Week commencing Monday 25th March was the start of a short week in Westminster with legislation on Monday and Tuesday before returning north on Wednesday. The biggest issues for me though were outside the Chamber, as you will have seen there has been significant concerns raised about the future of Hitachi. I have had many meetings with Ministers, management and Unions recently and, because of the level of concerns arising over the weekend, some of the Unite union representatives journeyed to Westminster where I was pleased to meet them and other MPs and Union colleagues. I took the specific latest concerns and talked with the Secretary of State at the Department of Transport’s team, and I am going into Aycliffe plant again after the Easter weekend.
We are seeing politics interfering with the urgent efforts being made to look for a workstream to support this critical business. As your MP, I have, of course, been fully engaged in this for some considerable time and I can also assure you that the Secretary of State, Mark Harper MP, and his team have been completely committed to working for a solution. It is incomprehensible nonsense for opposition politicians to claim this “could be fixed at the stroke of a pen.” They say that “it would cost the Government nothing and would deliver salvation to the site,” well, if that were the case, I can assure you it would have been done. The reason it has not, is because it can’t be! The legal outcome of the action suggested would be litigation that the Government would be almost certain to lose, but even in the extremely remote case that it didn’t lose, the time taken through the courts would mean the orders would be too late anyway. The reason this decision is so late is because the Government have explored every possible avenue to get past the legal obstructions without success. For this reason, the focus now needs to be on other options, and I know that all possible endeavours are being made.
On other issues, I was told last week that the capping was complete in the restoration works at the quarry to stop the smells and I posted as such on Facebook. I am told that monitoring equipment will be installed to keep a check, but I have already seen negative responses saying that the smells continue and having driven past several times over the weekend, it is clear we still have a problem, so I will be pushing the Environment Agency hard. Can I please ask anyone who experiences the smells from now on to continue to report them to the Environment Agency and if you could please send us a note of where and when you experienced any smells, including a brief description of the type of smell, we will collate them and call a meeting with the Environment Agency and the Quarry.
The rest of my week in the constituency started with a call in to the Durham Youth Conference held at the Durham Centre where I encouraged participants to engage with politicians as they prepare manifestos for the next election to ensure their voices are heard. I had the pleasure of revisiting Sugar Hill School to congratulate the winners of their manifesto competition. This was about what pupils wanted to see improve in their school. The winner was the creation of a ‘Nature Classroom’ and I hope they get their wish, so I talked to them about how to canvass to get the decision makers to act.
Being Easter weekend, I was out and about calling at Aycliffe Town Centre to see the great work being done by Aycliffe Radio and Community Spirit, the Neighbourhood Police and others with Easter Bunny giving out Easter Eggs. It was lovely to see so many people in the Town Centre for a change. I also called at Chilton for their Easter Day, hosted by Chilton Town Council, before spending some time in Bishop Middleham and Sedgefield talking to residents. Easter Monday, I went to Ferryhill for their Easter Eggstravaganza, hosted by Ferryhill Town Youth FC, who are hosting an open session for disability football on Saturday 6th April at Dean Bank. Later, I then went to Ceddesfeld Hall at Sedgefield for their Easter Hunt Picnic. Despite the rain, this was well supported with around 100 children attending and loads of fun had by all.
This week I am taking a few days away as well as time in and around the constituency so, if you want to catch up, please get in touch by calling Aycliffe 01325 790580 or email:
paul.howell.mp@parliament.uk