Business of the House

Ian Liddell-Grainger Excerpts
Thursday 7th March 2024

(8 months, 3 weeks ago)

Commons Chamber
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Penny Mordaunt Portrait Penny Mordaunt
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I thank the hon. Lady for remembering her friend Adjuah, and allowing us to pause and pay tribute to her. I thank her also for raising the important work the APPG did on the matter. As the next Health questions will not be until late April, I will write on behalf of the hon. Lady to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and ask her to respond directly to her.

Ian Liddell-Grainger Portrait Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater and West Somerset) (Con)
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May we have a debate in Government time—it would be nice—to talk about Mid Devon District Council? I know I have talked about it before, but it has now gone beyond a joke. There are now no planning enforcement officers in Mid Devon District Council, as all the staff have gone. It is a free-for-all for developers. More importantly, the council have moved to waste collection every three weeks. That is not a problem, except the service has been taken over by a draconian “1984”-style group of councillors who are determined to make the lives of the people of Tiverton and mid-Devon impossible. The chair of scrutiny, who is incompetent and lazy, is doing nothing to scrutinise any of this. We cannot have local government being run by people who seem to be out to make the lives of local people miserable, so please may we have a debate on local government?

Penny Mordaunt Portrait Penny Mordaunt
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It is sometimes said that in response to questions I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago, but my hon. Friend could stand up every week and refer me to the question he asked the week before. He is assiduous in his campaigning to highlight the failures of his local authority, and I expect to see him doing exactly the same thing next week.