Newsletter from David Gauke, December 2009

As you might expect, life has been pretty busy for the last few months. The General Election is getting closer and economic matters continue to dominate the debate. As a Shadow Treasury Minister, this means that there has been plenty going on.

But first, constituency matters.

A longstanding issue that has caused problems in the south of the constituency has been difficulties of local children obtaining a place at a local secondary school. In the last few months, I have had a series of meetings with local headteachers and school governors, parents, Government officials and county councillors and officers to see if there is a way in which we can address this. What is becoming clear is that demographic changes show that this problem is going to get worse and that simply expanding local schools (or changing their admissions criteria) is not going to deal with the problem. The long term solution has to be the creation of a new secondary school in the area as soon as possible.

In the north of the constituency, we may face similar problems in the not too distant future (we have already had problems with a lack of primary school places in Berkhamsted). The Government has house building targets which are imposed on local authorities and Dacorum is currently looking at various options, including new developments in Tring and Berkhamsted. I have met with the local planning officers to discuss the various options, particularly in the light of strains on our infrastructure.

I do think that we must protect our countryside but I am not someone who believes that we should not build anything anywhere at any time. But there comes a point where our schools, hospitals, roads and leisure facilities cannot cope with the numbers. Rather than forcing development on local communities, the Government needs to work with local authorities to ensure that, where there is new development, this goes hand in hand with improvements in local facilities.

I have mentioned in the past the consultation by NATS on changes in flightpaths from Luton airport that may have had a detrimental impact on parts of Tring, Wigginton, Northchurch and Berkhamsted. I was heavily involved in opposing these plans and last year we obtained agreement that there would be a second consultation. However, NATS has now announced that there will be no further consultation at least until September 2010 and that it will take into account the points raised in the earlier consultation. This looks like good news for the many households that would have been adversely affected by the plans.

As for the Parliamentary business, there has been much going on in Westminster. I have been leading for the Conservatives on the Child Poverty Bill as well as speaking in Westminster on matters such as financial regulation and the European Union and the National Audit Office. I have also been working on Conservative policy on how we reform our tax system and how we bring down the deficit in the public finances. The public finances will dominate British politics for the foreseeable future and it is vital that, as a country, we have a credible route out of this mess.

There have been a few national media appearances of late and you might want to visit the Newsnight website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/newsnight before the end of the week where you can watch my interview from Friday’s edition (about 17 minutes 40 seconds into the programme) on the Pre Budget Report and Labour’s waging of the class war.

With the Pre Budget Report on Wednesday, we are set for another interesting week.

Best wishes

David