More development in Rugby

Last year I spent a couple of days at the design inquiry for the mast site which is at the eastern side of Rugby’s urban area. On Friday I attended an exhibition of proposals for development of what is known as the “Gateway” site which is to the west of the Leicester road and up to the M6 Motorway. This is a large site where the proposals are for 1300 houses and 36 hectares of employment land with an anticipated 2400 jobs. In many ways this is a more obvious site for development than the mast site but many of the concerns are the same. It will be important that infrastructure is in place before much of the development takes place and there is anxiety about the capacity of the Leicester road which although a dual carriageway will take all of the traffic from the Western Relief Rd when it opens later this year. It will be important that new residents are able to easily access the town centre in order to keep their spend here in Rugby and there is already a great deal of pressure on the Avon Mill roundabout. In addition links to the existing community of Coton Park on the other side of the Leicester road will need to be considered closely. All in all done well this can be a benefit to Rugby, but there is much detail still to be looked at. You can see a short film of my remarks about these development proposals here.

Actual records or a survey?

Chris Grayling Shadow Home Secretary today said that he will continue to judge crime statistics on police records rather than an opinion survey. There is a disagreement between the Government and the Conservatives over which set of crime figures to use. Labour prefer the British Crime Survey - which shows a fall in crime - but which is based on an opinion survey rather than real records and fails to take account of hundreds of thousands of offences including murder, manslaughter, crimes against commercial premises and crimes against under-16s. We have consistently argued in favour of using recorded crime figures as collated by the police in police stations. When it comes to decisions making in Business or in Government and given a choice between a survey and recorded data, I know which I would rather rely on.

On the doorstep in Hillmorton

After the town centre stall on Saturday morning I spent the afternoon with Councillors Sewell, Allen and Kathryn Lawrence. We knocked on doors with our survey and people were pleased to see us. Not so many years ago there wasn't a single Conservative Councillor in this ward. However with Bill winning first seat, by working hard and earning a reputation for getting things done all three ward Councillors are now Conservatives. It was good to hear residents tell me how effective their local Councillors are and this really is the Conservative localism agenda in practice.

Town centre survey

Saturday was a busy day for campaigning starting off with a street stall in the town centre. Despite a bitterly cold day we had a great team out asking questions and handing out leaflets. Even more impressive was that many people wanted to stop and chat with their thoughts on who will get their vote in May. With the messages we are putting out it's great when people tell me that we cant go on like this and that its time for a change in the county. Our survey is also on line where we're picking up a clear idea of how people feel here in Rugby.

Teaching Cooking

My daughter, who is in Year 7, has been given at school a recipe book to bring home which complements her cookery lessons. Nothing wrong with that, but it contains a foreward by Rt Hon Ed Balls MP including his photo, without anywhere referring to his position in Government, and containing the quote ".....with millions of pounds invested in building and revamping teaching kitchens in schools etc". Is this a reasonable teaching aid or the political targeting of pupils at an early age and their parents? Should the Minister's photo and comments appear in such a document? Should his remarks triumph the Government's expenditure in this area? Is it what we should expect from a politician such as Ed Balls? Or am I being too sensitive?

Holocaust Memorial Day

On Sunday Tracy and I attended a Holocaust Memorial Day Service at St Andrew's Church. This is celebrated internationally on 27 January, being the date on which the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated. We heard a very moving account from Susi Bechhofer, a resident of Rugby for many years who told us about how she found out that she was a survivor of the Holocaust. At the age of three with her twin sister, Susi was transported to Britain under a scheme known as Kindertransport when 10,000 Jewish children were sent to relative safety around the world in 1938 and 1939 as people started to become aware of Nazi intentions. Susi only learnt about her background later in life when she sat an exam and her birth name was revealed. This prompted her to find out about her past and unsurprisingly many of her relatives were killed in the concentration camps. In his remarks, Rev Mark Beach referred to more recent genocides, including Rwanda and my mind was taken back to my visits there over the past two summers. The capital of Rwanda, Kigali has its own Memorial centre, where I look this photo of those who were killed during the attrocities of 1994.

Alstom's impact in Rugby

Continuing my visits to industry in Rugby, earlier this week I met Steve Houldcroft and Stephen Burgin at Alstom's Newbold Road site. This is one of our biggest employers although numbers at the site have reduced in recent years. I learnt a great deal about power generation and concerns that we are facing a shortage of capacity as old nuclear and coal fired plants are de-commissioned before new, mostly gas powered, plants come on line. I was shown the massive turbines that are used in the generation of electricity and was hugely impressed by the skill that goes into their manufacture. Here is a sector which has undergone big changes in recent years and it is important that we provide the environment and support which will ensure that this type of industry is retained both in Rugby and within the UK.