Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment

Jayne Kirkham Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jayne Kirkham (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)]

How do I follow that? It is an honour to speak in the David Amess debate. I start by congratulating Falmouth town council and Source FM in my constituency for the opening of the resource project this weekend, which will bring community radio and a community café to everybody in Falmouth. Thank you and good luck to Pendennis Leisure and all those working for a pool for Falmouth. We are trying to get money from the Government grassroots fund and others, and we are looking for a public-private partnership.

Local to that are the docks in Falmouth. We are looking to restore the Falmouth freight rail line, which has been shut for 20 years, to take 77 lorries off the roads on each trip. In Falmouth, we have the docks, Pendennis Yachts and Falmouth Harbour, which all have fantastic expansion plans. We are looking to access the ports fund to make that happen and bring those new jobs to the town.

I am so pleased with what the Government have achieved on water. A scheme was announced this morning to work on the combined sewer overflow at Queen Mary gardens between our two main beaches in Falmouth—at last! I congratulate campaigners including Plastic Free Falmouth Surfers Against Sewage and Goonhavern primary school’s eco club, who have worked so hard for this.

I want to say a little about a group in my constituency who have worked together and formed a support group because they all have endometriosis. David Amess was such a champion for people with endometriosis. We have been working to get training for healthcare workers in that area.

As a Co-operative party MP. I welcome community right to buy, which will be forthcoming in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. I have constituents wanting to rescue a methodist chapel and a pub in Ponsanooth, and the Ship Inn in Portloe. The funding source to go with that would be helpful. I look forward to that being announced.

To continue the co-operative theme, I have been strongly supporting the St Mawes community who have been trying to build affordable housing for their local community, which has been decimated by second homes. I thank Alan Macklin, who has also been involved in the Homes for Ukraine scheme in St Mawes. Falmouth and Penryn Welcome Refugee Families has been doing the same thing.

I thank Simon Fann and the food banks in Truro and in Falmouth and Penryn. I especially thank Simon for making Cornwall a living wage place, which is a fantastic initiative. I also thank the following organisations for helping their communities: the New Beginning Community Association in Malabar; the Friends of Coosebean, the Friends of Daubuz Moor and the Friends of Tregoniggie Woodland, which have been bringing green spaces back to the heart of urban places; and the Truro Loops campaign, which has been restoring active travel routes around Truro. I am a new MP and many of those are very new projects. I hope to be able to stand here next year, the year after and the year after that and say, “We got some of these things done.”