritising the NHS workforce to deliver as many jabs as possible

·         A national call for thousands more NHS volunteers

Cornwall has a duty to do what it can to protect Treliske Hospital from becoming overwhelmed. They are doing a magnificent job. On Monday the senior leadership met with Health Minister Ed Argar to discuss what more the Government can do to support them.

The discussion centred around technical operational ideas, already being used successfully in other parts of the country and the Team at RCHT are now connected with the right colleagues in Government and around the country to help introduce some of these to improve things for us here in Cornwall.

I urge all eligible people to get their boosters through the gov.uk website as soon as possible, so we can all do our bit in beating the virus, support our NHS, and hopefully enjoy Christmas!

Newspaper column 25 November 2021 - The Health and Care Bill

Last week was a busy and varied one. In Parliament I was able to take part in several debates as well as asking questions of Ministers. These included a debate on road traffic offences, speaking up on behalf of Ryan Saltern, a Cornish resident who was killed in a road incident, with the driver failing to report the crash for 36 hours. I sat on the Bill Committee for the Kept Animals Bill and also presented a Bill to Parliament on banning glue traps – a horrific method of pest control. In Defence Questions I also questioned the Minister on plans to have Falmouth benefit from the Government’s record investment in our defence programme.

This week the Health and Care Bill comes back to Parliament. The Health and Care Bill is another major part of the Government’s strategy, and builds on both proposals set out by the NHS for change in its Long Term Plan, as well as incorporating valuable lessons learnt from the pandemic that will benefit both staff and patients.

Our government is committed to delivering world-class care for patients and this Bill will help deliver that by building on the NHS’ own proposals for reform to make it less bureaucratic, more accountable, and more integrated in the wake of COVID-19.

These changes are vital to help our NHS build back better from the pandemic and it follows extensive discussions with NHS England, the Local Government Association and the health and care sector to refine this blueprint.

COVID-19 has reinforced the need for closer collaboration between the NHS, local authorities like Cornwall Council, and care providers to provide more joined up working. By necessity we saw during the pandemic that staff and patients were able to rapidly adopt new technologies to deliver better care. But at times in recent years the legal framework our system has to work within has made this more difficult, as it was not designed with this type of collaboration in mind.

The Bill ensures each part of England has an Integrated Care Board and an Integrated Care Partnership responsible for bringing together local NHS and local government, such as social care, mental health services and public health advice, to deliver joined up care for its local population. Clinicians, carers and public health experts will be empowered to operate collaboratively across health and care, as part of plans to tackle inequalities and level up health across the country. The Bill also introduces measures to tackle obesity and improve dentistry, which remains a big issue in Cornwall.

It will dispose of unnecessary bureaucracy that has held the health service back so that health and care staff can focus on patients, not paperwork, and ensure the system is able to flex to changing needs in the years to come. It will ensure NHS England is more accountable to government, and by extension Parliament, while ensuring our NHS retains everyday operational and clinical oversight. I look forward to seeing this Bill continuing to progress through Parliament this week and eventually come into law to improve health and care standards for all, as well as allowing our NHS and care providers the flexibilities to be the best they can be.

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.

Newspaper column 18 November 2021 - Remembrance and COP26

This past week culminated in Remembrance Sunday, where as a nation we collectively commemorate all those veterans, past and present, who have given the ultimate sacrifice in serving our country, as well as saying a big thank you to all currently serving or have served in the armed forces.

Due to the unusual circumstances of the pandemic, last year there were no formal services of remembrance and so this year was the first time I have been involved in them locally as a Member of Parliament.

In London I was honoured to place a tribute for James 'Little' Finn and all the fallen of Truro and Falmouth in the House of Commons Constituency Garden of Remembrance. James ‘Little’ Finn VC was born at St Clement and was a recipient of the Victoria Cross, for conspicuous bravery rescuing comrades under fire during World War 1, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was later killed in action in that same conflict.

On Remembrance Sunday I took part in Civic Services and Acts of Remembrance at Falmouth and in Truro. After the sad but necessary lack of formal events last year, it was good to see our communities turning out in such numbers to support their veterans and remember the past sacrifices. The parades were organised incredibly well and I would like to take the opportunity to thank both Falmouth Town Council and Truro City Council, as well as the Royal British Legion, veterans and all organisations involved for making them so memorable.

