Newspaper column 26 July 2023 - A weekend with our emergency services

 

After a busy time in Westminster over the last few months, Parliament has now risen for the Summer Recess. This means I will be spending the rest of July and August working in our constituency. I look forward to being out and about meeting with local people, businesses and community groups in order to understand what matters to you and how I can best represent you as your Member of Parliament.

Towards the end of last week it was good to spend time with members of our emergency services. Firstly, I met with representatives from the police, fire service and ambulance service to discuss the Tri Service Support Officer (TSSO) role.

TSSOs are jointly funded by the police, fire service via Cornwall Council and the NHS, and work across Cornwall. They are embedded in local communities and are available to respond to urgent needs across all three services. This often means a quicker response to help save lives, treat people, solve incidents, and reduce demand on Cornwall’s three emergency services.

There are currently 13 TSSOs across Cornwall including in St Dennis and Fowey, with more planned for our constituency in the months ahead.

As well as responding to urgent incidents, they also visit homes, businesses, community venues and care homes to provide support and advice, gather intelligence and be a visible presence in the community.

TSSOs also attended 604 police logs, responded to 493 ambulance calls, conducted 486 home risk reduction visits, and spent nearly 4000 hours on safeguarding activity.

Their presence also enabled fire engines to be available to respond to emergencies 1207 hours more than if they weren’t in post.

The emergency services are looking to continue growing the service in Cornwall, by increasing the number of Tri-Service officers to 20, with recruitment starting subject to obtaining the necessary funding before the end of 2023 and I will be doing all I can to support them in this.

Later in the day I went out with St Austell Police as an observer on the late shift. Thanks to PC Jo Holmes for allowing me to accompany her on patrol and see a wide variety of the actions that the police carry out over the course of a shift.

It's always enlightening to spend time with the Police, and it is important to ensure the Government gives them the tools they need to get the job done.

In April of this year the Government fulfilled its commitment to provide an additional 20,000 police officers nationally since 2019.

This included 600 more police officers for Devon and Cornwall, making it easier for our police force to crack down on crimes and be pro-active in tackling issues such as anti-social behaviour that I am often contacted about.

Alongside this, the Government’s Beating Crime Plan will deliver a safer Britain alongside record funding for our police, with a £17.2 billion policing budget for 2023–2024. This is alongside the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act which is giving the police and courts the powers they need to tackle serious crime head on. The Government is also delivering its Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, backed by £100 million in funding, making our streets and neighbourhoods safer for women and girls.

Since 2010, crime excluding fraud has been cut by over 50 per cent – making our communities safer. Theft has been reduced by 20 per cent and domestic burglary by 30 per cent. The Government has also taken 90,000 knives off our streets through stop and search, surrender initiatives and targeted police action since 2019.

I will continue to work with our local police force to ensure they are fully represented, and with the Government as we give our police and court systems the powers and resources they need to fight crime and punish offenders appropriately.

If I can be of assistance or help on any matter, please get in touch with my office on 01726 829379 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk

Newspaper column 19 July 2023 - Cleaning up our waters

The poor weather last week and over the weekend saw numerous alerts across our beaches as storm discharges occurred from the wastewater network.

As ever this will lead to people criticising the Government over their perceived lack of action in this area, despite these claims being very far from the truth.

We have a very antiquated sewage infrastructure across much of the country. Apart from anything else, if the outlets don’t discharge, they would be backing up and the contents would end up in peoples houses and businesses. And the discharges themselves are not a new thing – they have been going on for many years. What is new is that this Government is the first to actually grasp the problem and try to do something about it. The first step to doing something about it is to establish the scale of the problem, in order to be able to understand and deal with it, which is what we have done with the alerts. This now shows the scope of the problem, and it is now for the Government to work with the water industry to take practical and sensible steps to resolve it.

Part of this work is done by the Environment Agency, the body responsible for regulating water pollution. The Environment Agency produces an annual assessment of the environmental performance of all nine water and sewerage companies in England which includes star ratings for each company. Last week they published the latest set of annual results, which showed that South West Water improved its performance slightly, moving up to a 2-star company (from 1-star in 2021). The Environment Agency states that they hope this shows the start of a positive shift in culture under new leadership within the company. Yesterday I met with Susan Davy, CEO of the Pennon Group, which owns South West Water, about these results, and was clear that the Government will continue to apply robust regulation and conduct thorough performance reviews to ensure this momentum is maintained.

There is still much work to be done and I hope that this year South West Water will reduce pollutions further via focussed investment in infrastructure, applied learning from past mistakes and an improved data driven approach driven by the additional alert system put in place by the Government via the Environment Act.

Of course, while the increased monitoring and assessment of water companies such as South West Water appears to be getting things to head in the right direction, we still need to be able to take strong action to punish offenders when things go wrong.

Currently, the maximum variable monetary penalty that can be imposed for a wide range of environmental offences is capped at £250,000. This is not an effective deterrent for very large operators, such as water companies, as it may be cheaper for them to pay the penalty, or several penalties, than to solve the underlying issue.

This week the Government is putting legislation through Parliament that will remove the cap entirely to make the penalty unlimited, meaning that penalties can be proportionate to the degree of environmental harm and culpability and can act as a powerful deterrent.

The Government is also introducing unlimited variable monetary penalties as a civil sanction for offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016, so in future the Environment Agency has all the tools it needs to change the behaviour of organisations who break the law.

There is always more to do when it comes to tackling the pollution of our seas and waterways. This is something I know is so important to our constituency and I will continue working locally and in Westminster to ensure the views of local people are represented and that the Government continues to do all it can to tackle this issue.

