The big news of the week has of course been the launch of the Referendum campaign ahead of the vote on June 23rd. I made my position clear in a 2700 word open letter to constituents which I placed on my website over the weekend once the details were clear. You can see it in full here: http://www.timloughton.com/news/eu-referendum-declaration You can also see the conclusions of the Fresh Start Group of Conservative MPs I co-chair which have come out for Leave after spending the past few years discussing extensively options for reform with our European partners, making proposals which unfortunately just did not feature in this deal
I will also be posting details on my website soon of a series of Talk to Tim meetings around the constituency when I would like to involve as many constituents as possible in what is the most important debate about the future of the UK we will have had in a generation. As I say in my letter I hope that debate will be courteous and respectful on both sides who just have a different take on what is best for Britain. Above all I hope it will engage as many people as possible to turn out I record numbers to make a well-informed vote as they did in Scotland over the independence referendum.
Back to more mundane matters I have arranged another ‘Flooding summit’ with Southern Water, the Highways Agency, County Council and others to see what can be done about the latest flooding problems in and around Grinstead Lane. Ground water levels remain high and over-pumping is still necessary but the traffic restrictions which caused so much disruption have been removed. With foul water spilling into people’s gardens, but fortunately not into their homes this time this problem still needs to be solved or at the very least better controlled.
I was out at my Lancing street surgery on Saturday helping my councillors get signatures from train users up in the arms about the proposed closure of ticket offices at both Lancing and Shoreham and restrictions at Worthing. You can see the link on my website and Southern Rail have agreed in principle to come down to a meeting in Shoreham I am organising for commuters to air their grievances at first-hand about the appalling service recently as well as the ticket office closures. Again the date will be announced soon.