On Tuesday last week I joined Amanda King, the head of the youth provision at the Romney Resource Centre in New Romney, for their study programme awards presentation. Amanda and her team support many young people from the Romney Marsh area, and further afield, by delivering training programmes that help to prepare them for work. […]
As the schools break up for their summer holidays I’d like to give you a date for your diaries, for when they come back in September. On Tuesday 26th September I’ll be holding my fifth annual jobs fair at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. As in previous years this is open to students in […]
Housing developments like the Prince of Wales’s new village of Nansledan, near to Newquay in Cornwall, could be a model for local schemes, like the Otterpool Park garden town proposal, that has been brought forward by Shepway District Council. Nansledan follows the success of Prince Charles’s Poundbury development near Dorchester, which has used traditional building […]
On Friday last week, I attended the Kent Show at the county showground in Detling. The excellent weather brought out large grounds, which was good news for the exhibitors and the Kent Agricultural Society. The real highlight of the show is provided by the livestock, who have been carefully prepared to be at their best […]
Poor mental health can be a cancer of the mind for its victims, too often with devastating effects for sufferers and their families. We have many great local organisations, like Folkestone and District Mind, that provide valuable support for people, and particularly for those living alone, whose relative social isolation can make their problems worse. […]
Last Friday I attended the annual Canada Day service at Shorncliffe Military Cemetery, an important event for our community which has taken place every year since 1919. The cemetery contains the graves of 471 servicemen from the First World War, over 300 of whom are Canadian. For the last 98 years, primary school children from […]
Last Wednesday, Her Majesty The Queen conducted the State Opening of Parliament following the general election. The central focus of The Queen’s Speech setting out the government’s programme for the next two years was the legislation required to deliver Britain’s exit from the European Union. In Kent, we live on the frontier between Britain and […]
The Grenfell Tower fire in North Kensington in London will surely been seen as one of the greatest civil disasters in this country since the Second World War. Alongside other disasters like Hillsborough and Aberfan, it was tragic both for the large loss and life, and because it was avoidable. A full public inquiry will […]
Since the election a number of people have written to me asking how, as a Conservative MP who voted for equal marriage, and as a Catholic whose father was born in Dublin, I could support my party governing in partnership the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland (DUP). First, let’s look at the numbers: There […]
Following the announcement that the current managers of the Folkestone East Family Practice will not to continue with their contract to deliver GP services beyond November this year, I have written to the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, asking for his support to ensure that residents continue to receive a good and improving service. I have […]