Yesterday I held my next round of Parish Council Roundtable meetings.
I held the first round of these in Westminster last year, where each of the Parish and Town councils was invited to meet with me in group sessions in Westminster as an opportunity to discuss local issues and raise concerns that they would like me to highlight to Government or to advocate for in Parliament.
The sessions were hugely valuable and so following feedback from the councils I held the next round of group sessions locally.
There were two sessions yesterday, the first in Grafham for Parish councils broadly west of the A1, and a second session in St Ives for those to the east.
There were a variety of issues raised; Local Government Reorganisation was a concern, flooding and flood prevention/mitigation continues to be an issue. Planning and the lack of supporting transport infrastructure and local services is an ongoing frustration. A lack of police visibility, particularly in the villages and in tackling ASB in Huntingdon was raised. Education, youth provision and SEND reform is also a worry. I was particularly concerned to hear about parish councillors being targeted by local residents to push through contentious planning applications; something I will urgently raise with the Government at the next opportunity.
These sessions are a fantastic conduit between grassroots local government and myself in Westminster. The next of these is provisionally scheduled for the Summer in Westminster
