Firstly, welcome to my January email newsletter, and what better place to greet you from than the UK’s most welcoming city as announced by booking.com. This month, I had the opportunity to meet with the Chester City of Sanctuary group who do a tremendous job of making our city a welcome place for all who visit.

As your Member of Parliament, I work on various issues raised by fellow residents via email, telephone and at my surgeries held across the constituency. As always, if you have any issues or questions about Government policies I can help with, please drop me a line at samantha.dixon.mp@parliament.uk. I would also be grateful if you could take two minutes of your time to fill in this survey requesting your feedback on this newsletter.

This month was Nuclear Week in Parliament and I was pleased to attend several events, speaking with the team from Urenco and their talented apprentices. The company’s Capenhurst site plays a vital role in our constituency, supporting jobs, skills, and energy security.

It’s not just our city winning awards, but the amazing organisations it hosts. I was proud to join the Deputy Headteacher of Blacon High School as they collected the British Council’s International School Award. With only 54 schools in the Country achieving this prestigious award it’s great to have Blacon High School recognised in this way.

Our Parliament has a fantastic outreach and education team and I really enjoy visiting schools in the constituency, but also in the dedicated education setting in Parliament. This month, Parliament announced that bookings are now available for free school visits during the summer holidays. I always encourage our local schools to participate in this fantastic scheme and would encourage constituents to raise this if they have children at school.

I also enjoyed meeting with Connie and Phoebe, the Members of the Youth Parliament for Cheshire West and Chester. It was great to hear about their work and the priorities of young people in our area. They will be visiting Parliament soon and taking part in the debate with young people from across the country.

Even more success for our city has been achieved with the recognition of Chester Zoo in the BIAZA award for Great British Wildlife Restoration. The Zoo does some fantastic work promoting biodiversity issues locally, with the Network for Natures scheme building on the success of the Nature Recovery Corridor Project.

I’d like to thank the constituents who took part in the RSPB’s annual “Big Garden Birdwatch”, and I would encourage constituents to get involved in CWAC’S Climate Emergency Response Plan. Being in and around nature has been shown to have positive effects on our mental health. I’d like to thank the Samaritans volunteers at Chester Railway Station who were handing out tea for their #BrewMonday campaign in January, traditionally a bleak time of year.

The Bluecoat Building in Chester is home to so many fantastic charitable organisations. I’d like to thank Craig Brown of Calm Coffee and Rage Fitness in Blacon for the work the yare doing for my constituents on improving their mental and physical health.

This January marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. It’s important to reaffirm our commitment to standing united against hatred and prejudice in all its forms. I therefore welcome the news of a ceasefire in Israel and Gaza, this needs to be utilised to end hostilities in the long-term by creating a pathway to a two-state solution.

At the start of the month, I had the honour of addressing the Neston Civic Society on the subject of Neston and the changes to the National Planning Policy Framework. These changes will help ensure we deliver the homes our nation so desperately needs.

At the end of the month, I visited the Chester Blue Coat CE Primary School at their breakfast club. I’m proud to support the Government’s rollout of free breakfast clubs at schools across the country.

I also visited Acresfield Academy to meet with the Year 6 pupils who submitted some fantastic paintings and poetry for my Parliament Week and Christmas Card competitions. I enjoyed handing out the certificates and answering their interesting questions about life as an MP.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this update. I hope it was interesting and informative as to the work I’ve been undertaking for you this last month, and please share these newsletters with your friends and family members.

I would be grateful if you could spend two minutes completing this survey providing your feedback on this newsletter.

As always, if you have any ideas or issues, please get in touch at samantha.dixon.mp@parliament.uk