Last week also saw the climax of the United Nations COP26 climate conference, which the UK was hosting from Glasgow. Over the weekend we saw the Glasgow Climate Pact signed, which is the most significant climate change pact since the landmark Paris Agreement and first-ever climate deal to explicitly plan to reduce coal consumption, the worst fossil fuel for greenhouse gases.

Alongside the Glasgow Climate Pact, other major commitments from the COP26 summit include a commitment from many more nations to supercharge their race to zero emissions for 2030 by next year, the commitment to double funding for developing nations to adapt to climate change by 2025, as well as boosting up the agenda, plans about how to pay for the loss and damage that climate change inflicts on developing countries. The conference also saw delegates agree rules on carbon offset markets, which the last two COPs tried and failed to finalise, as well as the agreement of more than 130 countries, including Brazil, to protect up to 90 per cent of our forests.

This is a colossal achievement that many did not possible. While it is not perfect, and it is disappointing that we could not get approval for coal to be ‘phased out’ instead of ‘phased down’ in the wording of the pact, the pact and other outcomes from COP26 are still a major step in the right direction in the fight against climate change, and it is tribute to the hosting of the UK and the  leadership shown by our government that we made it such a success.

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.

Newspaper column - November 11 2021 - Latest on the Environment Bill

This past Monday saw MPs vote again on the latest revisions to the Government’s landmark Environment Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament.

A lot has been said in recent weeks about a vote on a particular amendment from the House of Lords that called for the immediate banning of all sewage releases into our rivers from our antiquated water infrastructure. This proposal was completely un-costed and, while the end goal to achieve this is a fine one, realistically it is simply not going to happen overnight.

I was subsequently sorry to see MP’s and their offices who voted for the Government proposals and against the un-costed amendment subject to abuse from people who had either not read or understood the proposed changes, or were purely trying play political games. We were told that we had voted to allow or even increase the dumping of sewage into our waterways, when in fact what we had voted for was for more protection for these vital assets for our country than we have ever seen before.

The Government amendment passed on Monday in fact goes further than the previous Lords Amendments proposed.

On Monday I voted to ensure seeking to ensure there is a legal duty on water companies such as South West Water to progressively reduce the adverse impact of sewage discharges. This is what the amendment provides for, requiring water companies to reduce the impact of sewage discharges on the environment and public health, which will really help surfers and swimmers.

This will combine with the existing provisions in the Environment Bill for each water company to produce a statutory Drainage and Sewerage Management Plan every five years, which will set out how such reduction in sewage discharges will be achieved and funded.  There is also a power of direction for government to direct water companies in relation to actions in those plans if they are not good enough.

Claims that the amendment weakens existing legislation are wrong. The water companies have an existing duty to treat sewage “effectually”, which has existed since 1991, and the new amendment does not replace nor override this duty.

The problem has been that the Environment Agency and OFWAT have failed to use their existing powers (which remain and which provide the enforcement mechanism for this new duty) to enforce that duty over the last 30 years.

The amendment that has passed now means DEFRA will be giving OFWAT an order for water companies to  increase their capital expenditure on water treatment from January 2022.

It also puts, among other things, a new duty on Government to produce a statutory plan to reduce sewage discharges from storm overflows and their adverse impact, and report to Parliament on progress as well as the power for the government to direct water companies in relation to the actions in their Drainage and Sewerage Management Plans. The Government will not hesitate to use this power of direction if plans from the water companies are not good enough.

As a lifelong environmentalist, founding member of the Conservative Environment Network and Deputy Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ocean Conservation, I take these matters very seriously indeed. It is a shame to see previous attempts to do much good by this bill twisted and attacked by those who seek to misinterpret earlier votes for political gain. However I am clear that what we need is a realistic and achievable plan to get to the clean water goal that we all want to see, and that is what these amendments, and the Environment Bill ultimately, seek to achieve. I look forward to scrutinising progress as part of future water quality enquiries via my work on the Environmental Audit Select Committee.