Welcome to my September update. It’s been a busy few weeks in Parliament following the ministerial reshuffle. I was honoured to be asked to serve as the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Building Safety, Fire and Democracy) at the Ministry of Housing, Communities& Local Government. I enjoyed my time as the Vice-Chamberlain to HM Household in the first 14 months of the Government and I look forward to continuing to serve Chester North & Neston residents in this new role in Government.
In the constituency, I’ve visited a great range of our local businesses, enjoyed walking the Neston Town Trail to learn more about the rich heritage of our area; hosted the Tourism Minister in Chester and facilitated the ongoing consultation into Bathing Water Status for the River Dee.
As always, I hope you find this newsletter interesting and if there if you would like more information please do get in touch.
Over the Summer, I hosted the 6th Summit of the Dee event at Chester Zoo. The previous Summit was held in Neston and I’m pleased to report that as a direct result of the discussions in Neston, Welsh Water confirmed they would include Neston in their current round of investment, committing £7.5m to improving the wastewater infrastructure that serves the town which is great news.
The event saw key stakeholders share their updates on their projects connected to the River Dee including from Welsh Water, Chester Zoo and a representative from DEFRA. Following this, I’ve been working with the Clean Dee campaign to facilitate their ongoing consultation into proposals to apply for designated bathing water status for the River Dee at Sandy Lane
Throughout the Summer, Chester, Neston and Parkgate get especially busy with the arrival of tourists and many constituents like to go on holiday in and out of the UK. It’s critical for us to have functioning public transport to help facilitate this. I’m pleased the level of disruption at Hooton Railway Station has decreased. It was great to meet with the team at Network Rail whose work has helped increase the resilience of the network by reducing the flood risk at the site.
I’d also like to thank residents who completed my bus survey earlier this year. All the points raised have been fed back to Cheshire West and Chester Council to help improve services. This ‘Catch the Bus’ month, I posted a video on my social media to highlight the positive news of the Better Buses Bill and the announcement of more than £7m for Cheshire West and Chester as part of the Local Travel Grant.
On the subject of Tourism, it was great to welcome Chris Bryant MP, the then Tourism Minister to Chester to visit Chester Zoo, which remains the most visited attraction outside of London and to learn more about the fantastic Storyhouse and its digital buddies scheme in his then capacity as the Minister for Digital.
The Summer has seen several new businesses come to Chester, including Rituals, Yankee Candle and Card Outlet ahead of the much anticipated opening of Harrod’s Beauty. I visited Karigarwala to learn about their artisanal products which make for fantastic gifts as we approach the giving season. If you are looking for a board game to play with friends, I’d recommend Cases & Clues, who assemble their murder mystery games here in Chester.
I also visited M&S on Foregate Street which continues to be a key presence on our high street. We also have fantastic hospitality venues, on my way back from Westminster I enjoyed a meal at the Station Tap which provides a warm welcome to those visiting our city.
As I often mention these updates, it remains an honour to represent our area and its rich sense of community. Over the summer, I visited Blacon Beacon to learn more about their work to provide local residents with advice, support and food. This is one of the many fantastic charities and voluntary organisations in our area. Last week, I met with representatives of West Cheshire Voluntary Action to discuss the West Cheshire Food Partnership project.
Food security remains so important to ensuring people have the conditions they need to thrive. I welcome the announcement earlier this month that the Government will support over half a million children to have 30 free hours of childcare a week. This will help ease the cost of living for families and ensure parents are not priced out of work due to the high costs of childcare.
While in Blacon, it was great to join Cllr Sheila Little at the Vintage Blacon Hope Garden, a wonderful community space with wildlife at it’s heart. Once again this space is supported by the hard work of local volunteers who continue to enrich our area.
Finally, It was an honour to lay a wreath at our War Memorial to remember the 80th Anniversary of Victory over Japan Day, I’m sure many readers will have parents or grandparents who served during WW2 in the Pacific theatre, and I’d like to thank them for their service to our country.
I’d also like to remind residents that our great local Councillors and I continue to hold surgeries and events in the constituency to help resolve issues raised by local residents. These can be booked through contacting my office.
As always, if you have any ideas or issues, please get in touch at samantha.dixon.mp@parliament.uk
With best wishes
Samantha Dixon MBE, MP
Chester North & Neston