On Sunday I had the great pleasure and privilege of presenting the certificates at the Graduation Ceremony for the National Citizen Service to 219 Sutton school students at Birmingham City Football Club.
I was really impressed to hear that these 219 young people from Sutton Coldfield had taken part in the National Citizen Service running fifteen different campaigns locally, taking part in three large community group projects and assisting fifteen community organisations. I am delighted that this successful programme – launched by the Coalition Government – has given young people in Sutton Coldfield the chance to make a positive impact in their Schools and their local community.
The Government will offer 90,000 National Citizen Service places to teenagers throughout the UK by 2014. I shall be meeting with graduates of the programme from Sutton to discuss how we can develop this scheme further in our area.
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There are two issues which have been extensively raised with me by my constituents which I would like share with readers of the Sutton Observer.
The first meeting was with Amey and I was joined at this meeting by Councillors, Margaret Waddington & Anne Underwood, who along with their Council colleagues in Sutton work so hard to look after our local interests. Amey has responsibility for improving and maintaining Sutton’s Highways infrastructure. At this meeting we discussed issues of concern to local people, such as the new LED street lighting, the condition of some roads and footpaths and the replacement of trees in Sutton.
I also expressed my concern at the state of some of the roads which Amey are contracted to improve. Representatives from Amey assured me that they are on target to resurface 40% of roads in Birmingham by June 2015, with as little disruption as possible. We have also agreed that communication between Amey and Sutton’s Councillors will be improved so that they are regularly updated about the work Amey is carrying out in Sutton.
The second meeting I arranged was with the Birmingham CrossCity Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to discuss feedback from Sutton residents about the provision of NHS services and how the local community can become more involved in local NHS decision-making.
In Sutton we are clear that better support is needed for patients in their own homes and that improvements should be made to services for those with Dementia and their carers. It is also important to reduce non-essential A&E usage.
If any of my constituents have additional feedback on local NHS services I am always keen to hear from them and will use such feedback to help the CCG to improve local services wherever improvement is needed.
Please visit my website to find out more about my work in Sutton Coldfield