Westminster Report

BY Southend West MP Anna Firth – working hard to make Southend safer, healthier and wealthier for all.

SAFER: I am delighted that for the month of July, Southend will play host to the Knife Angel, an iconic 27-foot-high sculpture crafted from over 100,000 confiscated or surrendered weapons.

The Knife Angel is a symbol against violence and aggression, particularly knife crime in the UK, and it aims to educate young people on the harmful and long-lasting effects that violent behaviour can have on communities, families, and victims.

Making the city safer by reducing knife crime and serious violence is my top priority, and this sculpture offers a unique alternative in how we can raise awareness of knife crime, particularly following my work in Parliament to outlaw all forms of zombie knives.

I recently met in Westminster with the Police and Crime Commissioners for the West Midlands and Cleveland who are running school-based initiatives to discourage knife carrying. They told me how they invite a vascular surgeon to visit schools to show the children graphic pictures of stab victims bleeding out from wounds.

Their message is that there is no ‘safe way’ to carry a knife nor is there a ‘safe place’ to stab someone. Even a small stab wound can be fatal.

I wholeheartedly support this initiative, and that of the Knife Angel. Children and young people need to be continually taught that knives are a serious issue, and that carrying them, even as a defensive measure, can have very serious consequences.

Healthier: It’s nearly a year since I first raised in the Commons, the issue of the lack of a lift at Chalkwell Station. Passengers currently have to negotiate 40 steep steps, making it hard or impossible for many of my constituents. I have since raised this issue eleven times, most recently in a letter I sent to Transport Minister Huw Merriman asking him to assist with speeding up the construction of the lift and bridge.

I am as frustrated as you by the lack of action and I will not let this issue rest until I see actual spades in the ground and construction work getting under way.

It’s essential that every single one of us has access to safe, reliable and cost-effective public transport so with that in mind, I convened a transport summit to find solutions to problems. I brought together local residents, all of Southend’s major bus operators, Southend City Councillors, members of the Southend Bus Forum and the Southend Area Bus User Group. I was delighted that the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister Guy Opperman accepted my invitation to hear directly from my constituents and the transport providers.

Wealthier: This month I called on the Government to ensure that Leigh gets a banking hub. It’s crazy that despite Leigh having a significant population and there being 250 retailers in a 1km radius, there are no banks. There is the Nationwide Building Society on Leigh Broadway, but it doesn’t cater for the needs of business.

Many elderly folk live in my constituency and it’s unreasonable to expect them to travel to Southend high street to access the banking facilities there and it’s also highly impractical for local businesses too.

LINK, the cash machine operators, are now responsible for assessing a community’s access to cash needs. LINK can recommend a banking hub or a similar scheme for a particular area. However, current FCA rules mean LINK are unable to recommend a banking hub until the last bank in town closes and in this case they are counting the Nationwide as a bank.

I want to change these rules and on February 2 I signed a joint letter calling on the FCA ‘to grant LINK the ability to operate on a case-by-case basis’. It is essential that people have access to face-to-face banking services and the banking hub model is a very good one, but none of the banks will provide such a hub if there is a building society that provides face-to-face services; one should not exclude the other.

I have been campaigning for nearly two years to secure a banking hub in Leigh so that my constituents and businesses can have access to the services they require and will continue to push for these services to be delivered as soon as possible.

Community cohesion is important, so I was really pleased to be invited to join Unity Iftar at Southend Mosque.

Unity Iftar is the shared evening meal during the month of Ramadan, which marks the end of the Fasting Day for Muslims.

The concept is simple yet very effective and allows people from all walks of life and backgrounds to engage with their Muslim neighbours to break down barriers and foster strong relations.

Read more.

Visit: https://leigh-on-sea.news

Contact us. Email: [email protected]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leighonsea.news

Twitter: @leighonsea_news

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leighonsea.news