Since becoming the Member of Parliament for Brentwood and Ongar last year I have made it a priority to visit all my local schools. The other day I had the pleasure of seeing the great work being done at West Horndon Primary. The school has a huge amount of character, from its brightly coloured décor, to its radio station, to the double-decker bus in its playground.
I can see why the school is so popular and am delighted that it plans to expand its intake from 2019. I was fortunate enough to visit on Popcorn Day, so the smell of freshly popped corn was wafting around the school as I was being shown all the school has to offer – including its rather intrepid sounding Forest School days in which pupils get to experience living and surviving in the wild.
While in West Horndon I also caught up with the Parish Council who are working hard to ensure the voices of villagers are heard as Brentwood Borough Council strives to complete its Local Development Plan. As a Member of Parliament I have no jurisdiction over planning matters so cannot wave a magic wand to make sure everything happens as everyone wants it to. But I make it a priority to listen to and understand the concerns of all my constituents so I can pass them on to the powers that be.
The Parish Council took me through the issues that residents have with some of the future plans for local development and I’ll be sure that these are heard by the relevant authorities. As I said to the Parish Council, the process now appears to be in its closing stages so the opportunities for major changes are likely to be limited – nevertheless it’s very important that dialogue between planners and local people remains open to the last.