Dear Constituent,

Good evening and welcome to a bumper edition of the Denton and Reddish weekly news. 

There's lots to update you on, including a busy couple of weeks in Parliament and across Denton and Reddish. A reminder too that this Sunday, Friends of the Tame Valley will be hosting a riverside rubbish pick up. We'll meet at the bottom of Fairlea (satnav: M34 6EH) at 9am. Scroll down to the community board for all the details!

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has welcomed Labour’s commitment to introducing breakfast clubs for every child.

Last week, the party outlined plans to rollout breakfast clubs to every primary school in England, providing access to fully-funded childcare and a healthy meal for every child. Recent analysis conducted by Labour showed that over 450,000 children in the North West currently have limited access to breakfast clubs.

69% of primary schools in the North West have ‘barriers’ to disadvantaged children and young people accessing provision, including the cost to families and schools of running breakfast clubs, a perceived lack of need in areas of high deprivation and caps on places for children on Free School Meals.

Labour’s approach would be funded by money raised from abolishing non-dom tax status for the super rich. It is estimated that if Labour’s policy was implemented families could save over £60-a-week compared to other forms of before school childcare.

Commenting on the announcement, Andrew Gwynne said:

“I’m incredibly proud that Labour has committed to introducing breakfast clubs for every child at primary school.

"There is clear, irrefutable evidence that breakfast clubs raise standards of learning for children, provide crucial before-school childcare and will help us build an economy fit for the future.

"This is the first step on the road to a modern system of childcare, and one that will make a real difference to families across Denton and Reddish.”

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, is supporting a Marie Curie campaign calling on the Government to prevent terminally ill people dying in poverty.

The campaign follows recent research which shows that every hour, one in ten people die in poverty. The research also shows that working age people with children are more likely than any other group to fall below the poverty line at the end of life.

Campaigners are now calling on the Government to support terminally ill-people with childcare costs and soaring energy bills, and ensure that those who are given a terminal diagnosis can access the support that they need.

Earlier this month, Gwynne joined Marie Curie at a Parliamentary event to show his support for the campaign, and urged to put pressure on the Government to do more to help those who are terminally ill.

Commenting, Andrew Gwynne said: 

“As the cost of living crisis intensifies and we approach the winter months, it is more important than ever that we do everything we can to prevent people dying in poverty.

“These figures are absolutely shocking, and should be a wake up call for the Government step up and do more.

“Absolutely no one should be dying in poverty in 21st Century Britain.”

To find out more about the dying in poverty campaign, click here. 

Pictured: Gwynne at a Parliamentary event in support of the campaign last month.

Andrew Gwynne, MP for Denton and Reddish, has called on the Government to do more to support nuclear test veterans and their descendants.

Gwynne’s intervention came on the 70th anniversary of Operation Hurricane, the first British Nuclear test.

Atomic testing in the UK began in 1952. 45 nuclear tests were carried out, with devastating effects on service personnel and their families.

Veterans present at the tests have died from unexplained pancreatic damage, numerous brain tumours and many were left sterile. Families of servicemen have been found to suffer with ten times the usual rates of birth defects.

Gwynne has long called on the Government to issue an apology to nuclear test veterans, recognise their contribution, and provide proper targeted support to those affected.

Commenting, Andrew Gwynne said:

“Earlier this week was the 70^th anniversary of Operation Hurricane. For 70 years veterans and their families have suffered extraordinary hardship as a result of this operation.

“Despite the Prime Minister promising in August to support to Nuclear Test Veterans, the Government has still not grasped the suffering visited upon brave veterans and their relatives.

“The Government needs to do much more, and give veterans the support and recognition they deserve.”

On Tuesday it was my pleasure to drop in to see Denton resident, Joan Emery, with Councillor Allison Gwynne.

Joan is the latest recipient of my Citizen’s Award, and she was nominated by members of the public for her dedication to the Whit Friday Band Contest which she, her husband Bill and other volunteers, have helped to run for almost four decades.

After 38 years managing the Denton Contest at Denton Cricket Club, Joan is retiring… the Cricket Club will be managing the event themselves in the future. However, Joan is still going to be on hand to advise the Club on everything they need to do.

The Whit Friday Band Contest is a brilliant event which sees bands from all over the North of England and further afield competing at Denton and several other Tameside venues. Dubbed as the best free show on earth, we’ve a lot to thank Joan for.

A very well deserved award. Well done and thank you, Joan!  

A massive thank you to Pink Ladies Dessert owner Hadis for inviting me and Allison in to her brilliant coffee shop and café in Denton.

It’s always great to help promote small businesses in the constituency and Pink Ladies is definitely a #DestinationDenton hit.

Hadis makes all her own amazing cakes, and they sell everything from breakfasts to hot meals to afternoon teas. They even have traditional Persian meals on their menu.

