During the lockdown we saw an amazing upswell in community spirit. This month I’ve been working with five MPs from right across the country exploring how we can further support and empower our communities. Thank you to those who have take part in my Community Survey on my website. This week I was also delighted to host a meeting between Danny Kruger MP – who has been appointed by the Prime Minister to lead on this issue and previously led work for David Cameron and Theresa May – and community leaders in East Surrey including representatives from the inspirational Westway Centre and Chaldon Cares so they could feed in the successes and challenges they’ve faced on the ground. We hope to publish initial findings in the Autumn.
As you may know the environment is one of my top local priorities. I recently enjoyed answering constituents questions as part of ‘The Time is Now’ Climate Change campaign. This has inspired me to have a ‘Greentember’ – for the whole of September I will be particularly focussing on the Environment including continuing to work with Surrey Hills to extend our area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, litter picking to protect our wildlife and green spaces with local volunteers starting in Caterham, and hosting an open session with all residents with a senior politician. If you’d like to take part, please sign up to my mailing list to find out more.
Lastly, I hope you are all looking forwards to taking part in the Eat Out to Help Out scheme in August to get 50% off Monday to Wednesday at Caterham’s fantastic pubs and restaurants.
I have been visiting a number of restaurants, pubs and cafés across East Surrey and have seen first-hand the huge effort and thought that has gone into ensuring that they can re-open safely and am delighted that local outfits: Caffe Bambino, Casa Lola and Crown & Pepper Caterham are taking part.
