This week brought the good news that the UK economy is growing – and performed better than all other large European countries as well as the USA in the first quarter of the year. In Chelmsford, I popped in to visit three recent arrivals on our High Street.
Gaia Jewellery is a family run business near the Stone Bridge specialising in in 14 carat gold. The modern designs are stunning. Zambrero, opposite Metrobank, makes the most scrummy burritos based on Mexican cooking. They are a newly formed chain with10 locations across the country. For every burrito ordered they donate a meal to someone in need - over 78 million meals donated so far. Flannels specialise in luxury designer fashion and have taken on the old Top Shop location at the entrance to High Chelmer.
It’s great to see new businesses putting their faith in Chelmsford. Gaia and Zambrero have been shortlisted for the Chelmsford For You business awards. Good luck to them all for the rest of the competition.
Another sign of the economy doing well is the low unemployment. There has been significant increase in support to help people into jobs. At County Hall I met with the Individual Placement and Support team. This is a new service aimed at helping those with common mental or physical health illness to gain and sustain meaningful paid employment. It was extremely moving to hear from people who are now back in jobs thanks to the service. This has helped their mental well-being.
I also visited the Springfield Bees Nursery and Preschool where I met children and staff. The new increased support for Government funded childcare is making a huge difference to many working parents in Chelmsford.
At Maltese Road Primary School, I was delighted to hear that they have sailed through their recent Ofsted inspection with another “Good”. Every single one of the schools in the Chelmsford Constituency is now Good or Outstanding, compared to 14 years ago when one in three of our children went to schools that were not even good. It was great to meet with lots of the children including some very thoughtful questions from year 6.
The head teacher Faye White and I had a long chat about the impact of screen time on children. She is concerned that the habit of constant scrolling through short videos or different content is impacting on the concentration of very young children and that this may be resulting in more ADHD amongst children.
In Parliament, I hosted a large roundtable of cross party MPs and Peers to discuss the latest stage of rolling out the new laws to protect children online. We heard from the team at Ofcom who are working on implementing the detailed legislation. Once finalised, this will require social media companies to put in place stringent measures to prevent children from accessing the most dangerous forms of online harms. Failure to do so can face substantial fines, and potential criminal convictions for company bosses.
Our local police have also been running intensive safety operations across Chelmsford this week. Operation Stronghold focuses on the issues raised by local people in every district of the country. I joined the police at High Chelmer to see the work the knife arch operation in action. Knife crime was down by 11.7% in the Chelmsford and Maldon district last year.
I was also deeply impressed to hear that over 60% of reporting shoplifting crimes in the city centre were solved in the past 12 months. Our local police have been working to identify linked offences and investigate these as a series. This puts a clearer offending picture in front of the court, helps the police to get orders placed on offenders, improves the chance of a positive outcome for victims and reduces crime.
Disappointingly, another political party has been putting leaflets through people’s doors trying to take credit for other people’s work. For the record, on GP surgeries, the expansion of Sutherland Lodge Surgery and the building of the new mega surgery at Beaulieu Park are thanks to decisions made by Chelmsford City Council when it was controlled by Conservative councillors.
The new Train Station at Beaulieu and North East Bypass has been funded by the £250,000,000 grant from the Conservative Government thanks to campaigning led by me and supported by largely Conservative MPs all along the Great Eastern Mainline. It is being delivered by Essex County Council which is Conservative led.
Recent investment in additional CCTV, lighting and street safety improvements have largely come from the government’s safer streets funding initiative, led locally by the Conservative Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst, with whom I work closely. I will always fight for our fair share of investment in Chelmsford and often to get things done it is important to work in partnership with others.
Finally, a huge thank you to the Sikhs of Chelmsford for bringing joy to so many people for their celebration of the festival of Vaisakhi in the High Street. Music, dancing, bhajis and a free health check – what’s not to like!
