Newspaper column 20 January 2022 - Cleaning up our rivers

I can’t start this week’s column without touching on the numerous allegations around breaches in lockdown law at Number Ten Downing Street. I am thoroughly disappointed by such behaviour and can completely understand peoples’ legitimate anger and upset over these reports. The Prime Minister has done the right thing by apologising and I believe there needs to be a change of culture at No.10. I believe No.10 staff should have a degree of ‘real life experience’. That being said I will base my final opinion on this issue off the outcome of the independent investigation that is being carried out into these matters, and not on pieces of information apparently being drip-fed to a hostile media by a disgruntled former employee with an axe to grind."

As ever, I prefer to keep my focus on local matters, my service to you the people of Truro and Falmouth, and will be continuing my work on your behalf, which among other things has seen since my election, confirmation of a new women and children hospital in Truro, securing the money to progress with the plans to dual the A30 between Chiverton Cross and Carland Cross roundabouts, work which is now under way, and securing over £162m for various projects in our constituency, including Towns Fund money for Truro, funding for schools and tackling homelessness in Falmouth. It is my priority to continue to bring investment into Cornwall in order to improve the lives of my constituents.

Keeping our inland waterways, such as the Fal, clean continues to be a major goal to work towards and is one of the reasons I joined the influential Environmental Audit Select Committee in Parliament, a cross party group of MPs who work to consider the extent to which 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.

Last week I was pleased to see the release of a report from this committee that I have worked on, about the water quality in rivers. Getting a complete overview of the health of our rivers and the pollution affecting them is hampered by outdated, underfunded and inadequate monitoring regimes. It is clear, however, that rivers in England are in a mess.

Cleaning up our rivers is important for public health and vital to protect wildlife. The world is experiencing an extinction crisis and freshwater eco-systems are on the frontline. The build-up of excess nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen from animal waste and sewage is reducing oxygen levels in rivers and in severe cases can cause fish kills.

The report, which I wholly endorse, says that a step change in regulatory action, water company investment, and cross-catchment collaboration with farmers and drainage authorities is urgently required to restore rivers to good ecological health, protect biodiversity and adapt to a changing climate. Investment must be accelerated so that damaging discharges from water treatment assets including storm overflows cease and that any spills occur only in genuinely exceptional circumstances. Financial penalties for pollution incidents and misreporting must be set at a level that puts the issue on the agenda in water company board rooms.

To deliver real change and improve the state of our rivers, a wide range of stakeholders must come together including the Government, regulators and water companies. The Environment Act, which I sat on the Bill Committee for, signalled the first welcome sign of political will to tackle this issue from many governments of all political persuasions. I look forward on working with colleagues locally and nationally, to answer the calls from this Bill and build on the Environment Act to clean our rivers and waterways up, improving them for all.

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. My regular constituency advice surgeries are 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 January 13th 2022 - Fishing and Farming

Parliament has now been sitting for a week and we are all excited at being able to crack on with this year’s Parliamentary schedule. Last week already saw some big announcements that are of interest and importance to Cornwall, in our farming and fishing sectors, and I wanted to touch on those in this week’s column.

Firstly, the Government has unveiled the next stages of its plan to reward farmers and landowners for actions which benefit the environment, supporting sustainable food production alongside vital nature recovery and work towards net zero.

Two new environmental land management schemes will play an essential role in halting the decline in species by 2030, bringing up to 60% of England’s agricultural soil under sustainable management by 2030, and restoring up to 300,000 hectares of wildlife habitat by 2042.

The Local Nature Recovery scheme will pay farmers for locally-targeted actions which make space for nature in the farmed landscape and countryside such as creating wildlife habitat, planting trees or restoring peat and wetland areas. The Landscape Recovery scheme will support more radical changes to land-use change and habitat restoration such as establishing new nature reserves, restoring floodplains, or creating woodland and wetlands.

Taken together with the previously announced Sustainable Farming Incentive which supports sustainable farming practices, they are designed to provide farmers and land owners with a broad range of voluntary options from which they can choose the best for their business. The reforms are the biggest changes to farming and land management in 50 years with more than 3,000 farmers already testing the new schemes.

All the environmental schemes will be voluntary and it will be for farmers to decide what combination of actions is right for them. Defra is designing them to be accessible, supportive and with fair compensation to incentivise high levels of uptake. The scheme will be adjusted and expanded as the pilots continue. The aims of the schemes will also be kept under review as long-term, legally binding targets are developed under the Environment Act.

I have joined the Cornwall Nature Partnership Board and have a keen interest in this area, and look forward to working with our farmers and the Government to make these reforms a success.

Last week I also highlighted a £75 million boost for the fishing sector announced by the Government, which will see Fishing communities across the UK benefit from better infrastructure, strengthened supply chains, new jobs and an investment in skills.

The investment will strengthen the sector’s ability to land more fish in the UK and take them to market faster. This will be achieved by improving the capacity and efficiency of our harbours and processing facilities while boosting the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry and supporting jobs, increasing opportunities for coastal communities and levelling up across the country.

A £65 million infrastructure scheme will be made available for projects such as modernising ports and harbours alongside increasing capacity and efficiency at processing and aquaculture facilities. A competition will be run to identify the best projects, prioritising those that reduce carbon emissions, helping increase the sustainability of the sector and contributing towards the UK’s commitment to reach Net Zero by 2050.

Up to £10 million will also be used to encourage new entrants into the processing, catching and aquaculture sectors, alongside training and upskilling current workers. We will do this by offering an improved package of training to people joining the industry and making it easier for people from coastal communities to progress through their career.

I look forward to working with our fishing communities in Truro and Falmouth to make sure we make the best of the funding that is available.

With both of these announcements it is good to see the Government continuing to support our crucial food producing industries as we move on from Brexit, as well as looking to help both operate more sustainably. As ever, I would encourage all of us to do our bit to support them too by shopping locally where we can and buying some of our delicious local Cornish food and drink produce, whether it’s produced from our fields or our seas.

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. My regular constituency advice surgeries are 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 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.