It is excellent news that three Chelmsford Schools have been added to the School Rebuilding Program for entirely new school buildings to be constructed. I spoke to the heads of Barnes Farms Juniors and Springfield Primary and popped in to visit the head and deputy head of Beehive Lane Primary.
All the current buildings remain safe for children at this time. In the coming months there will be more clarity about plans for the new schools. Schools will be fully involved in developing those plans. I have also been told it usually takes at least 3 years to make plans and then build a new school.
I have been told that children will continue to be able to attend their schools fully during this time, possibly with temporary schools being erected. There is obviously a lot of work to do before this is all finalised. I have agreed to help the schools as much as I possibly can.
I will meet the schools again after half term to go through any questions they have and to continue to make progress.
I had a great time at Chelmsford College as part of National Apprenticeship Week. T Level students from the college spent the morning working with the Austin Motor Company to put together design concepts and costing for a child’s pedal car - the “J40/Pathfinder” - which Austin produced in the 50s and 60s and would like to bring back to production.
The students reviewed different materials, manufacturing processes and marketing suggestions before preparing a presentation. The project included engineering and business T level students. Austin hopes to secure funding so that the students can turn their ideas into reality.
Regular readers will know that I care deeply about making sure your young people have access to high quality education. This is crucial to giving them opportunities for their future. Since 2010, 9,600 people have started apprenticeships in Chelmsford. The new T Levels give young people the chance to study high quality technical subjects and have been developed closely with employers and business as well as academic experts.
In Parliament, I have recently joined the Cross-Party Education Select Committee. I have also taken on the role to chair the All-Party Group for Online Safety on Social Media. This week as part of UK Safer Internet Day I hosted a meeting in the House of Commons for children, students and many expert groups to look at what changes need to be made in order to make the online world safer for children.
The event was timed to coincide with the launch of the UK Safer Internet Centre’s new report which focuses on all areas of 'change' in young people’s online lives. It is important that parents and carers are empowered by providing the information and resources they need to better support their children at home, that schools are equipped with the safety tools they need to keep pace with the rapidly changing online environment, and that young people’s voices are heard and amplified to create more opportunities for children to engage in online safety.
The new Online Safety Act has now entered into law. This will make progress in preventing children from being targeted by many forms of online harm. We are one of the first countries in the world to legislate in this area, and many other countries are now following the UK’s lead. The regulator, Ofcom, is now working on the detailed implementation of the many areas that are covered by this law.
On the subject of safety, our local police have given me an update on their activity. Last week they arrested 3 individuals for theft of motor vehicle offences. The investigation remains on-going and they are hopeful to be able to link these individuals to multiple offences.
Last week they also arrested and charged a male with 3 robberies and a handling stolen goods offence. This was a protracted investigation that involved months of hard work, multiple arrests, and house searches which also resulted in the recovery of stolen items that have been returned to the victims. They also arrested, charged and remanded a prolific offender for attempted residential burglary and arrested and dealt with 3 individuals for bulk shoplifting offences from Primark.
The increase in vehicle crime and burglary in Chelmsford which we saw last year has now started to come back down. Across the country, neighbourhood crime has halved since 2010. Crime rates in Essex continue to drop.
Chelmsford has a long-held reputation for being a safe place. I know we want to keep it that way. We now have record numbers of police officers in Essex and I want to make sure they are focused on the issues that concern local people. I have launched a local survey on safety issues in Chelmsford. It only takes a few minutes to fill it in. You can find the survey on my website.
Lastly, I met with the head of First Bus Essex. The number of people using the buses and the reliability has improved since last year, partly due to the Governments support for the £2 bus fare scheme.
There are certain pinch points in Chelmsford traffic which can cause delays for some routes. I will be contacting highways to make some suggestions of ways to address these. Please do not stop in the “yellow hatch” area on the Odeon Roundabout, as this can cause major issues for busses trying to use that roundabout. I have alerted the police about a persistent anti-social parking issue which is causing significant problems to the bus service towards Great Baddow.
Thank you to the constituents who have alerted me to recent issues with the bus app. This could be because of a glitch due to a technology upgrade change which was introduced a couple of weeks ago. The company are going to try to get this addressed urgently.
