|
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. |
|
|
|
💼 Yesterday the Chancellor delivered the Autumn Statement, setting out our plans to cut taxes for 27 million people and introduce 110 different measures to grow the British economy. ✂️📈 Having met the Prime Minister’s target of halving inflation by the end of the year, our decisive plans announced today include👇 💷 Putting more money in 27 million people’s pockets by cutting National Insurance in January, including for those who are self-employed 📈 Increasing the National Living Wage to £11.44 an hour from April 2024 - including over 21s for the first time 🔐 Honouring our commitment to the Triple Lock, with an 8.5% increase to pensions worth over £900 ↗️ Supporting the most vulnerable in our society by increasing in-work benefits by 6.7% 👨💻 New Back to Work Plan to support people into work, helping individuals and our economy 👨🔧 Promoting innovation, job creation and economic growth - companies that invest in the UK will reduce their tax by up to 25p for every £1 they spend on plant and machinery ✂️ Cutting business rates and extending Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief for a year 🏡 Increasing housing support for low income renters with a £120 million Local Housing Allowance 🟩 An additional £10 million to support veterans 🍺 Alcohol duty frozen until August 2024 💙 Up to £20 million to accelerate dementia research The biggest ever cut to workers National Insurance helps working people with the cost of living directly, whilst the biggest ever tax cut on business investment will drive growth, job creation and innovation in the British economy. |
|
Join A Trip To Parliament! |
I am resuming my Democracy Access Tours, where you are invited to join me on a free tour of Parliament to learn more about Parliament’s remarkable history, architecture and functions. There will also be a Q&A with me as your local MP, and a Lord to explain the functions of the Upper House. A coach will pick you up from Melksham Town Centre, and you’ll enjoy a tour of Parliament (including the chamber of the House of Commons and Lords) and the opportunity to have tea in the Parliamentary café. Total cost is £20 per person to cover coach hire. The tour is completely free of charge. A small number of places are available on 8th January 2024. If you would like to attend, please fill out the tour form by emailing me at [email protected]. Alternatively, you can pop by my office on 61 New Road, Chippenham. |
|
Melksham Hospital Steering Group |
🩺🏥 Productive first meeting of my Melksham Hospital Campaign Steering Group over at the Community Campus 👇 👨⚕️ Having long campaigned for local funding, we know that getting investment and a plan in place to upgrade the site in Melksham will not be an overnight change, so this group is all about getting the right people in the room to work out how we can make it happen. 🤝 Membership includes local surgeries, Friends of Melksham Hospital, representation for our local councils, and the ICB (who manage the NHS budget locally) also attended. 📝 Our next step is to push for a business case, which would formally outline the additional services which an upgraded site could offer. ↗️ This includes building the evidence to show that additional local services would not only benefit the Melksham area, but also our larger hospitals nearby in Bath, Bristol and Swindon, freeing up capacity for them to carry out more urgent care and operations, for example. 💉Being able to use Melksham for routine tests, appointments or minor treatment would also significantly reduce the amount of time and money spent travelling to our larger hospitals, something which I know is an issue for many folks. 📈 Whilst we look to progress a business case, I am also pushing the Department for Health for further investment to help make this a reality and I have invited the Health Secretary to join me at Melksham Hospital to see the potential for the site himself. |
|
|
Business Leaders Roundtable |
|
📣 I recently organised a productive Business Leaders Roundtable at Leigh Park Hotel in Bradford on Avon, bringing together business leaders from a whole host of industries based across the constituency. All of those attending have invested here in Wiltshire and created high quality jobs for local people. 🍃☀️ We discussed what makes Wiltshire an attractive place to invest and work in, some of the challenges that local businesses have faced and how we can best support them, as well as skills, training and future opportunities.👨🌾 🌸 Bringing together all of the key stakeholders like Wiltshire Council and Cllr Nick Botterill, the Swindon & Wiltshire LEP, Wessex Chamber and Wiltshire College with businesses and employers is absolutely key to encouraging working together and helping our local economy thrive. 📈🤝 From our small, local and independent businesses, all the way up to our largest employers, I am always keen to support them however I can as the local MP, from bringing business owners together directly with the Minister, to running a free digital skills event earlier this year for more than 70 local businesses. 💼 Thank you to all of those who took the time to attend - I will be picking up all of the suggestions and meeting Ministers to raise this feedback too. I will be running similar events in the future so please do let me know if you would like to attend or if you are a local business and would like me to visit or raise something with me. 👨💼👩💼 |
|
|
Amazing Day At It's A Knockout! |
|
💪🥵 It was an amazing day taking part in It’s A Knockout to raise money for Wiltshire Air Ambulance! 💚 A huge THANK YOU to everyone who has donated and supported us so far. 🚁 🏃♀️🏃♀️ Such a fun day and loads of wacky challenges - we have raised nearly £1500 so far from all of the very kind support! |
|
New Investment Into Devizes |
|
🍻 Fantastic opportunity to visit Wadworth’s brand new multi-million pound brewery on Folly Road in Devizes earlier this month - a real vote of confidence in the area and its economy and another real Wiltshire success story! 📈 🏭 Wadworth’s former site is a Grade II listed building dating back to 1885 and much of the plant, equipment and main brewery building is coming to the end of its useful life, so this new state of the art development is an exciting opportunity for Wadworth to diversify their beer offering and support their pubs and customers more effectively. ⚡️The new site also allows them to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and cut down on road miles as they are now able to package and bottle on site. Thank you to Toby and Andy for taking the time to show me around the new site, and a huge congratulations to everyone at Wadworth who has worked on this amazing new development!👷♂️ |
