Christmas Adjournment

Alan Strickland Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alan Strickland (Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor) (Lab)]

I have three minutes to celebrate three fantastic community organisations. Since Chance Drama in Ferryhill was established in 2017, it has trained hundreds of local young people from across my constituency in theatre arts, singing, dancing and performing. It was brilliant to have recently been in the audience for its production of “Bugsy Malone”, in which the cast had great fun covering themselves, and most of the audience, with what came out of their splurge guns. It was really heartening to talk to parents during the interval and after the show, and to hear how being involved in local community drama had transformed the skills, confidence and experiences of their children, and of young people in our community. The tireless volunteers, who put on several shows a year and work at weekends to train young people, deserve our thanks and support.

In Spennymoor—the heart of my constituency—the St Paul’s centre has been running excellent community facilities for some years, including an art and photography group, Dementia Friends and a really active bereavement support group, which I met recently. The centre has just opened a new extension, so that it can expand its food bank, but also so that it can do more for the local community. When it opened as a parish hall, it had an annual footfall of around 3,000 visits a year, but now the figure is 34,000. St Paul’s centre in Spennymoor is an excellent example of how a really well led community centre can be a thriving community hub.

Finally, in my home town of Newton Aycliffe, we have a new community hub, which is just fantastic. It is run by Lifeline Community Action, and its vision is to convert a disused shop in the town centre. It was formerly a Woolworths, where I happily bought many pick ’n’ mixes and lots of cassettes, like “Now 95”, back in the day. It has been empty for 15 years, but Lifeline Community Action has bought the building, with support from the national lottery community fund and funding from the UK shared prosperity fund. Its vision is to bring 20 local organisations into the building, so that residents can walk into a warm, friendly, safe and comfortable environment where they could get job advice and mental health support, or buy heavily discounted food from the community pantry, if they were in financial need. They would be able to see the local police team, meet social workers, volunteer and get involved in a range of activities. I pay particular tribute to Pauline Chambers, the director, who has worked tirelessly for years to raise the huge amount of money that this really impressive project has required, and to Andy Boyd, recently retired after 30 years as a police sergeant in my home town, who has taken it from strength to strength.

Those are three brilliant organisations, and I am really proud of all the work they do. Merry Christmas, Madam Deputy Speaker!