News from December 2008

Sunday, 28 Dec 2008

Celebrating Christmas in our Community

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One of the great things about Hayes and Harlington is the continuing and growing strong sense of community. This Christmas I had the pleasure of being invited to the Christmas celebrations of several community groups. Two of my favourite events are the Cranford Good Neighbours Project Christmas party and the Christmas party of the Pensioners Friday Club that we set up as part of the Barra Hall Regeneration project. The club now meets at Hayes Cricket club every Friday and local older people have a really enjoyable time meeting old friends, playing bingo and having a good chat. I attended the Hayes and Yeading United match on Boxing Day and the club gave a new match football to all the youngsters attending the game. This was a really nice touch. We also won 2-0 against local rivals Maidenhead so this rounded off a marvelloues Christmas. I hope everybody had a good Christmas and I wish all my constituents a happy and peaceful New Year. With the recession hitting hard we will need to stand together as a community and help each other get through what are likely to be very difficult times.

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Tuesday, 23 Dec 2008

Hayes FM Completes its First Year of Broadcasting

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Hayes FM is our local community radio station and has completed its first year of broadcasting. The idea for a community radio station came out of one of our local community conferences which I convene every year. Local resident and professional broadcaster, Sutish Sharma, has taken the project from idea to implementation. I am chair of the Hayes FM board and serve on the board along with a group of community representatives who loke me volunteer their time to make the radio station a success. However without Sutish we would not have been able to undertake this project and certainly would not have been so successful in securing this important community resource. Hayes FM is increasingly becoming an ideal medium for the voices of the local community. I interviewed Sutish on the development of our community radio station and its plans for the future. 

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Friday, 19 Dec 2008

Salvation Army Christmas Concert at Barnhill Community Centre

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One of the great things about being the local MP is that I get invited to so many enjoyable local community events, especially at Chritsmas. Over the last few weeks I have visited the Christmas bazaars of so many local community organisations and churches. In addition I have been the guest at nativity plays and carol services at many local schools including Brookside in Yeading, Minet Infants, Charville Primary, Brookside Community Centre nursery, Douay Martyrs Secondary school and St Mary’s in Harmondsworth.

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Saturday, 13 Dec 2008

Community Christmas Reception

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Today (Saturday) I held a Christmas reception for local community organisations at our local Hayes Campus of Uxbridge College.

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Thursday, 11 Dec 2008

Government’s Welfare Reform Proposals

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The Government published its proposals for the reform of the welfare system yesterday. There are a range of measures to improve the current system but there are some worrying proposals that in my view will hit people hard if there are not sufficient protections in place to prevent people being penalised unfairly. At my weekly advice surgery I already see too many people who find it too difficult and complicated to gain the benefits they are entitled to.

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Tuesday, 09 Dec 2008

Opening of Hayes Cricket Clubhouse Extension

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On Sunday I opened the new extension to Hayes Cricket Club’s clubhouse. For some years I have had the honour of being the patron of the club.

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Southall Gasworks Site Consultation

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Plans have been put forward from the National Grid to develop the Southall Gasworks site, which runs alongside our Minet Country Park and the Grand Union Canal. The proposals are for an immense new development of 4000 properties. This development will have an enormous impact on Hayes as one of the main points of access and egress from the site is a road planned to run from the gasworks site across the south of the Minet open space and onto the Hayes by-pass at Pump Lane.

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Monday, 08 Dec 2008

No Third Runway Campaigners Join the Climate Change Demonstration

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On Saturday campaigners from the No Third Runway Campaign joined the national Climate Change demonstration in Parliament Square. The demonstration was very big with thousands of people marching on this annual event to draw attention to the need for urgent action by the Government to stop climate change.

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More Film from the Friends of Hitherbroom Park Litter Pick

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Just a little bit more film from the Friends of Hitherbroom Park litter pick on Saturday.

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Sunday, 07 Dec 2008

Friends of Hitherbroom Park Undertake a Litter Pick of the Park

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Some years ago I set up the Friends of Hitherbroom Park to get local people together to improve and look after this lovely little park in Hayes. We revived the Friends group earlier this year and on Saturday we organised a litter pick of the park to spruce the park up for the winter. About a dozen local residents turned out and we really cleaned up the park.

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Friday, 05 Dec 2008

Opening of Belmore Children’s Centre

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Today we held a celebration to open the new Children’s Centre at Belmore Primary School in Barnhill.

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Government Postpones Again Runway Decision

In July the Government promised that it would announce its decision on the development of a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow before Christmas.

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Turning On Hayes Christmas Lights

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We turned on the Christmas lights in Hayes town centre today (Thursday.)

I invited the actor Mark Jones to turn on the lights. Mark is one of the stars in the pantomine at our local Beck Theatre in Hayes this year. He is playing the part of Smee in Peter Pan.

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