Welcome to my latest newsletter, I hope you are well. As ever, please do not hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can help with or if you would like to speak to me at one of my upcoming surgeries, which I am holding across the constituency.

This month I’m taking on the It’s A Knockout challenge to help raise money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance - any sponsorship you might be able to help us with would be very much appreciated! 💪🙅‍♀️ 

You can find my page to donate here.

This incredible event is based on the classic TV show and will put my team and I through our paces taking on a series of wacky challenges for a great cause! It’s a lot of fun and we are hoping to raise a lot of money for an invaluable local charity that we could not do without. 🚁

Wiltshire Air Ambulance need to raise £4 million a year to continue saving lives across the county, but rely on public donations and support. The picture below is from last year where we raised an incredible £1625 so it would be fantastic to beat that this time round!

Anything that you may be able to donate if you are able to would be much appreciated, and please do share with as many folks as possible.

My amazing team members include my husband Tom, Cllr Jack Oatley, Cllr Edward Kirk, Cllr Daniel Cave, Cllr Claire Forgacs, Lewis Gittins, Clive Blackman, Jackie Simms, and Patrick Cousins.

Pub Of The Year 2023 Winners!

🍻 Fantastic to welcome Leader of the House and Cabinet Minister Penny Mordaunt MP to The Market Tavern in Melksham to congratulate them on winning my Pub of the Year 2023 competition!

🏆 After a huge 2200 votes across two rounds The Market Tavern were a very worthy winner, so it was great to officially award them the trophy, which was kindly supported by Dick Lovett BMW in Melksham.

⭐️ Paul, Sue, Rob, Lorraine and the whole team at the Tavern have done a huge amount of work for the community since opening 2 years ago, and Penny was very impressed by the pub itself and all of their hard work.

🏅The competition was all about celebrating all of our local pubs right across the constituency, so please do continue to support them as much as you are able to.

New Investment Into Chippenham

✂️ Fantastic to cut the ribbon and officially open Siemens Mobility’s brand new modular hangar at its Chippenham site - a significant new investment in our area and its economy, supporting high-skill jobs and apprenticeships.📈

🌍 The design, research and manufacturing work which Siemens produces in Chippenham is helping to transform signalling technology not just across the country, but across the world too - making our railways safer and more efficient.🚆

⚙️ The equipment designed and tested at this new facility has been used to re-signal railways up and down the country - from down in Cornwall all the way up to Inverness. 🗺️

🚀 A huge congratulations to everyone at Siemens who has worked on the project! With 900 employees already working on site, it’s always really encouraging to see large-scale industry further increase their investment in Wiltshire, helping to grow our local economy and support high skill jobs - something I am always keen to support.👷

Work Experience Program 2023

👋 A pleasure to welcome 20 local students to spend an exciting week in my constituency office for my summer work experience program!

📣 The week is designed to give young people an insight into the work I do as your local MP, including talking to residents to hear your views, group work around securing investment for the constituency, how to help constituents with issues, passing new laws in Parliament, holding surgeries and supporting local businesses and charities and much much more.

📝 The program included a talk from Melksham Independent News’ Operations Manager Joe McCann about local journalism, a Q&A session with Leader of the House of Commons Penny Mordaunt MP, and a very exciting visit to Parliament and Downing Street, which was kindly supported by Avon Protection.

🗳️ I think it’s really important to help show the next generation all of the different work that MP’s do, and hopefully the week inspired a few budding MP’s of the future!

📬 If you know of a young person that might be interested for next year please do let me know and I will be in touch closer to the time.

Productive Farmer's Roundtable

🌾🧑‍🌾 Last month I brought together local farmers and food producers for a productive Farmer’s Roundtable in Melksham Town Hall, to discuss some of the challenges facing the industry, how the government can best support with this, and how I can help as the local MP.

🚜🐄 We were joined by local reps from the National Farmer’s Union, and the Rural Payments Agency who spoke about the different schemes and incentives in place for farmers and land owners and how they work.

💬📝 It was a really useful discussion and I will be taking the points raised up with both the Environment Secretary and the Farming Minister, and I am also arranging a follow up session that DEFRA will attend - this will give local farmers the opportunity to ask questions and get further help directly. 📣

Bradford on Avon Surgery

💬📝 Lovely to see lots of local residents at my advice surgery at Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon earlier this month  - a range of different issues raised with me which I am helping with. I have surgeries coming up across the constituency, so please do let me know if there is anything I can help with or you would like to speak to me.

