Peter Bone
Main Page: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con)
I rise to present a petition signed by hundreds of my constituents, called “Stop Wexit”, which I entirely support. Wexit stands for “Stop Wellingborough driving test centre closing”. The proposal is to close the driving test centre in Wellingborough, which would mean that my constituents would have to drive to Kettering and Northampton. They tried that once before and it was a disaster. It will be another disaster if they are allowed to get away with it. The petition is led by Chris Howard.
The petition states:
The Humble Petition of the residents of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and the surrounding areas,
Sheweth,
That the petitioners believe that the closure of the Wellingborough Driving Test Centre should be refused on the grounds of the loss of local access to driving tests, the increase in congestion and emissions in and around Northampton and Kettering, increased lead times for test dates and the increased costs to learner drivers and parents.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House urges the Secretary of State for Transport and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency to take into account the concerns of the petitioners and refuse to grant the closure of the Wellingborough Driving Test Centre.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
[P002436]
Mr Bone
My second petition is signed by thousands of my constituents. The lead petitioner is Mr Roger Barnes, from the organisation Cluck Off. I fully support the petition. You may remember, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we had this petition before. Unfortunately, the developer has come back again. He has not learnt his lesson and he needs to learn it tonight.
The petition states:
The Humble Petition of residents of Rushden, Northamptonshire and the surrounding area,
Sheweth,
That the Petitioners believe that the proposed Bedfordia Farms planning application for a high intensity chicken farm be refused on the grounds of increased pollution, foul odour, effect on local house prices, increased traffic volume; and further that similar farms have a poor record on animal welfare.
Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your Honourable House urges the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department for Communities and Local Government, Northamptonshire County Council and East Northamptonshire Council to take in account the concerns of petitioners and refuse to grant the planning application for a high intensity chicken farm to Bedfordia Farms.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc.
[P002087]
Luke Graham (Ochil and South Perthshire) (Con)
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I rise to ask your opinion and to try to get some advice about what recourse a Member of this House might have if another Member has deliberately or inadvertently misrepresented them on social media. Earlier today, the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands) posted that I called Scotland “a principality”. That simply is not true. At the time, I was chuntering about Wales and its constitutional status—which was a subject in a Westminster Hall debate a number of weeks ago—but I was certainly not referring to Scotland in the debate. Constitutional matters are ones that we on the Government side of the House regularly disagree with the Scottish National party about, and I think there is enough for us to disagree about on facts and substantive debates. I was not allowed to speak in the previous debate and I was not allowed to intervene, so I ask you, Madam Deputy Speaker, about the recourse that can be had and about how to make sure that the record is clear that I did not say that about Scotland. Actually, we should focus on facts and substance in our debate, where the Conservative party and the SNP have plenty to disagree about.