Access to Primary Healthcare

Martin Wrigley Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)]

I congratulate my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for North Devon (Ian Roome) on his maiden speech. I start by thanking my long-suffering family, especially my children Zoe, Sam and Emily, who have been truly supportive throughout everything to get me to this place. Let me express my thanks to the amazing team in the constituency who worked so hard to get me here as well.

It is an honour to have been elected to represent my constituency of Newton Abbot, an area that I have called home for some 25 years. I tend to find that people in Westminster either ask, “Where is Newton Abbot?” or they say that they know it well through personal experience. We are on the south coast of Devon between Exeter and Torbay, between the sea and the gateway to Dartmoor with the Rivers Teign and Exe. The constituency name reflects our largest market town, but it could add Dawlish, Teignmouth, Kingsteignton, let alone the many villages from Starcross, Kenton, Bishopsteignton, Abbotskerswell, Ogwell, Denbury, Ipplepen, Broadhempston and many more.

I have been wondering what to tell hon. Members about my constituency. Perhaps the creative and innovative people, including Newton Abbot’s own Ollie Watkins, the members of Muse, or Peter Cross, usually seen at England rugby fixtures with his resplendent cross of St George hat and coat. Or the history of Brunel’s engineering of the coastal railway, today’s mining of ball clay or, previously, the granite used to rebuild London bridge, the British Museum and others, quarried from Dartmoor and transported via the Templer Way—a tramway itself created from granite—all shipped via the port of Teignmouth. Or the story of Dawlish violets, Jane Austen’s visits, Keats’ poem or how Dawlish became the home of black swans. Perhaps the protected shores of the Exe estuary and Dawlish Warren, home to many thousands of wildfowl and wading birds each winter. Suffice it to say, the area is steeped in history, fame and natural beauty. Members will find much more than Devon cream teas and scones—with cream and jam the right way up, of course.

Growing up in a Royal Navy family, we moved around an awful lot. Moving to Dawlish was a natural choice, but I suspect it was also my parent’s influence that caused me to set my sights on this place. In the 1950s, they met in Downing Street when my mother worked in Churchill’s office. My father told us stories of racing to the parking place outside No. 10 in his old MG.

Speaking of previous politicians, I pay tribute to my predecessor, Anne Marie Morris, and her dedication to the constituency. Her maiden speech told of the waves gently breaking over the trains on the Dawlish seawall. The 2014 storm, however, showed us that the force of the sea and the increased storms due to climate change were both serious and urgent. Since then, Network Rail has constructed a new seawall, rebuilt the station and more. However, it was the catastrophic cliff collapse near Teignmouth that caused the longest interruption of rail services, cutting London off from the south-west peninsular. We are still waiting for funds to be confirmed for that work. Climate change is a real and present threat to us on the coast, and we cannot stop it with just flood defences and mitigations. We must do everything we can to reduce the use of fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions.

Turning to healthcare, Devon has both an ageing population and fewer hospital beds per head of population than the national average. Local hospitals are falling into disrepair and are often overlooked in the model of care. It was during my first week in this place that I heard from the local NHS trust that it was cancelling the planned new Teignmouth health and wellbeing centre that would have replaced the crumbling hospital. Due to increased costs and a recent cap placed on its capital budget, bizarrely because of revenue overspend, the project was cancelled. The new centre was to have become the home to local GPs and local NHS services. I did write to my pen pal, the Secretary of State, but have yet to hear back.

In the meantime, I am working with the GPs to help them secure a new home and avoid putting primary care for 18,000 patients in jeopardy. Teignmouth hospital is still under the threat of closure, despite housing many NHS and voluntary sector services. Meeting recently with Volunteering in Health at the hospital with my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), we saw how its model of wraparound care had been copied internationally and that Singapore was now rolling it out as global best practice.

As an engineer and a Liberal, I know that we do not need to accept broken systems. We can fix them, and by empowering people we can build a brighter and better future. I will do everything I can in this place to fix systems and help my constituents, and help to protect the beautiful constituency, the environment and its biodiversity as long as I am here.