If I can be of assistance or help on any matter, please get in touch with my office on 01726 829379 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk

 

Newspaper column 12 July 2023 - Childcare changes

One of the things raised most often with me, both by local parents and by childcare providers, has been the urgent need to reform the childcare system. The current model has often been described as a hindrance to helping parents get back into and continue in work, as well as difficult to deliver effectively by the many excellent local businesses and charities who do so.  

I was pleased to see the Chancellor recognise these issues earlier this year, with his Spring Budget Statement containing measures in this area which I have long campaigned for. These included reforms to childcare, in terms of additional government funded childcare for children under five, as well as increased hourly rates for nursery providers which will make it so much easier for parents to work, and also support the providers of this essential service.

Last week, I was pleased to see Cornwall given a key early role in the Government’s plans to deliver another priority announced in the Budget, its ambition for all parents of primary school aged children to access childcare in their local area between 8am and 6pm.

Cornwall Council is one of 16 local authorities from across England that has been selected to work with the government to develop plans for this universal provision, with some of these areas expected to be the first to rollout the wraparound care as early as summer 2024, with the provision expected to roll out to the rest of the country later in the year.

This is great news for Cornwall and I look forward to seeing Cornwall Council working with primary schools across our Duchy to deliver this provision early for the families and children that need it.

On top of this, the Government also confirmed last week that nurseries are set to receive a £204 million cash boost as part of the Government’s promise to deliver the largest ever investment in childcare.

Every area across the country is getting a share of the government funding which childcare providers can use to ease cost pressures such as staffing costs, training and other running costs.

The increase in funding will support the early years sector to deliver the biggest investment in childcare ever, and I am sure will have been welcomed by the early years settings across Mid Cornwall that I have met with about the changes that were needed in the past.

From April 2024, eligible working parents of two-year-olds will get a new offer of 15 government funded hours per week. From September 2024, eligible parents will get 15 government funded hours from nine months until their children start school, and from September 2025, they will get 30 government funded hours from nine months until the start of school.

Altogether, these reforms to childcare, along with additional changes to how childcare is taken into account for people in receipt of Universal Credit, and additional changes to the operation of childcare settings, will help with overall operation of the childcare system, removing significant barriers to support parents to return to work and help to grow the economy by making childcare more accessible to all.

Aside from this, I also wanted to touch upon the changes to ticket office provision proposed at various stations, including St Austell, by GWR last week. GWR have announced that as part of a national exercise, they are looking at potentially closing a number of ticket offices at railway stations around their rail network.

Under these proposals the ticket office staff at St Austell Station would be redeployed to different roles at the station, and the ticket office closed, within a year. GWR say that their plan is to redeploy ticket office staff to be more visible and accessible in the wider station and on platforms, to provide help, advice and information to all passengers.

GWR say this is because on average less than 15% of tickets are purchased from ticket offices at their stations. However their own figures show that in St Austell the numbers of people buying tickets from the ticket offices are more than double that.

GWR are consulting on their proposals for the next two weeks.

I am running my own survey on this issue, so you can let me know how often you use the ticket office at St Austell Station and what you think about these proposals, so I can feedback to GWR as the Member of Parliament on behalf of local people.

You can fill out my survey on the proposed changes at St Austell Station via the link on my website below:

https://www.stevedouble.org.uk/st-austell-station-survey

If I can be of assistance or help on any matter, please get in touch with my office on 01726 829379 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk

Newspaper column 5 July 2023 - good news for lithium extraction in Cornwall!

Over recent years, Cornwall has increasingly become a leader in the UK in delivering sustainable energy and green industries.

Just recently we have seen, for example, the switching on of the Eden Geothermal plant, which harnesses the geothermal energy beneath our feet to power both the Eden Project and other associated infrastructure in a green and sustainable way.

Last week saw even more progress in Cornwall’s sustainable ambitions, with the announcement of a new joint venture partnership between Imerys Minerals and British Lithium to extract and process commercial battery grade lithium right here in Mid-Cornwall.

Cornwall of course, has a long history of mining. In the 19^th Century we were the silicon valley of the UK, leading the way in the extraction and production of materials needed to drive industry and the economy at the time.

In the 21^st century we are looking more than ever to a green and sustainable future – it is a necessity, and something that the Government takes very seriously, looking to end sales of new petrol and diesel cars to end in the UK by 2030.

Lithium is a major component in electric vehicle batteries, and as such is a highly sought out mineral, one of the most coveted in the world. Having a supply of it and the means to extract and process it in Cornwall, is a major boost, not just for our Duchy but for the UK, for which having one of the only available sources of lithium in this part of the world will be a strategic advantage, decreasing our dependence on other sources. As well as the implications nationally, there will of course be a significant benefit to our local economy, in terms of hundreds of well paid, highly skilled jobs, a real boost to our existing mining operations in this area, and just the sort of investment that we need.

One thing that has been raised with me in the past is around the potential environmental impact that lithium extract will have on our area, based on the significant works we have seen for the extraction of china clay and the similar way in which lithium is extracted in other places internationally. I am pleased to see that British Lithium have again innovated and have pioneered an extraction method for lithium which will keep environmental impact to a minimum, as well as typically operating at the bottom of existing china clay pits. This is really good news as it means that there should not be any major changes to the landscape beyond what we already have, and additional work to extract lithium will be taking place on brownfield sites that are already in use.

I look forward to seeing the partnership between British Lithium and Imerys evolve and develop and their operations to extract and process lithium start in Cornwall over the coming years.

If I can be of assistance or help on any matter, please get in touch with my office on 01726 829379 or email office@stevedouble.org.uk