Letter from Parliament

Paul Rowen MP

Following my return from Bangladesh, I had a very busy weekend speaking in Southport on the Friday night and then hosting a Disability Conference at Richmond Hall on the Saturday. I was pleased that Danny Alexander, MP for Inverness was able to attend and speak. The meeting was attended by people from all over the North West including Joy Gerber from the Rochdale District Disability Action Group and Chris Spankie, Social Inclusion Unit Manager at the Council amongst many others.  Topics discussed included Transport, Education, Employment and Access. Dave Hennigan, my Constituency Agent put a great deal of effort into organising the event and getting some very excellent speakers.

One thing was apparent, compared to many other towns Rochdale has much better provision for people with learning disabilities. Several concerns were raised during the meeting about transport and my office has been in touch with the Passenger Transport authority to raise these concerns.  These include the provisions made for the Transport Innovation Fund Bid for the disabled and their carers.

Also on Saturday I attended the launch of a book written by Tony Young on trams in Rochdale at our Town Hall, also attended by the Mayor Councillor Peter Evans and his wife Helen. I spoke about our very successful campaign to get Metrolink ‘back on track’ and said that the best photo in the book in my view was that of a Metrolink tram with the destination Rochdale on its boarding board! It was good to see many people there including George Kelsall who is selling the book as well as Ken Hall who has made several excellent models of old Rochdale trams. The books are on sale at Touchstones this weekend if anyone is interested in buying a copy.

On Monday I attended the AGM of the Gateway Centre where there were two very moving  presentations;  one a play on Personal Accounts by a group from Warrington, the other the experience of two Oldham residents (one a Rochdale AFC supporter!) on their pioneering work on giving people with disabilities control of their own care plan including the money. Councillor Dale Mulgrew was also present and I am sure over the next twelve months he will work to ensure that both older people and those with disabilities are given more control of their own lives.

In London this week I’ve had discussions with Tony Simmons from the Ogden Trust and the National Liberal Club. The Ogden Trust have bought two oil paintings of Sir Cyril Smith and have very kindly agreed to present one of these to the club in recognition of  Sir Cyril’s long service to Liberalism. We have tentatively agreed a date in November for Sir Peter Ogden to present the painting to the club.

In the last week in the chamber I have raised concerns about fuel prices particularly as it affects retired, unemployed and disabled people. Gas and electricity prices have gone through the roof yet the power companies are making record profits. In my question to the Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks MP- I contrasted the £32million that ‘Powergen’ spend sponsoring the FA Cup compared to only £4.4 million they spend on fuel poverty. I hope that in the budget next week we at least see some increase in the winter fuel payment – it is long overdue!

Europe has continued to be the main topic of discussion in the Chamber. My party tried to get a discussion on having a proper referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. This was stopped by the other two parties and therefore I had no hesitation in abstaining on the Tory amendment for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Not since 1975 have the British people had an opportunity to vote on Europe and since then we have had The Single European Act, and the treaties of Amsterdam, Maastricht and Nice none of which the British people have voted on. We need to give the British people a vote in my view on how the EU has changed since 1975!