A typical week involves a lot of travelling to and from London. But with Parliament in recess, the travel that has kept me busy this week is to locations across Burnley, Padiham and all of our surrounding villages.
And that also happens to be the part of the job I love the most – speaking with residents. It brings perspective outside of the Westminster bubble, and allows me to focus on the bread and butter issues that people really care about.
I’ve had so many conversations this week; from the war in Ukraine, to the cost of living and the measures that are being put in place to help families right across Burnley and Padiham.
One thing that is coming up time and again is that whilst global pressures are impacting people’s daily life, there’s a huge amount being done to try and cushion the blow, which with all the announcements, is easy to forget sometimes.
It includes help with gas bills through the £150 rebate on over 90% of people’s council tax bill, the doubling of the Household Support Fund which is money provided to Burnley Council to help those most in need, and the cut in fuel duty that the Chancellor announced a couple of weeks ago.
My goal since I was elected was to be a strong voice for our borough, something that we unfortunately lacked for years, and in that vein, I’ve still been plugging away even as Parliament hasn’t been sitting. This week I’ve welcomed three Government Ministers to our borough, to show them the amazing work taking place to push our area forward and to show them the challenges we face, which ties into the points I’ve been raising on our behalf in Parliament. That’s the way I’ve found we achieve results. Not shouting from the side-lines about the negatives but working constructively.
I’ve also spent time with local members of the Conservative Party who I’ve been helping to get the message out that we need a change in our local politics. I will continue to do my bit on a national level to talk up our borough and bring financial support where it’s needed, but I need a local team behind me fighting against the waste that we continue to see at Burnley Borough Council. And changing this will ultimately come down to teamwork. That’s why I’ve thrown myself into helping those within the borough who want to see root and branch reform of the way politics is conducted within Burnley and Padiham.
