Article for The Clarion

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 1st May 2003

I was very pleased to be able to attend the public meeting held at Upton Country House in April, concerning the impact of some of the industrial activities from the Upton Industrial Estate on local residents. There clearly were still a large number of concerns about smell and noise and indeed concerns about the location of the meeting. I certainly can understand that residents would have preferred the meeting to have been held in Upton and I hope that there will be better arrangements for the next follow up meeting. It is sad that there is a need for a further meeting but with unresolved and new issues, I do think it is vital for Poole Council to make sure there is at least one more meeting and I will be pressing for such a meeting. I have written to both Southern Print and David Brown Hydraulics since the meeting and I can quote from my reply from the operations manager of David Brown, 'I would like to be informed of and I would be more than willing to attend any future meeting where issues affecting David Brown Hydraulics and our neighbours are to be discussed.' If you have particular issues to raise on this topic of nuisance please do not hesitate to contact me.

As I mentioned in my last article I am playing an active role on the Government's Anti social Behaviour Bill. I am now serving on the committee stage, which involves 7 hours of debate, for two days a week for the next few weeks. Given that each session requires a great deal of preparation you can imagine that my time is heavily taken up with this occupation. I have had very little time to spend actually in the House of Commons, although I did manage to attend a very noisy Prime Minister's Question Time this week. People often say to me, why are there so few Members in the House and the answer is simply that there are so many activities, including important committees all going on out of sight but at the same time.

I am enjoying this particular committee but find it very frustrating that any attempt to moderate the Bill is and indeed, make it more workable in my eyes, is scoffed at. There are aspects in the Bill which I wholeheartedly support; we do need more measures to tackle anti social behaviour. However, particularly when working with young people, I do think it is necessary to get the right balance of stick and carrot. The police do need more powers and we need more police, there is some very bad behaviour which must be tackled. However, I do feel attention must be given to making sure that young people feel included within our society and that they encouraged to play a positive role.

Finally, I have been very active working with Poole Local Education Authority and the Government on the issue of funding for Poole Schools. Earlier this year I attended a meeting with Charles Clarke, Dorset MPs and Dorset County Council, arguing for better funding for Dorset schools. At that stage, Poole was refused a meeting with a Government Minister. In order to make sure that representatives from the Poole part of my constituency had a similar meeting, I have had to make a number of representations. A meeting has now taken place with David Miliband and I hope that if there is a successful outcome it will help the case for better funding for schools under Dorset County Council as well. However, I do feel that there is a great reluctance to address the longstanding underfunding in all the schools in my constituency and indeed in the South West region.