15th June 2009
I want to start this week by congratulating one local resident whose work in the Yeovil Community has just been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday honours. Bridget Dollard - Scout Leader, Yeovil Town Councillor and staff member of Preston Secondary School in Yeovil - becomes “Bridget Dollard MBE”!
Bridget is one of the friendliest, nicest, and hardest working people in Yeovil, and she truly deserves this award. She is not the sort of person to allow this to go to her head. Indeed, nor is her family! I understand that when one friend telephoned the Dollards this week to pass on his congratulations, he was told by Bridget’s husband, Dave: “She can’t come to the phone right now – she is sowing a button on my trousers!”
Bridget has, of course, been an excellent representative of Yeovil South, and Yeovil as a whole, as local councillor and as an outstanding Mayor of Yeovil. But she and her husband, Dave, have also been leading lights in the local scouts, and have done a lot to help many hundreds of young people in and around Yeovil.
Bridget has also been a valuable member of staff at Preston Secondary School in Yeovil, where her support for and kindness to generations of pupils has gone well beyond what would ever be set down in some staff handbook or job specification. Generous, warm-hearted, loyal, community-minded, tough, mischievous, and very determined in standing up for the things that she believes in (as I have sometimes discovered myself!), Bridget Dollard fully deserves the national recognition that she has now received. I am sure Bridget will not mind me saying that she and her husband, Dave, have been a real team both for the scouts and on the Council, and Dave also deserves to bask in the shared and reflected glory.
Last week, I returned to Yeovil on Thursday afternoon, and spent a couple of hours in the office signing letters. I am lucky to have such an excellent and experienced team in my Yeovil Office, and they get through a massive volume of work each week.
On Friday, I had a “packed programme” of constituency activities – which started with a visit to Chard School. I was able to attend the morning assembly at which four students made presentations to the whole school about their favourite charities. The verbal presentations had to be linked to a visual presentation – so there was a lot to think about and to coordinate. All four presentations were of an outstanding quality, and all those involved can feel very proud. The pupils voted on their favourite presentation and charity, and money raised by a “non uniform day” was then awarded to this charity.
My next visit was to “Colin Mear Engineering”. This is a high quality engineering company which is based on the edge of the beautiful village of Combe St. Nicholas, near Chard. The company was founded in 1983, and employs around 150 staff. I met Dave Lusk, the Managing Director, who briefed me on the work of the company, whose products are exported all over the world.
Although UK manufacturing industry has been under great pressure over the last few decades, we are fortunate in our area to have a large number of high technology engineering firms who are often leaders in their sectors.
After the visit to Combe St. Nicholas, I had to set off to the “far east” of my Constituency, where I met up with local resident, Valerie Singleton. I am of the generation for whom the only REAL “Blue Peter” TV presenters are Peter Purvis, John Noakes and Valerie Singleton – so I was very excited to meet Valerie at an event at Dillington House earlier in the year. I was interested to hear about Valerie’s glob trotting activities, as well as her work in establishing a new organisation which gives discounts to people over retirement age.
In the afternoon, I held a number of meetings in my Yeovil Office. On Saturday, I held an Advice Centre in Chard before heading to Montacute to formally open the excellent Church Fete in the grounds of magnificent Montacute House. The weather was perfect and the Fete well attended.
Ever,
David.