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MP on target for his 600th surgery
The ongoing saga of expenses continues to divert MPs' attention away from our first duty, which is to serve our constituents. I have never forgotten this, in the month that sees my 600th advice surgery in High Peak.
People need our help: those MPs who have done most to bring our role into disrepute will not be forgiven easily. This month the parents of children with special needs and farmers in dispute with the Rural Payments Agency have attended my surgeries. So have people in need of affordable housing.
On the topic of housing, there are now nearly 500 homes, largely in the Buxton area, that have planning permission but are not being built. This is a scandal, and it is not just caused by the recession. Most are not being built because of deliberate applications for town greens designed to thwart a planning development.
High Peak Borough Council is quite right to seek a way of getting these homes built because people need them. The meeting I organised recently between the Council's leaders and the minister responsible for Town Green policy was essential and timely.
The Council's subsequent proposals to amend the process are sensible. They will get a sympathetic hearing from the government. My commitment to resolving this problem has been solid and within months I expect the guidelines to change.
Churches, Scout and Guide groups and amateur sports clubs who get surface water drainage services from United Utilities will be relieved to hear that the huge increase proposed for their bills has been withdrawn. A meeting I had with Ofwat, the water industry regulator, has helped to force the company to rethink their proposals.
An MP who works with the local council and others, including on a cross-party basis, for causes which are clearly in the best interests of families and communities is an MP who is doing his job.
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Weather for Buxton
Wednesday 08 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -3 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light sleet
Temperature: 1 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
