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Pete Marland Leader of Milton Keynes Council

Whitehouse Health Centre, which opened in 2020

Happy New Year! 2021 was a year of hardship for many, and no doubt that will continue into 2022. However, Milton Keynes remains in a strong position to recover from the pandemic, and this year Milton Keynes Council will work to ensure our home is the best that it can be. This will be achieved in a variety of ways: by providing even more financial support to businesses that need it, continuing to tackle child poverty and support our most vulnerable, while also investing in infrastructure and making Milton Keynes cleaner, greener, and safer.

Tackling litter The Council is keen to tackle litter, as it has drastically increased since the first lockdown. We collect approximately 140 tonnes of litter each month, which is the equivalent of the Statue of Liberty in weight – now multiply that by 12, and that’s how much litter we collect in a year. Litter harms the environment and it is a blight on the community, so we are calling on people to quit littering as their New Year’s Resolution.

The Council has also employed enforcement officers who can issue onthe-spot fines to those who drop rubbish, including coffee cups, food wrappers and can even fine dog walkers who don’t clean up after their pet. There really is no excuse for littering, so please make sure you Take Pride in MK. Good news for Wolverton The Council is continuing to invest in some of our older estates that require attention, such as Bletchley, Fenny Stratford and Wolverton. Wolverton’s £35m regeneration has leaped forward in recent months, as the Council has purchased the abandoned and unloved Agora Centre. The former shopping building will be demolished by the summer, making way for the award-winning Love Wolverton scheme. There will be new homes, spaces for independent businesses, car-free ‘little streets’, a pocket park, sustainable mobility hub and even an energy microgrid. The Council is also proposing a new town centre car park at St George’s Way, public realm improvements and a public toilet. I look forward to seeing this development take shape over the next couple of years. Improved health services It is important we have the correct infrastructure in place to support our increasing population. That is why the Council invested £9.5m to build Whitehouse Health Centre, which opened in 2020, and why we will invest a further £1.3m to provide specialist healthcare services. The now-empty first and second floors of the centre will be fitted with facilities to provide endoscopy and renal services, and will save people having to travel outside of the city for help. We want Whitehouse Health Centre to become a major health hub for MK, and this is one of the steps we are taking to get there.

The Agora centre in Wolverton will be demolished by summer and will make way for the Love Wolverton scheme

IainStewart MP for Milton Keynes South

With Christmas and New Year well behind us, it has been great to be out in the constituency again and I want to update you with what I have been up to since my last article.

John Lewis Partnership & Home-Start – Prior to Christmas, Ben Everitt MP and I visited John Lewis in Centre:MK to wrap some presents for vulnerable families in Milton Keynes. With the help of HomeStart and the John Lewis Partnership, families across Milton Keynes were able to celebrate Christmas with presents, food and decorations being provided to them. This great initiative allowed families

who were in need to still enjoy Christmas regardless of their situation, and I was pleased to have contributed by wrapping some presents (although I am never going to win any prizes for my wrapping skills!) MK Job Show – In early January, the MK Job Show returned to Middleton Hall with over 70 exhibitors in attendance. This event is a great opportunity for local residents to meet local employers to see what job opportunities there are in Milton Keynes. I enjoyed talking to some of the exhibitors who were in attendance to hear of what jobs they are currently recruiting for, including Centre Parcs and Marcus by Goldman Sachs.

It was encouraging to learn that some of the exhibitors were conducting interviews at their stall and even offering jobs to successful applicants on the spot. I look forward to visiting the next MK Job Show later this year, and the Apprenticeship Fair.

Local Issues Survey – I have been out and about across the constituency speaking to residents about local issues and priorities with MK Council Councillors and the MK Conservatives.

From potholes to fly-tipping and our NHS to the Covid recovery, residents have been sharing their thoughts and ideas. If you would like to have your say on the local issues and priorities that matter most to you, you can do so online at: www.miltonkeynesconservatives. co.uk/local-survey-winter-21

Homelessness Prevention Grant – Recently, the Government announced £315.8 million of funding through the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

As part of this funding announcement, Milton Keynes will receive £1,990,412 through the Homelessness Prevention Grant and £32,702 through the Domestic Abuse new burdens.

