I have had several meetings to progress various local campaigns that are a priority for me and my constituents.
I met with the Health Minister, Andrea Leadsom, to again push my campaign for better local health services and for our infrastructure to keep up with all the new housing that is being built. This is a priority for the Government and for the year ending October 2023, there were 50.9 million more GP appointments compared to October 2019 - but there’s more to do. We are ending the 8am rush by making sure patients are either given an appointment when they call or signposted to a more appropriate service such as NHS 111. People will no longer be told to call back later. We are making greater use of our pharmacies, which will benefit from £645 million to expand the services they offer through Pharmacy First, which aims to free up 2 million appointments by enabling them to provide certain services that only GPs can at present. Improving our health services is a key campaign for me and I am pleased the Minister is going to write to the local health leaders on our behalf.
As part of my campaign to re-open Grove Station, I met again with the Managing Director of GWR to talk to him about it. Next up is meeting the Rail Minister following my petition to Parliament to reopen it that I presented earlier this year. We need Grove Station re-opened and I will keep fighting for this!
It was also good to meet with the Roads Minister to discuss my campaign to improve our roads and the results of my Local Roads Survey. The Government has given Oxfordshire County Council millions of extra pounds (a 30% funding increase this year) to improve our roads and fix our potholes. We discussed how they should use this money effectively, including filling potholes correctly and not in a way that means they reappear within weeks, as we all know often happens on our local roads. I will keep campaigning on this - watch this space!
Finally, I met with the new Chief Superintendent of Thames Valley Police for Oxfordshire to discuss local policing and various concerns about crime and anti-social behaviour that constituents have raised with me, which was a feature of the Crime Summits I held in Wantage and Wallingford. Thames Valley Police now has 870 more police officers since 2019 (which has meant more officers overall than ever before) thanks to extra Government funding and this should be a priority for them.
A reminder that I will be hosting a SEND Fair to bring together all the organisations that provide support to families of children and young people with special educational needs. It will take place on Tuesday 28 May from 12:30pm to 4:30pm at Didcot Civic Hall and if you have a family member with SEND and want to attend, please register on my website at www.david-johnston.org.uk/SEND.
