I wrote recently about the promise I secured from the Health Secretary to look again at proposals from the town’s GPs for an urgent care centre at Chippenham Community Hospital.

Their bid had been turned down last year when Conservative Ministers failed to support it. Last week, I brought Health Minister Norman Lamb to Chippenham to persuade him to back our renewed efforts to make this happen.

I took him to meet the local doctors who drew up the plans to bring urgent care services together in one place 24/7 and help relieve the pressure on nearby A&E departments. He offered his support in making the case for this to happen, and I’ll continue pressing for it locally and in Westminster. You can help by adding your name to our petition at www.duncanhames.org.uk/chippucc.

I also took the Health Minister to hear from a local group of young people, led by our Member of Youth Parliament Kieran Mulvaney, about the campaign they’re running to increase awareness of mental health problems. They showed us a video they’ve made about depression, which you can watch at bit.ly/ DiscussingDepression.

The day before the Minister’s visit, I took part in a Parliamentary debate on access to GP services and made the point that, unlike in hospitals, funding doesn’t increase the more work they do, and urged the Secretary of State to remove obstacles to GPs returning to practice after starting a family.

I also spoke to and took questions from a conference of Wiltshire’s primary school head teachers, meeting in Bradford on Avon. We discussed the pressures on school budgets and my efforts to get a fairer deal for Wiltshire’s schools.

I am campaigning to protect the education budget in the next Parliament, in contrast to Conservative plans for real-terms cuts announced by the Prime Minister last week.

The decision on whether to allow the proposed Range development in Chippenham is one Wiltshire councillors, not I, will take, so my principal duty is to ensure that they understand and address the concerns raised by all my constituents, whether in favour or against. I have written to the council setting out those concerns, and you can read my letter online at bit.ly/RangeLetter.

My next constituency surgeries will be at Bradford on Avon library tomorrow, noon–1.30pm; and The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham on Wednesday, 10am–11.30am.