Before the last General Election, thousands of Great Yarmouth constituents responded to my “Health Matters” survey giving their opinions on the state of our National Health Service and making suggestions about how our health care system could be improved. Much has changed since then; the Government has increased NHS spending in real terms since 2010-11 and last year local NHS bodies received an increase of more than £2.5 billion. The number of managers working in

Last Friday I visited Hemsby Beach as part of a long-running campaign to tackle coastal erosion across the Great Yarmouth coastline.  Cllr Shirley Weymouth met me at the beach, along with residents, to discuss how best to push for measures to protect the coastline. There is a great deal of enthusiasm in the community to protect Hemsby Beach – an important asset to the area.  Local residents need Great Yarmouth Borough Council to publish their

Last week I visited Hopton Beach today to see for myself the emergency work taking place to improve the coastal defences in the area.  I was joined by Cllr Barry Stone to take a look at the changing landscape of Hopton. I was pleased to see the large scale of work taking place to better protect Hopton Beach.  This work is, however, only an emergency measure to prevent the increasing problem of coastal erosion in

The Chancellor was clear and honest in his message yesterday – times are still tough and will continue to be so for families and businesses across the UK for the next few years.  There is no magic wand with which to fix our economy, no matter what the Labour Party may say.  What the government can do (and is doing), however, is give the British people the right tools to create jobs and growth and

Last week I was given a tour of the Louise Hamilton Centre  in the grounds of the James Paget Hospital. The £1.5 million centre is working with a long list of partners including The Big C and the Alzheimers Society to provide a single access point for patients. I saw the wide range of facilities on offer to patients with palliative care needs, from clinical care to psychological support and complementary therapies. The centre aims

On Friday I marked National Apprenticeship week which started yesterday with a visit to James Paget Hospital.  I met a number of apprentices and former apprentices and heard about the hospital’s expanding apprenticeship scheme. While James Paget Hospital had, for some time, offered National Vocational Qualifications to existing members of staff, they saw that there was the possibility to hire 16-24 year olds as apprentices and give them training and work experience.  Having secured money

I had the pleasure of being invited to open the newly-upgraded Post Office in Filby on Friday.  The premises have been updated as part of the Royal Mail’s ongoing modernisation plan, which will also see improvements to Hopton and Gorleston Post Offices. The Filby site has been given a new floor, new lighting and, most importantly, a third counter.  The new set up looks fantastic – I would like to congratulate David and Adrian Thompson

The Prime Minister announced this morning that, should he remain Prime Minister after the 2015 General Election, the British public would be asked whether or not the UK should remain in the European Union in a referendum.  In an historic announcement David Cameron has outlined the ideal relationship between the UK and the EU.  The Conservative Party will campaign for a fresh relationship with the EU that better suits the needs of the British people.

Today, I met a Post Office representative in Westminster today to discuss the future of Filby and Hopton Post Offices. The Post Office are modernising 6,000 of their 11,000 branches across the UK, by changing layouts and bringing opening hours into line with retail hours.  Filby Post Office has been given the go-ahead for a makeover and will soon be operating at the same opening hours as high street shops.  The Post Office have already

Later today there will be a vote held in the House of Commons to decide whether or not benefits should be capped for the next three years at the same level of inflation to wages. It comes as no surprise that the Labour Party have stated that they will vote against the measure.  The Labour Party has voted time and time again against any measure that the Coalition Government have taken to get our country’s