|
Caenhill Countryside Centre |
|
🚜 I also had a fantastic chance to visit Caenhill Countryside Centre just outside Devizes and meet with Chris Franklin, Kara Robertson, Helie Franklin and all the animals! The Centre is a project run by the Chatty Farmer, aka Chris Franklin, and his very dedicated team, which brings countryside learning to children, young people and community groups. They have also built a huge online following with a whopping 547,000 followers! Local schools like Melksham Oak Community School visit on a regular basis and help take care of the animals. I really enjoyed meeting all the animals and I especially enjoyed feeding Big Ben the cow! The Centre are looking for volunteers with particular skills - good with animals, builders, painters, gardeners and nature lovers - so do let them know if you could spare some time! |
|
|
|
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 |
|
Online Safety Bill Becomes Law |
🌐 The Online Safety Bill which I have been working on in my Ministerial role has now passed through Parliament and has become law, a game-changing moment that will make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. Since taking on this brief last year, I have been determined to get the bill into law whilst making sure that we take a common-sense approach to making what is illegal offline now illegal online, delivering on our manifesto commitment. I have also personally strengthened protections for children to ensure we have a zero-tolerance approach to keeping young people safe from illegal and harmful content. Social media platforms will have a duty to👇 🛡️ Remove illegal content quickly or prevent it from appearing in the first place 📲 Prevent children from accessing harmful and age-inappropriate content 📵 Enforce age limits and age-checking measures 💬 Provide parents and children with a clear method for reporting problems online The bill also gives adults more control over what they see online, places a legal responsibility on platforms to enforce their terms and conditions, gives users the option to filter out harmful content, as well as introducing laws to tackle online fraud and violence against women and girls. Those companies not following the laws set out in the bill will face fines of up to £18 million or up to 10% of annual turnover, whichever is highest - meaning fines for the biggest platforms could reach billions of pounds. This is a really significant moment for tackling online safety once and for all - thank you to all of those campaigners, charities, survivors of online abuse and those in Parliament who have helped shape this landmark piece of legislation. |
|
|
|
🌾 I recently supported the NFU’s #BackBritishFarming day in Parliament - the perfect opportunity to thank our farmers and rural workers for all of their hard work putting food on our tables and maintaining our beautiful Wiltshire countryside.🌳 I know that this has been challenging time for the industry, and this year for local farmers I have👇 📣 Hosted a productive Farmer’s Roundtable in Melksham with the NFU and the Rural Payments Agency, to hear from local farmers directly and discuss the challenges they face. I have picked up all of their feedback with the Environment Secretary and Farming Minister 🚜 Helped secure £2.6 million from the Rural Prosperity Fund for Wiltshire to support land projects and encourage our rural economy to thrive 🇬🇧 Supported the Prime Minister’s drive to back British and cut red tape to help farmers diversify their land ✂️ ⚙️ Helped secure over £120,000 for farmers and foresters from the Farming and Tech Fund 💬 Following my roundtable I will be organising a further event for local farmers and land owners to speak to Defra directly and get any help they need |
|
|
Additional Funding For Bus Services |
|
🚌 The Prime Minister has announced the extension of the Government’s £2 bus fare until 31 December 2024, backed by £600 million of funding. 🎉 This is a vital step in revitalising our bus routes and restoring connectivity, especially in our beautiful rural countryside. 🛤️🌄 As your MP, I understand the significance of accessible and affordable transport in our remote areas. Extending this fare initiative will not only boost bus ridership but also reconnect our communities, getting our bus routes back to pre-COVID usage. This extension also comes off the back of the £2.1 million of funding I secured with my fellow Wiltshire MP's for local bus services. 🚌👥 |
|
|
- I recently revisited Christ Church in Bradford on Avon to catch up with Becky Strike and Stephen Pike to hear all about how their project to restore the Victorian church and turn it into a hub for the community.
|
- 👨🌾🐄🌾 The next Devizes Farmers Market will be taking place on Saturday 2 December from 9am - 3pm in Market Place. A great chance to get stocked up and support local Wiltshire farmers and food producers. The market takes place on the first Saturday of every month so do pop along and support our local traders!
|
- I have chased the Department for Transport for an update regarding the Strategic Outline Business Case submitted for Corsham Station, which I was the lead sponsor for.
|
- I visited Nationwide in Chippenham to celebrate their 60th anniversary - they have made a ‘Branch Promise’, so branches in Wiltshire including Chippenham, Devizes and Melksham will stay until at least 2026, something I am very supportive of.
|
|
- 🎄🎅 Could you spare some time over December to help Devizes Lions with their Father Christmas float? The group are looking for some willing volunteers to support the float with making its way round town in the run up to Christmas. Without extra help the float may not be able to run this year, so please do reach out to them via 0345 8336749 or their Facebook page if you would be interested! ❄️☃️
|
- Met representatives from Melksham Tennis Club to meet the team and see their fantastic facilities!
|
|
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 |
|