The £2m of funding for Milton Keynes underlines the Government’s commitment to preventing homelessness and ending rough sleeping for good. I am hopeful that the local authority will utilise this funding, from the Conservative Government, to help those who are vulnerable or are in need.

In 2022, I would welcome the opportunity to meet as many of you as possible. If you have an event, organisation or business that you would like to showcase, please do get in touch with my office and I will endeavour to come along.

Iain speaking with Marcus by Goldman Sachs at the MK Job Show

Iain with Councillors and volunteers preparing to speak to residents

Iain wrapping presents at John Lewis with Ben Everitt MP

BenEveritt MP for Milton Keynes North

Ihope all MK Pulse readers have had a great start to 2022 and speaking of the New Year I’d like to congratulate those who were named in the New Year’s Honours List including Bill Griffiths for his wonderful work at Milton Keynes Museum in Wolverton, Andrea Vincent for her role supporting domestic abuse victims with MK Act and Peter Wilson from the Milton Keynes Special Needs Advancement Project. I am truly grateful to all of you for the work you do for our communities and for your service to our country.

And a I want to say huge thank you to our NHS, Armed Forces, volunteers and so many more who have helped us deliver a worldleading booster jab programme. However there are still too many people who haven’t had their booster. Vaccines work, vaccines are safe, so please, if you haven’t already, get your booster and protect yourself, your family, your friends and your community.

The Nags Head Wins Pub Of The Year I was delighted to meet the team at The Nags Head in Great Linford and inform them they had been voted the winners of my Milton Keynes North Pub of the Year competition. Hundreds of votes were cast in the competition with 42 pubs across the MK North constituency being nominated.

Votes were cast for pubs in areas from Astwood and Bradwell to Neath Hill and Newton Blossomville to Wolverton and Weston Underwood, while 11 pubs from Newport Pagnell received votes.

We need to support our pubs. They have struggled so much throughout the pandemic with restrictions, closures and isolation, so I am pleased this competition has helped highlight the wonderful local pubs we have across Milton Keynes and the support they have from the MK public.

It was lovely to meet the team at The Nags Head and hear about the fantastic work they are doing in the community, including an upcoming event with Willen Hospice.

Giving Blood Can Save Lives It is suggested that nearly 400 new blood donors a day are needed to meet demand. Giving

The Nags Head in Great Linford have been voted the winners of Milton Keynes North Pub of the Year

blood can help save lives and that’s why I continue to regularly do so in Milton Keynes and would strongly encourage other people to do the same. It is quick and easy to do, you could save a life, and there’s even free biscuits involved!

The statistics on blood donations are quite stark - 40,000 more black donors to meet growing demand for better-matched blood, 30,000 new donors with priority blood types such as O negative are needed every year.

£2 Million To Support MK Businesses As part of the response to the Omicron variant of COVID-19 the Government put together a package of support for businesses and I am delighted that more than £2 million was provided to Milton Keynes Council to deliver to hospitality and leisure businesses in the form of grants.

This Government has always said it will do whatever it takes to support businesses through the pandemic and this is yet another welcome round of funding to an industry which has been hit extremely hard by restrictions and cancellations due to isolation.

Over the last month I also… ▸ Welcomed the Government’s announcement on forcing those responsible to pay for fixing cladding. It would be morally wrong for leaseholders to foot the bill and I’ve been working closely on this issue with the

LUHC Committee and have met with affected MK residents ▸ Called on the Government to do everything possible to keep schools open, as MK Youth

Cabinet told me just how much of an impact closures had on the mental health of young people ▸ Backed new criminal offences and tougher sentences being introduced to crack down on hare coursing

CONTACT DETAILS: Tel: 01908 686830 | Email: ben.everitt.mp@parliament.uk | www.beneveritt.com | Facebook: beneverittmk CONSTITUENCY OFFICE: Suite 102, Milton Keynes Business Centre, Foxhunter Drive, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes MK14 6GD

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