Cosy, friendly and amazing fare… please pop in and support them if you can!
#ShopLocal

It was great to pop along to the Friends of Reddish South Station’s Macmillan Cancer Support’s #BigCoffeeMorning on Saturday on the station platform.

Nice cake great company and all for a brilliant cause! Well done to all at FORSS!

A good morning out last Sunday with Team Denton West and the Friends of Ladbroke Wood litterpicking around Jackson Gardens and the woodland around the site of Denton Hall.

It’s a great new group and it’s lovely to see so many caring for their local environment

Earlier in the week I was invited by the The National Lottery Community Fund to visit Denton’s Carmel Christian Centre to visit their “Carmel Community Café”.

This Lottery-supported project opens on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and it supports many of the various user groups at Carmel Christian Centre - from mums going to Baby Sensory, people coming to Knit and Natter or the craft club, through to those accessing support services for alcohol and drug addiction, or seeking assistance from Christians Against Poverty.

The Café has received a National Lottery grant to enable them to employ someone to manage the facility, alongside the brilliant volunteers. It was lovely to speak to two young men who’d started volunteering at the café via the addiction support services. Now they have paid employment in the catering sector - a real success story.

What a brilliant project this is. Thanks for showing me and Allison around: and the cheese pie (and Allison’s toastie) was epic!

It was my pleasure to join Councillor Mike Smith and Councillor Brenda Warrington on a visit to the Dane Bank Green Space earlier this week.

We were invited by Manchester Airport Community Trust Fund to see some of the work they’ve helped to fund, including two new notice boards. It’s amazing how much has changed on site with new fencing, paths, tree planting, angling pegs, the Forest School and with much more to come.

A massive well done to the committee and to all the volunteers for making this happen! It’s a real oasis in the middle of Denton’s West End! 

I had a great time thanking the brilliant The Bread and Butter Thing volunteers at the Haughton Green Centre with the Team Denton South Councillors last month. 

TBBT is a fantastic charity where perfectly good supermarket food that would, in the past, have gone to waste, is packaged up into food packs for £7 a week.

Often there’s over £35-worth of food in those packs. But none of this would happen without the fantastic people who turn up weekly to unload the van, sort the food into packs and then distribute the packs to TBBT members.

A big well done and thank you all!

A huge thank you to the Dukinfield Craft Group, which is run by Royal Exchange Theatre and Jigsaw Homes for inviting me to the club to meet members and to receive their fantastic cost of living banner.

The group has been using “Crafivism” to think about how the cost of living crisis is affecting them, and to express their feelings, concerns, worries and hopes in the banner.

It’s a really powerful piece of artwork which will hang in my constituency office for a time. It’s also a big reminder to me that we need to build an economy that works for everyone and not just those at the very top already.

It was lovely to meet everybody and thanks also to actor, Julie Hesmondhalgh, for coming down too.
#craftivism

WATCH: The #MiniBudget is the economics of the madhouse storing up unsustainable debt at the point interest rates are rising to cut taxes for the rich.

If the Chancellor was a Councillor, his council would be declared bankrupt and Commissioners would be brought in. 

(Thanks to Diana Johnson’s office for clipping for me while Griffin was on leave!)

WATCH: At Business Questions I ask the new Leader of the House what’s happening to the previous administration’s ambition to “level-up”.

I’m particularly keen on an opportunity to press for Tameside Council’s Levelling-Up Fund bid for #DestinationDenton.

(Thanks to Barbara Keeley's Office for clipping!) 

 WATCH: The Tories have broken their 2019 manifesto promise on Fracking.

Ministers say it can now happen where there’s “community support” but they also know the planning appeal rules do not allow public opinion to be a planning consideration, which means approval can be granted irrespective of the views of the community or local authority.

 WATCH: We’ve had an Urgent Question on the Government’s support package for businesses facing energy price hikes.

I ask about the hospitality sector and raise the case of Howard’s Neighbourhood Bar & Deli in Denton. I hope they, and others, get the longer support they also need. 

 Last month, I had the first day back of a new era in Parliament. My first task is to swear a new oath and take my seat. Previously I’ve only done this after a General Election.

READ: In the latest edition of the Tameside Reporter, I've written about Liz Truss' dreadful 'mini-budget' and what it means for the people of Tameside.

Since starting the job Truss has crashed the pound, forced the Bank of England to rescue pension pots, and driven up mortgage rates during a cost-of-living crisis.

Now more than ever, we need a Government that is responsible and committed to delivering fair growth for everyone.

Read the full column here.

READ: Despite Avanti's consistently shocking management of the West Coast Mainline, the Department of Transport has decided to give the company another six-month rail contract and a warning.

Passengers across Greater Manchester have been subjected to timetable mayhem, increased prices and misery. Confidence in the West Coast mainline will only come back once Avanti is stripped of the franchise.

Thanks to the Manchester Evening News for including my thoughts on this disappointing decision here.