Romsey Advertiser 20 April 07

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 20th Apr 2007

Last weekend was glorious so it was good to have some outside events to attend. On Saturday I spent some time at the St Johns Ambulance HQ in Romsey, celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Romsey branch. On Sunday I spent most of the day in the Southampton part of the constituency at events as diverse as the outdoor memorial service in memory of the 95th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic and joining in the colourful Vaisakhi celebrations with the local Sikh community.

All good things come to an end and on Monday I was off to London fairly early because of the Mental Health Bill which received its second reading in the House of Commons. The bill has been very controversial and the Lords changed it in six very significant ways which received the approval of nearly all the organisations in the Mental Health Alliance. Unfortunately, the signs are that the Government plan to overturn all of that good work whilst the Bill is in the House of Commons.

The key appointment in Tuesday's diary was an appointment with official from First Great Western to discuss the train service through Romsey and the inadequate time tabling of stopping trains at the local villages. They clearly felt under siege as many MPs wanted to talk to them but the glimmer of light on the horizon is that more trains will stop at Dean and Dunbridge after December but I have yet to receive official confirmation.

Wednesday was also one of those days when constituency combined with Westminster. I spent an hour at a Young Carers discussion and there were young people, and workers, from Hampshire present. I later spent some time talking to representatives from Southampton Pensioners Forum who had travelled to London to lobby MPs about age discrimination. Unfortunately the meeting had to be slightly shortened because of an important vote in the Commons but they were very understanding when we told them that the business of the day was the Pensions Bill. The vote in question had attracted all party support and aimed to help people who had, through no fault of their own, lost their pension provision. Unfortunately the back bench rebellion was not big enough to make the Government see sense on this one.

It would be nice if the weather holds as I have a lot of outdoor activities planned for this upcoming weekend, including the Scouts' St Georges Day Parade on Sunday.

Published with kind permission of Romsey Advertiser