Mental Health and Physical Health are so closely linked — with it being vital that everyone feels confident to go to the gym and look after themselves.
That’s why I was pleased to visit NR Health & Fitness in Dereham on Friday to learn more about the brilliant work they do on site – and at their numerous other Mid Norfolk sites.
Having decided to open 24 hours during the pandemic, they really are a gym for all – from 12 to 80+ — and offer a 12 week transformation programme included in their affordable membership, meaning that EVERYONE is able to find a time that suits them.
See more in my video above.
Thank you to Scott, Jess, and the team for showing me around. I look forward to supporting their work in the community moving forward.
To find out more about NR Health & Fitness, who have sites in Attleborough, Wymondham and Watton too – as well as elsewhere, please visit their website here
To find out more about my work supporting a number of other local sports and social clubs, please click here
Having visited the flooding on the old A47 on Saturday, it is clear the nuisance this causes local residents – not least those from nearby villages including Swanton Morley trying to head west to the new A47, into Dereham and to the supermarkets.
People should not have to be venturing on to the wrong side of a main road on a regular basis to avoid floods – with it happening all too often here.
That’s why I am picking this up with Norfolk County Council as part of my ongoing ‘Flooding and the Mid Norfolk Flood Partnership’ campaign – to make sure that there is properly maintained and appropriate drainage in place, and exploring if further steps need to be taken.
To stay up to date on my progress on this, as well as my wider campaign, please visit my campaign page here
We all want to see vibrant local businesses providing important employment opportunities and boosting our local communities.
However, this must not come at the unreasonable expense of Mid Norfolk’s precious rural quality of life or the sustainability of our country roads and local services.
That’s why I met with local residents in Griston recently to discuss in greater depth widespread local concerns at proposals to transform a light, community-focused industrial unit into one focussed on heavy industry — just meters from residential houses.
See my video above.
Having already written to the leader of Breckland before Christmas to make my opposition to the proposal clear, I very much understand why the proposals are of such concern to the local community – and will continue to do everything I can to help make their voices heard.
I will also be flagging the case to DLUHC ministers as an example of why we must ensure rural communities have a strong voice when applications for inappropriate heavy industry are brought forward in their area.
The proposals here would make much more sense down at the industrial park at Snetterton, not in the heart of small rural village.
To find out more information on my work supporting Griston villagers on this issue, please click here
My formal submission to the Breckland Planning Process can be seen below.
As I have pledged on each of the four election nights on which I’ve been honoured to be elected, I will always do my best to represent EVERYONE in Mid Norfolk – not just the people who voted for me.
I take that pledge incredibly seriously, and that’s why I was delighted to continue my regular schedule of constituency school visits again with a recent visit to the brilliant Wayland Academy in Watton.
It was a pleasure to meet with Headteacher Glen Allott and his team again – learning more about the work they’ve done to improve the education of their pupils and congratulate them on their most recent Ofsted rating. It was also fantastic to meet members of the Breckland Youth Advisory Board and many other pupils, finding out more about their aspirations and how the school is supporting them as they look to access some of the incredible opportunities on offer in our county – especially in the science, innovation, research and technology sectors.
See more in my video below.
Rest assured, I will continue to do all I can to support our Mid Norfolk schools and teachers.
To find out more about my wider work on ‘Fairer Rural Schools Funding and Support’, please visit my campaign page here
Anyone familiar with Mid Norfolk knows that our area is home to a much loved sense of spirit and community that binds us all together – which is why I always look to shine a light on, and support, any local projects and initiatives that look to nurture and enhance that spirit for the good of others, especially when the work they do delivers tangible benefits for their fellow citizens.
It was therefore great to be able to join the Dereham Community Litter Pickers team on Saturday – a key local group helping to keep Dereham clean and tidy.
Together, our group of 38 volunteers collected 27 bags (88.9kg) of rubbish.
Thank you to Hawthorn and Bee for sponsoring the group on Saturday – a wonderful example of a local business supporting a brilliant local community initiative.
For more details on Dereham Community Litter Pickers’ vitally important work, please visit their Facebook page here. (The next litter pick will take place on Saturday 24th February at 10am).
I look forward to getting out and joining the team again in the near future.
To learn more about my work ‘Supporting Our Local Community Groups and Sports Clubs’, please visit my website here
NHS Dentistry continues to be one of the biggest issues in my inbox — and I have always been clear that EVERYONE who needs NHS Dentistry should be able to access it, when they need it.
That’s why I welcome the Government’s NHS Dental Recovery Plan this week, which includes:
✅ 2.5 million more NHS dental appointments
✅ £200m more NHS Dentistry funding — bringing the total to over £3 billion a year
✅ Mobile NHS Dental vans
✅ £20,000 incentives for under-served areas like Mid Norfolk
✅ Commitment to explore new dental schools such as at the UEA
✅ Smile for life programme for children’s dentistry
✅ More money to support NHS dentists to treat those who have been waiting longest for Dentistry
This is a significant step forwards, and I am pleased that Ministers have listened and acted following on from my, and others, repeatedly raising this in Parliament and in private meetings.
Rest assured however, I will continue lobbying ministers to make sure that Mid Norfolk is recognised as needing NHS Dentistry support, to make sure it benefits from the above measures including the bonuses to attract new NHS Dentists to our area — and I will very actively encourage them to go even further.
Furthermore, I will continue to work closely with all of my fellow Norfolk MPs to make sure that we secure the new dental school at the UEA — meaning that we can continue to train the dentists we need right here in Norfolk, encouraging them to stay here (with the government also looking at tie-ins to NHS service for graduates). (See more here).
We have seen recent improvements to urgent dental care provision through the Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board’s short-term dental plan, but I very much appreciate there is much more to do.
