Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Dean Russell Excerpts
Thursday 1st February 2024

(3 months, 1 week ago)

Commons Chamber
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Penny Mordaunt Portrait Penny Mordaunt
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I thank the hon. Lady for her continued work in this area. I know that many Members from across the House have been in the situation she described of losing a parent at a young age, and it is so important that people are properly supported. I will write to all relevant Departments. I know from my own experience of dealing with health and work issues that getting the right people from the right Departments in the right room together, and then locking the door until they arrive at a solution that we can take forward, is sometimes the only way of doing things. I thank her for her diligence, and I will talk to all Ministers in the relevant Departments to ask them to put a plan together and to come and talk to her.

Dean Russell Portrait Dean Russell (Watford) (Con)
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A very happy birthday to you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I have been in regular communication with the relevant authorities about the Meriden estate in Watford, and I brought many of them together just last year to look at the issues that residents have raised with me. One pressing issue is the dangerous and illegal parking that is happening outside the new parade of shops. Although work is being done, I am sharing the residents’ concerns, which I also have, that this dangerous parking remains a serious accident waiting to happen. Will my right hon. Friend guide me on how I can press the various authorities for more urgency in finding a solution and remind those parking illegally that they are putting people’s lives at risk on York Way?

Penny Mordaunt Portrait Penny Mordaunt
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I thank my hon. Friend for his campaign. As he knows, illegal parking is classified as antisocial behaviour and it can have devastating consequences, particularly if emergency vehicles are not able to access roads that they need to access. He will know that the next Home Office questions are on 26 February and the next Department for Transport questions are on 8 February, but I will make sure that both Secretaries of State have heard his concerns.