After Parliament broke up for Recess last week it is good to
know I will be able to spend the next 6 weeks at home in Cornwall and not have
to travel to London. I will be aiming to spend the next few weeks getting out
and about around Mid-Cornwall visiting local people, businesses and
organisations. It is always good to be able to spend summer recess at home and
take the opportunity to meet as many local people as possible and enjoy
Cornwall at this time of year.
Recess has got off to a busy start - I have already welcomed
the Tourism Minister to Cornwall Airport Newquay, as well as visiting the
Benefit Centre at St Austell to discuss how the rollout of the new Universal
Credit Benefit is going. On Saturday I met with a group of ladies running the "15
from 1 project" in St Dennis where they volunteer by recycling old duvet
covers into reusable shopping bags – a great local initiative.
Speaking of volunteers, on Friday, it was my pleasure, along
with the other Cornish MPs, to host a summit for volunteer organisations in
Cornwall, at St Austell Business Park.
This was an opportunity for many of our tremendously diverse
volunteer organisations, to come together, along with the Cornish MPs and an
officer from the Civil Society department, to celebrate success, share best
practice and find out what more we can do to support these organisations and
the vital work they do.
Cornwall has an amazing 4500 charities and community groups,
bringing in a combined income of around £480,000 into the economy.
It’s thought that one in three adults living in Cornwall do
some voluntary work alongside their work, family or other commitments. This has
been valued at £450 million-worth of people power. The sector also employs
21,000 people in part time or full time jobs.
Despite being one of the lowest paid places in the UK,
Cornwall is very rich in generosity, with people from Cornwall giving millions
of pounds in donations to the charities every year.
It was good to see voluntary organisations from Surfers
Against Sewage and Volunteer Cornwall, to the Merlin Centre and the Citizen’s
Advice Bureau represented at this event.
We took away lots of positive ways in which we can work
together with these great organisations to make Cornwall a better place, and
look forward to helping them get more funding, and assist more people in
volunteering for these causes in the future.
It was a busy first few days of Recess and I look forward to
continuing to get out there around Mid-Cornwall for the rest of August and see
as many of you as possible.
My team and I are here to serve the whole constituency and
work hard to make a real difference to the lives of everyone needing support.
The office is open to the public Monday – Friday 10.00am – 4.00pm (no
appointment necessary). If there is an issue you would like my assistance on
then please, either visit the office or contact me on either 01726 829379 or
office@stevedouble.org.uk. Additionally, I hold regular, appointment only,
advice surgeries across the constituency. Dates of these can be found at:
www.stevedouble.org.uk/events
