Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Duncan Hames, MP for Chippenham

3:00pm Thursday 5th April 2012 in News

Last week in Parliament, I welcomed the emphasis in the newly launched National Planning Policy Framework upon making local plans sustainable and empowering people to get involved with local planning.

Amid further revelations about political donations, I put it to the Minister for the Cabinet Office that we need to address the continuing escalation in the political party campaign spending arms race with renewed urgency. I later called for much tighter controls of political party funding and campaign expenditure on the BBC Radio Wiltshire Breakfast Show.

The House of Commons packed up last Tuesday for the Easter recess so MPs are now on their holidays, as the papers say. I returned to Wiltshire in time to visit Langley Park in Chippenham to discuss the possibilities for regeneration of part of this industrial site by owners Ashtenne. Following an MP’s surgery for the school council at Aloeric School in Melksham, I joined staff and pupils for the planting of their Jubilee tree donated by the Wiltshire Tree People.

On Thursday, I visited Wiltshire Business of the Year finalist, Black Pearl Maritime Security Limited, in Corsham, to learn more about the threats posed by Somali pirates.

I then welcomed the chance to enjoy the Wiltshire sunshine at Jamie’s Farm in Box, joining some visiting Manchester schoolchildren for lunch before getting up close to the farm’s livestock.

That evening, I attended the Melksham Extended Services community meeting at the Melksham United Church to hear their vision for supporting children and families. For more information, please visit https://www. melkshames.org.uk.

The consultation on the future of the Great Western rail franchise closed on Friday. In my submission, I emphasised the importance of an improved service on the TransWilts line, addressing overcrowding on local services and the cross-party backing I have won for restoring an Oxford-Bristol service through Chippenham, which could in turn call at a re-opened Corsham station.

On Sunday, I joined the Bath and District Tibet Support Group in Corsham Town Hall to hear from Students for a Free Tibet about the Chinese Government’s policy of ending traditional nomadic herds.

After a busy constituency surgery in the Corsham Pound Arts Centre, I visited a planning exhibition in Neston.

My next surgeries will be on Tuesday between 10am and 11.30am in Melksham Town Hall and Friday between 9am and 10.30am in my constituency office, Avonbridge House, Chippenham.