1st February 2010

Last week I arrived back from London on Thursday night, after an 11 hour debate on the Government’s latest Education Bill.

On Friday morning, I held an Advice Centre in South Petherton, at the David Hall, after which I strolled through the village to buy some stamps at the Post Office.

I noticed what a terrible state parts of the main road are in, after the recent icy weather, and I am raising this issue with the County Council. Large pot holes seem to be emerging all over our area. If there are any bad areas of road near you, please let the County Highways Department know, or get in contact with me so I can raise the matter with them.

On Friday afternoon I called in at Redstart School, where they were holding an “MP’s Question Time”. There were about 25 pupils who grilled me for 45 minutes on a whole range of issues – so now I know what the Prime Minister feels like each Wednesday (though the Redstart pupils had much better manners than most MPs!).

Redstart School seems to be doing very well under its Head teacher, Suzanne Flack, and her dedicated staff, and pupil numbers have increased significantly in recent years. The school still has to rely on too many temporary classrooms, and I have promised to look into this to see if we can eventually replace these with a permanent building.

This week I will be back in Westminster, and there will be another 10 or 20 hours of debate on the Education Bill.

On Monday evening, I met up with an old friend of mine from one of the other political parties. At Westminster the MPs from the different parties tend to stick fairly closely together, on party lines. Indeed, in the Members’ Dining Room there is a “Labour” part of the room, a “Liberal Democrat” middle bit of the room, and an area for the Conservatives at the other end! It is exactly the same in the Members “Tea Room”, where Labour MPs congregate near the entrance door, and the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats occupy the other end of the room!

But, of course, sometimes friendships are forged across parties, and there are both Labour MPs and Conservatives who I get on well with and talk with in a pretty frank and open way.

On Monday, then, I met with Andrew Adonis, now Lord Adonis. Andrew Adonis used to be Tony Blair’s adviser on Education, but he is now the Secretary of State for Transport. Lord Adonis is a passionate rail supporter, and he spent last summer travelling all over the country by rail to find out about the experience of passengers at the “sharp end”. Gordon Brown and Lord Adonis were never regarded as being the best of buddies, but the Prime Minister was impressed enough by Andrew to promote him from rail minister to Secretary of State last year.

One of the issues which I have raised with Lord Adonis is Chard Junction Railway Station. I support the re-opening of this station, which would would help improve local access to the rail network – not least because the car parking at Axminster and Crewkerne can often be very difficult.

The land around Chard Junction is owned by the British Rail Residuary Board, who have recently been trying to sell it off. I intervened in December to stop the sell of this vital land, and to give time for Somerset County Council to buy the land to help deliver on their aspiration of re-opening the station.

Unfortunately, so far, the County Council seems to be dithering over whether to try to secure the land. While they are publicly claiming to be interested, their private position seems to be that they won’t pay a penny to secure this very important asset. It would be a disaster if we are prevented from re-opening this station because the County Council won’t make a small investment in this precious asset – particularly as the price has fallen so much. I hope the Conservatives on the County Council will think again – and help breathe some life back into Somerset’s rail network,

Ever,

David.