I HOPE you’ve had a good summer and been able to have a bit of a break.
Summer can be a great time to make lifelong memories, but it can also be expensive and not always easy to know what support is available.
To help, I brought local organisations together in one room at my free Community Advice Drop-in, held at Patchway’s Coniston Community Centre.
I’m grateful to North Bristol Advice Centre, Avon & Somerset Police, Severn Wye Energy Agency, Wessex Water and DWP for joining this impactful event, and to all the local people who came by.
I also visited Emerson’s Green Library to see how they are supporting our younger residents with this year’s Summer Reading Challenge: it was great to see so many names on the progress board!
Thank you to everyone working in our fantastic local libraries – the joy of reading and exploring different worlds through books is such an important one for every generation to be able to discover.
I joined the Filton Twinning Association at the end of a week’s exchange visit from residents from St Vallier-sur-Rhône in France and Witzenhausen in Germany. These links and friendships were forged during the Concorde years, and it is good to see them still going strong.
It was useful to meet with the North Bristol and South Glos Foodbank team again, to hear about their latest priorities, how long-term donations help, and to talk about recent action to help ease the cost of living, including the return of £2 capped bus fares and removal of VAT on energy bills. More long-term support is needed, and I will always push for this for our community.
Before I was elected, I ran a survey on local experiences of accessing NHS dentists, given how hard this had become.
I’ve used your responses to push for change and shared your experiences in the Commons and with health ministers.
Two years on, there are more urgent appointments locally, and changes are being made to encourage more dentists to stay in the NHS.
I’m running a new survey to find out what has improved and what hasn’t, so I can keep pushing for what we need.
Please share your experiences at tinyurl.com/ycxcvd6k.
This month, my small team and I worked on 747 new cases supporting local people. I held my regular advice surgery, this time in Downend, and knocked on doors to listen to fellow residents in Stoke Gifford.
As Parliament returns, I look forward to continuing to be a strong voice for us in Westminster.
You can get in touch anytime at claire.hazelgrove.mp@parliament.uk.