Happy New Year to all Gazette readers and constituents of Brentwood and Ongar.
After a politically tumultuous 2022, I was delighted to see the Prime Minister kick of 2023 with a clear five-point plan to build the foundations for a better, more prosperous future.
The after-effects of the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have had a significant impact on the cost of living and on public services and its very good to see the PM in his first months in the job getting to grips with these key issues.
The Prime Minister has made five key promises for 2023 including halving inflation to ease the cost of living, and ensuring national debt falls so we have more money to spend on public services. He also has plans to grow the economy to create better paid jobs and opportunities across the country.
The NHS is currently experiencing one of the busiest winter surges in recent times, and I am reassured the Prime Minister and the Health Secretary are urgently looking at how to make more care home beds available for convalescent care to enable those who are no longer in need of hospital treatment to be discharged. I know Brentwood Community Hospital and the NELFT Trust have done amazing work with their frailty unit for older people in the town, and I hope the work done there will continue to ease pressure on the large acute hospitals in Romford, Basildon and Chelmsford.
Many of my constituents write to me regularly expressing anger at the number of people travelling to Britain in small boats from France without the correct paperwork or authority to do so. The PM has renewed his promise to pass laws to stop these boats and the people smugglers behind them, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed.
Here in Brentwood and Ongar I will continue to resist proposals by National Grid to build a line of pylons across some of our beautiful countryside in Ingatestone, pursue a Weight Restriction Order for Ongar High Street, and persist in the quest for a lift to Platform 4 at Brentwood, making the Elizabeth Line stations truly step free. As ever, please send me your thoughts. Here’s to a good 2023!