Cracking Down On Crime

Whilst most crimes in the county are down generally and the number of police officers is up, I know that we still have issues with things like anti-social behaviour and rural crime, and that people want to see their local bobbies out on the beat. 👮‍♀️👮‍♂️

We have heard this loud and clear and locally this is something which myself and the Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson are very much agreed on. I know that the PCC wants officers out and about as much as possible, in both towns and villages.📍

Myself and the other Wiltshire MP’s have secured £4 million from the government’s Safer Streets Fund since 2020, and I have also recently run crime forums covering my whole patch to hear your views and experiences directly. 📣

Nationally, the government are cracking down on crime and toughening sentences👇

🔵 We are changing the law so life really does mean life for the most serious offenders, with no possibility of release

🔵 Tougher sentences for violent crimes, keeping the most dangerous criminals off our streets for as long as possible

🔵 Making the justice system work for victims and ending early releases

🔵 The Home Secretary has instructed all police forces to get back to basics and follow all possible leads when solving crimes

We are making good progress nationally, but we know there is more to do👇

✅ 1.8 million fewer crimes

✅ Violent crime down 46%

✅ Neighbourhood crime halved since 2010

Melksham Food And River Festival

Great day at the Melksham Food and River Festival this month. Such an amazing event for all the family with over 80 stands, and the sun was shinning for the event.

I chatted to lots of local residents and many shared some of the issues they are facing which I am going to pick up and try to help them with. Also raised money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance with my guess the name of the parliamentary 🐻 competition! Was joined on my stand by Cllr Jack Oatley for Melksham Forest who helped me chat to residents.

Horizon Deal

🧬🌐 This week I announced that we have a struck a fantastic new deal to join Horizon Europe, giving UK scientists access to the world’s largest research and innovation programme, on better terms for UK taxpayers.

🧫🔭 Our agreement with the EU marks a significant milestone for the UK science and research sectors and sets a solid foundation for the future of international research and development, showing British scientists that we are committed to providing them with the best opportunities.

🌎🤝 This deal is not just about the EU, but also opens opportunities with other Horizon members including Norway, New Zealand and Israel who are all part of the programme.

📈👩‍🔬 This is the right deal for the UK, creating thousands of jobs, growing the economy and cementing my Department’s goal to make us a science and tech superpower by 2030. 

Downing Street Roundtable

This week in my Ministerial role I also held a joint roundtable with the Home Secretary Suella Braverman MP in Downing Street, focused on protecting children from the horrific effects of online sexual exploitation and abuse.

We brought together charities, law enforcement and technology companies to discuss efforts to tackle these awful crimes. A survivor also spoke on the life-changing impact of online sexual abuse.

This abuse is widespread, it creates long-lasting effects, and it must be stopped now.

For the past year I have been strengthening the protection measures in the Online Safety Bill which I am taking through Parliament, ensuring that criminals cannot use social media to carry out this harmful and illegal activity undetected.

Cracking Down On 

Animal Abuse 

Content Online

🦮🐰🐒 Having supported a wide range of animal welfare campaigns since becoming your MP and being an animal lover myself, I have tabled an amendment along with Environment Secretary Therese Coffey MP to the Online Safety Bill which I am currently taking through Parliament.

These new rules will place a legal duty on social media companies to remove content that encourages or facilitates animal torture or cruelty, even if the content was produced outside the UK.

This kind of activity is abhorrent and not something an animal-friendly nation like the UK should ever tolerate, nor should social media companies be playing host to this appalling content.

🌎🌐 As we continue to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online, platforms that fail to follow the Online Safety Bill when law will face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of global turnover, whichever is higher.

Other News In Brief

• Congratulations to Jacqueline Brady - Melksham's New Town Crier! Jacqueline was crowned as our new Town Crier at the Melksham Food and River Festival last weekend. I wish Jacqueline all the best as she picks up from where Peter Dauncey left off.

• Very productive meeting of the Chippenham Town Centre Partnership Board - we went through the thousands of responses to the Chippenham One Plan survey we published earlier this year. Watch this space as we will be saying much more about the exciting projects we have to regenerate Chippenham.

• Great to see the finishing touches at Fastned’s new ultra-rapid electric vehicle charging site, which is opening next week in Commerce Way in Melksham. This is Fastned’s first site in the South West, creating six new charging points powered by 100% renewable energy. The ultra-rapid charging means you can get 300 miles of range from just a 20 minute charge - a real step forward for this technology. 

• Finally, there were some really stunning pictures from the Corsham Street Fair last weekend, courtesy of local photographer Julian Carosi - it looks like it was a great event and the town centre looks stunning in the sunshine!

Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter – please do not hesitate to let me know if there is anything I can help with, or if you would like to speak to me at my next surgery.

Best wishes,

Michelle Donelan

Member of Parliament for Chippenham Constituency