Unfortunately, I was unable to attend our Party Conference in Birmingham last week as I was in the Arctic Circle with a cross-party group of Parliamentarians looking at the very real impact of climate changing on retreating glaciers and animal movements. Fortunately, it sounds like a good conference to have missed and I will leave it to my colleagues to account for what went on!
For much of our trip we were on a ship, wearing 6 layers of warm clothing, without Wi-Fi and completely out of touch with social media and news from home. ‘Detoxing’ from modern technology is very therapeutic and I can highly recommend it! Reality was restored on Tuesday when Parliament returned after the Conference recess.
Back in the constituency it was a pleasure to attend the opening ceremony of the Worthing Mental Health Awareness Week so brilliantly founded 10 years ago by Carol Barber, Mel Peters and the ineffable cool town crier Bob Smytherman. All 3 had their own reasons for bravely speaking out to help bring mental illness out of the shadows and undoubtedly the stigma of what is just another illness like any physical illness, has been diminished over the years but we still have work to do.
With all the pressures from the pandemic and the isolation it promoted as well as global cost of living challenges now, support for people facing mental health problems has never been more needed. It was good to see such a comprehensive network of support and organisations locally to get people help. Over the 10 years of the event thousands of local people have been helped and Carol and her team deserve our thanks and admiration.
Later in the day I had a meeting with the Link organisation which is responsible for assessing the impact of bank branch closures on communities. With Barclays closing in Southwick Square this month there is now just one bank branch clinging on in my constituency and I am not sure the future of Nat West in Shoreham is secure. I raised the prospect of setting up joint banking hubs particularly in Lancing and Southwick where there is no banking presence now and I am pleased to report that Link will be carrying out 2 studies to see if there is a case for restoring facilities there and what can be done about it. I will keep constituents posted.
Meanwhile I have a scheduled surgery in Southwick this week so if you would like an appointment please contact the Shoreham office where they will be happy to book you in.
