Letter from Parliament - Liz Mcinnes MP

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Liz McInnes MP

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope that you are looking forward to the year ahead.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, a time for taking stock of what has been a very busy few months, a chance to spend some time with friends and family and also to plan for the busy few months ahead prior to the local and general elections in May.

But even during the festive season there is still work to do and some constituents have contacted me with their concerns about the proposed expansion of the Scout Moor Wind Farm and the plans to place Wind Turbines on Rooley Moor Road. As neither of these planning proposals are in the constituency of Heywood & Middleton I am working closely with the MPs for Rossendale and Rochdale, Jake Berry and Simon Danczuk, to try to get the best outcome and to address residents' concerns. No doubt this subject will feature in more newsletters to come.

I also met with the managing director of Capita regarding the living wage at Heywood file stores. I am pleased to hear that Capita are working towards payment of the living wage to their staff, although this will take some time to achieve it is a step in the right direction.

We have a busy and exciting time before us with the election in May and there is much activity in the constituency worth celebrating. We have regular messages from constituents urging for change from the Coalition Governments’ policies that are having an adverse effect on local people.

Since my last letter, I have had constituents of Heywood and Middleton raise the need for affordable railway travel and have asked for a rail service that puts people before profit.
There have been calls for an overhaul of breeding legislation and systems of enforcement in the puppy breeding trade and for the government to introduce modern comprehensive laws to cease the illegal trade in animals, with improved enforcement, monitoring and legal accountability set in stone to ensure proper welfare conditions apply to any breeder.

Many constituents have asked for fair pay and conditions for those working in education and the NHS.

At a national level, talking therapies and their provision are of concern following individual experiences and supported by statistics from a survey by the mental health charity Mind. They indicate that over 40 per cent of people have to wait over three months just to find out if they can have treatment, and 1 in 10 people have to wait more than a year. There are then further delays in actually starting the treatment for many people – one third have to wait at least another three months. The figures also showed that few people get any choice in the treatment they receive. There is a call for Government to ensure a full range of evidence-based psychological therapies to everyone who needs them within 28 days of requesting a referral.

Constituents have also raised the need for the Government to commit to a long-term ambition and funding for cycling and walking, including local road maintenance, to change national planning policy by introducing a ‘sustainable travel first’ principle, making major road-building the option of last resort and to tackling congestion by increasing transport efficiency, such as introducing ‘high occupancy’ lanes to increase coach travel and lift sharing.

Of serious concern is the pursuit of the TTIP negotiations and the impact on public services.
When people of Heywood and Middleton raise these concerns I am pleased to be able to contact the ministers involved in each decision and will also try to raise questions in the house. It is good to know how involved in the political agenda local people feel.

I am hoping to be able to ask a question in the next health debate about how late the Coalition Government plan to leave the tabling of proposals for standardising tobacco packaging. This issue has dragged on for too long but seems to have been ignored by the Government in the hope that they don’t have to come up against the tobacco industry. The sooner we standardize tobacco packaging the sooner we impact on the dangers of smoking.

I wanted to let people know about a local group who are worthy of support. Just down from my constituency office in Heywood there is an organisation called Recovery Republic which provides a focus for people recovering from substance and alcohol abuse. It was a pleasure to meet Dr Taylor, without whom Recovery Republic would not exist, and to see the great work done by his staff and volunteers providing support, education and activities for those in recovery and their families. There is also an excellent charity shop in the basement which I would urge you to visit, all proceeds go back into the organisation to help their work.