Christmas Adjournment
Debate between Alex Mayer and Rachel Hopkins(1 week, 1 day ago)
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Alex Mayer (Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard) (Lab)
I would like to raise a festive selection box of issues. First, I am sure Members have seen the recent news that a new post box has been installed in Antarctica among all the snow and ice. I thought that was brilliant, because everyone needs a post box, but unfortunately my constituents in Bidwell West still do not have one. It is a complicated issue, but it stems from the fact that the roads in the area are all unadopted, so residents have to take a 30-minute round trip by foot to post a single Christmas card. I very much welcome the fact that penguins are getting a post box, but my constituents need one too. My message to Royal Mail is that next year I am dreaming of a new post box.
On a quick Santa dash to another issue, I want to give a big shout-out to the people who grow Christmas trees. It takes seven years to grow a Christmas tree to 6 foot. During all that time, they are sucking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and providing a fantastic habitat for wildlife. Trees are not just for Christmas. One of the best things that happened this year, I thought, was the announcement of a second new national forest. I am so pleased that all the new trees are going to be planted in Bedfordshire—that is tremendous news.
Alex Mayer
I am pleased that my hon. Friend supports those trees too.
Christmas is the season of good will. I was really proud to meet so many volunteers who have been working right across my constituency, particularly at the local food bank, at a local care home, where there was a jolly Christmas jumper day, and at the Leighton Buzzard Railway. Earlier this year, the Leighton Buzzard Railway, which is a steam railway, decided that even though it is a heritage line, it did not think that all of its volunteers needed to be of a certain vintage. It has set up a youth scheme, and this Sunday I will be going on the Santa express with Jacob, who is just 14 years old. He loves getting covered in soot and volunteering on the steam railway. The brilliant news is that the youth scheme has been such a success that now one in five of the volunteers on the steam railway are under 16 years old. I know that they have a bright future ahead of them and it is full steam ahead.
On that note, I wish you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and all hon. Members a very merry Christmas.
Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor
Debate between Alex Mayer and Rachel Hopkins(3 weeks, 2 days ago)
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Alex Mayer (Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) on securing this important debate about a place where innovation really happens, but which is also a great place to live. The whole idea of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor is fantastic, but the name is absolutely terrible: politicians love the word “growth”, but the public at large are scared by the idea of growth. They think it is going to ruin their way of life—and then “corridor”? I mean, that just sounds like a place we never want to be in. It is somewhere that gets people from A to B, but what about that bit in the middle? To me, it just conjures up the Tories running down the NHS and being stuck in a corridor in a hospital.
However, it is the right place to be focusing on. We can already see that, because the universities play such a good role and businesses invest there all the time. There are more than 8,000 high-tech firms in the wider area already. Given that it is thriving already, we might ask what the role for Government is? We do not want to mess it up at all; we want to try to improve it. I would argue that there are still bucket-loads of potential, and the three areas where the Government can add value are governance, transport and a sense of place.
Let us start with governance. For investors wanting to invest in the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, particularly those from overseas, it is really difficult to know who to pick up the phone and call. Regional devolution will help with that, particularly with the duty in the Bill for mayors to co-operate with each other. However, we need to get to a position where the whole area has mayors, and we cannot allow some councils, such as the one in my area, to block that progress. We also need to make sure that devolution means that mayors have genuine powers, because sometimes I think there can be an overemphasis on co-operation and consensus, which actually gives us stasis and stalemate.
On transport, I absolutely welcome the £2.5 billion the Government have invested in East West Rail. In recent weeks, it has felt as though we are ramping up on that. East West Rail matters to all the stations along the route and those that are nearby—I made that point to the East West Rail chair the other day. It is less than 10 minutes from Leighton Buzzard to Bletchley, and that opens up a world of opportunities for people in Bletchley as well.
Finally, on a sense of place, when I used to think about the wider east of England region and what on earth linked it, I sometimes thought it was only our fantastic local broadcaster “Look East”—
Alex Mayer
Indeed. It is so important to make sure that we have things that link us, and I think Universal will make a real difference on that. I very much urge the Minister to make sure that Paddington Bear is a key feature—what an ambassador for our region that would be! The forest is also fantastic news for us; I finish by urging my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge to agree with me that the national forest really is a tree-mendous opportunity.