The Romsey Advertiser 10 Oct 08

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 10th Oct 2008

After the recess and the party conference season there will be plenty of things to occupy my time on my return to Westminster.

Over the summer I have been out and about, talking to people, and personal financial security has shot right up the political agenda. Even before the credit crunch many were concerned about increased food, energy and fuel prices but many now have more widespread financial concerns. Also, over the last few months, I have received a large number of letters about Equitable Life. All of these will form the basis of parliamentary questions over the forthcoming weeks.

Closely linked to financial security is job security. Locally we have seen jobs lost at Ford and in the public sector and it would appear that there are more to come.

There is also a concern about the large numbers of houses which are being foisted on the area. Interestingly, the first letter I ever wrote to the Romsey Advertiser was about the large housebuilding programme that had been overseen by the Conservatives so it is somewhat ironic that they now try to appear anti house building. I have had a very mixed postbag on this. There are clearly a lot of people who don't want any new house anywhere but there are others who point out the shortage of housing for local people and suggest that more is needed. In all of this though it is a mystery to me why the Borough Council is suggesting a large housing development at Whitenap. This is grade 2 agricultural land and other, less farmable land, appears to have been overlooked. This is another topic that I shall be working on.

Transport is a perennial hot topic. It is depressing to note how much time and energy is put into trying to save various services.

There are always plenty of health related matters to pursue but I always find it interesting to think how the nature of complaints has changed over the last 8 years. People used to complain about excessive waiting times but complaints now are more likely to be about an individual experience or involve a loss of dignity. On a more general scale, I shall be doing more work on emergency and out of hours services and access to services.

Sometimes a problem affects many people but sometimes it is unique to an individual. There are many things that are not mentioned above but if there is something you think I should be looking at then please get in touch as often I am first made aware of a subject by a member of the public. I look forward to hearing from you

Published with kind permission of the Romsey Advertiser