The NWICB is currently running a consultation on their long-term dental plan and I would encourage all of my constituents who are concerned about NHS dental provision to make their views known.
To find out more about the consultation, please click here
To read more about my wider NHS Dentists campaign, please click here
The flight of local banks from our market towns in Norfolk is causing a growing headache for many:
- Small Businesses needing cash banking
- Pensioners needing cash
- First time buyers needing personal financial advice
- And the vulnerable
That’s why I’m sponsoring the Building Society Bill – as part of my ongoing campaign speaking up for Mid Norfolk on ‘Access to Cash’ and the need to be able to access local banking services.
See my video following the Bill’s Committee Reading today below.
To learn more about my wider campaign, please visit my campaign page here
Serious flood events are becoming increasingly common across many parts of Norfolk.
In Attleborough alone, over 100 were affected as a result of Storm Babet this past October – with a number of those having been flooded as recently as December 2020. For many in our Mid Norfolk towns and villages, the recent flooding was the third/fourth/fifth time they have been impacted in the last 20-30years.
People are quite rightly at the end of their tether.
That’s why flooding remains one of my main campaign focuses – and why I joined the Westminster Hall debate on Flooding yesterday to make a number of important interventions on behalf of my constituents.
Please see the video below.
This is getting worse – partly due to climate change yes, but also because of unsustainable house dumping, inappropriate investment in both infrastructure and the agencies best placed to tackle the issues (the likes of the Internal Drainage Boards and Lead Local Flood Authorities like Norfolk County Council), and the failure of bodies like the Environment Agency to place adequate emphasis on what rivers and watercourses are actually there to do: drain water to the sea.
That’s why I continue to work closely with stakeholders to support affected households and businesses, why I continue to speak up on this issue in Westminster and why I am looking to bring a Flooding Bill to the House in order to tackle many of the very serious issues we are facing in rural counties like Norfolk.
To see the full transcript of my interventions, along with the responses they received, please click here
To stay up to date with my wider flooding campaign, please visit my ‘Flooding and the Mid Norfolk Flood Partnership’ campaign page here
George Freeman urges DEFRA to prioritise dredging and clearing of ditches and rivers to help prevent flooding.
George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. To his point, in my part of Mid Norfolk, where the clue is in the name—it is not on the coast—we have seen in the past 10 years an extremely high rate of flooding. In 2020, 200 houses were flooded with sewage; two months ago, 100 houses in Attleborough were affected . This is getting worse and worse. It is partly climate change, yes, but also house dumping and inappropriate investment in infrastructure. Does he agree that, as well as a national strategy, we need to ensure that in such counties, where 38 agencies have responsibility, somebody has to be held to account to avoid the flooding of our constituents’ houses?
Mr Laurence Robertson (Tewkesbury) (Con)
My hon. Friend is right, and makes a good point I will touch on. Although some flooding is occasionally inevitable, we can take action to avoid some of the worst excesses. Since 2007, a number of schemes have been implemented in my area, at Deerhurst, Longlevens and Westbury, and some minor improvements have been made elsewhere, but we were flooded again a few weeks ago. People in Sandhurst and Tewkesbury itself suffered when their homes were flooded. People in those areas feel that more could have been done to prevent the effects of heavy rainfall.
George Freeman
My hon. Friend is making an excellent point. Does he agree that it is really important that the Department—I am grateful that the Environment Minister is in her place—understands that rivers’ principal function is to drain water to the sea, and that our ditches’ and watercourses’ principal function is to do that? At times in Norfolk, it is beginning to feel as though the environmental agencies are more concerned with keeping them full of mud and plants than making sure that they fulfil their primary purpose, leaving constituents—farmers and people with sewage in their houses—to pay the price. We need to remember that drainage is about drainage, first and foremost.
Mr Robertson
Absolutely. That is why rivers run to the sea. It is a very good point.
One of the arguments made against dredging—I am afraid it is on the Government’s website—is that clearing one part of a river just pushes the water downstream, but the logical conclusion to that argument would be to say that we should never place flood defences anywhere, which we are obviously not going to say. Rather, it is one good reason that we need both national and local approaches to the problem. For example, looking at the River Severn as a whole, we might come to the conclusion that the whole river needs dredging so that the water can be moved out to the sea as quickly as possible, as my hon. Friend suggests. I know that dredging is controversial, but we need to have a conversation about its benefits, and a proper analysis carried out by the Government and the Environment Agency.
George Freeman
In Norfolk certainly, the internal drainage boards are the most expert bodies at handling drainage. Could I make the gentle suggestion that we pay for them through some of the Environment Agency’s substantial funding, rather than through council surcharges, which are very stretched?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Rebecca Pow)
The drainage boards play a very important role in all of this. They play an important role in many cases, including the provision of nature-based solutions and regulating water levels, as was touched on earlier.
Norfolk has a rich and cherished military history.
Having previously served as part of the Parliamentary Armed Forces Scheme and worked closely with Robertsons Barracks at Swanton Morley, I have seen first-hand the amazing work our military do – and continue to be one of their biggest supporters.
That’s why I welcomed the invitation to join the Veterans’ Breakfast Club at The Railway Tavern in Dereham this past Saturday – where we discussed a raft of issues including:
· Personal responsibility
· Migration numbers
· NHS Dentistry and Public Services
· Inappropriate house dumping and resultant flooding and traffic
I look forward to joining them again in the coming months for another valuable catch up – and to joining other key community projects across Mid Norfolk, such as the Dereham Community Litter Pickers, in the weeks to come.
Thank you again to Paul and Debbie at The Railway Tavern for all your work supporting the local community – including this key group within it.
