Loughborough MP Andy Reed has joined forces with a local pressure group Long Whatton & Diseworth Bus Action Group to call upon East Midlands Airport and Kinchbus Limited to think again on proposals to cut bus services affecting Loughborough constituents.

The affect of the changes if implemented would see two local villages Diseworth and Long Whatton cut off from Loughborough between 7pm and 7am from April.

Reed has now received complaints from Loughborough residents who fear removal of the service could result ultimately in them losing their jobs, as well as being unable to visit friends and family in neighbouring villages.

Reed stated “I am concerned for my constituents in Loughborough that a hasty decision could have harmful long term affects in the long run”. He added “good public transport is essential especially to connect people in local communities and I hope that a sensible outcome is achieved before the cuts are set to take place next month.

Loughborough MP Andy Reed is set to attend this coming Thursday 11 March, the opening of an exciting new business venture in Quorn. “Quorndon Formal Hire” offers a new service for those planning weddings, balls, special occasions and will provide a unique personal experience for all of their customers.

The launch event for Quorndon Formal Hire is taking place between 5pm and 9pm at their premises on High Street Quorn.

Ahead of the opening Reed stated “I’m absolutely delighted to be able to share in the success of a local business. He added “it is a tribute to a lot of hard work and endeavour by the owners behind the scenes in order to make the up and coming launch possible and I wish them every success for the future”.

Residents spoke out against plans for an Incinerator near Shepshed at a public meeting held by the County Council last night.

Andy Reed said "I have been supporting the campaign against this incinerator coming to Shepshed and was sorry Parliament sitting meant I could not personally be present at this particular meeting where I made sure I was represented. I have now heard so much negative feedback about the way the meeting was conducted and the lack of information available. I am really disappointed on behalf of local residents.

"I have already written to County Hall on behalf of residents to get some clarification on a wide range of outstanding issues and we have not received an adequate response yet.

"Hopefully the County Council now understand the strength of feeling against the Incinerator and will start to listen and take the issues seriously"

Details of the Planning Application can be found at the link below.

http://www.leics.gov.uk/index/environment/planning/community_services_planning/planning_applications/index/environment/planning/community_services_planning/planning_applications/eplanning_searchform/eplanning_resultpage/eplanning_detailpage.htm?appno=2009/2497/02&map=f

Loughborough MP Andy Reed is rising to the Sport Relief Challenge this week by taking part in the first of two Mile events. He will be taking part in the Westminster Mile on Wednesday 10th March.

"This is the first of my two part challenge to raise money for Sport Relief. I will then be taking part in the Loughborough Mile on the 21st March run at the University. I have entered the whole family so we are looking for people to sponsor us via the SportRelief website

http://www.mysportrelief.com/TeamPage.aspx?teamID=46137&LangPref=en-CA

Leicestershire County Council failed to impress Partnership for Schools that it was ready to deliver its Building School for the Future programme for Loughborough Barrow & Quorn it was announced today.

The Partnership for Schools team assessed the bids put forward for the next round of BSF funding and Leicestershire was not even put forward to Ministers as one of the reserve bids. Six authorities were chosen and a further 3 were deemed to be almost ready.

Andy Reed MP spoke in the Commons today and asked Schools Secretary Ed Balls MP if he would meet to give detailed reasons why the County bid was not good enough and to urge County Hall to now engage in meaningful consultation with local Heads, governors, parents and pupils to put a widely supported bid in place for the next round.

"The Minister confirmed that Labour will continue the BSF Programme and so County Hall now has time to win over the majority of parents who rejected their options in the consultation. They need to show now that they are genuinely willing to listen and act. There are many bitter and disillusioned parents who are angry at the way the consultation forced the County options on the town. It now appears that the bid they were forcing on us was not even good enough to pass the Partnership for Schools assessment. It didn't even reach the desk of Ministers for approval or a decision.

"I will now ask for an urgent meeting with County Council officials to see what they plan to do next. I don't want them to walk away from BSF and the £80m that could be available. I don't want them to try and come up with a cheap version of reorganisation. They should continue to work up a proper widely supported BSF Bid which will not split the town again."

"I am happy to help them rebuild the trust they have lost amongst so many parents and staff as the future of our children's education is at stake."

"I have been warning people that a deeply divisive bid was unlikely to get past the initial assessment. sadly this has proved to be the case. Ministers are not even involved at this early stage - they are just given the recommendations from the independent Partnership for Schools body."

"I am deeply disappointed that we will have to wait a little longer; but it does give us the opportunity to get this right. BSF under Labour is not going away. The only worry is of course the election of a Tory government who have promised to slash the programme"

The newly created Centre for St Mary’s Church, Sileby was opened on the 6th March, by Loughborough MP, Andy Reed and the Reverend Richard Hopkins, Rector of Sileby, Cossington and Seagrave.

Over 200 guests, church members and visitors, including the Worshipful The Mayor and Mayoress of Charnwood, Roy & Gill Brown and County Councillor, Richard Shepherd, attended the official opening. They were given a tour of the new facilities, which include a state-of-the-art kitchen, a soft-core play area and multimedia technology throughout.

The innovative church rooms complex features a crafted timber and glass ‘Atrium’ linking the remodelled and updated Pochin Hall to the completely new Wallace room, the main hall and major part of the complex. Designed by Loughborough’s B3 Architects and constructed by SP&AJ Contractors, the St Mary’s Centre project has strong local support and the two elements have been so named because of their old and new benefactors.

Revd. Richard Hopkins, Rector of the United Benefice of Sileby, Cossington and Seagrave welcomed all those in attendance and introduced Andy Reed, MP to make his official opening speech. and cut the ribbon to the new centre.

Andy Reed MP said; “This is a great day for the village of Sileby and I am delighted that the community now has this superb facility on its doorstep. All the parties involved in this project have worked extremely hard and with the new St Mary’s Centre fit for purpose, St Mary’s Church can continue its excellent work within the community.”

Loughborough MP Andy Reed joined with local artist Bill Brookman and Baroness Caroline Cox at Loughborough Parish Church on Saturday night for an event to focus on slavery and child soldiers.

"Both Bill and Caroline Cox do amazing work in some of the most dangerous places in the world to bring peace and tackle poverty. It was an inspiration to hear of their work and great to share some thoughts later as part of the panel discussion"

Loughborough MP today expressed his fears about the way the election in Loughborough may be fought when he released details of his own Internet domain name being bought by the husband of the Tory candidate.

"I was shocked to discover that the Tories would want my domain name www.andyreed.org.uk for any legitimate purpose?!

"I don't think these London types coming up to Loughborough with their Central Office instructions realise we don't do things like this round here. This is not a place for this sort of dirty tricks politics and frankly I am shocked but more importantly very disappointed.

"In 2009 they tried to hide the London home address where they registered this web address but I have copies of the original registration.

"The only reason to do tis would be to stop my legitimate use of the name or those with greater suspicion might suspect plans for a dirty tricks internet campaign. They have some pretty nasty local bloggers so I am afraid I can't rule this out."

"I feel very saddened by this whole episode, it realy isn't the way we do things round here."

Details from Regster Whois:

Domain name:
andyreed.org.uk

Registrant:
Jonathan Morgan

Registrant type:
UK Individual

Registrant's address:
The registrant is a non-trading individual who has opted to have their
address omitted from the WHOIS service.

After another bad week for the Tories as news that multi-millionaire Lord Ashcroft has been misleading people over his tax status Loughborough MP Andy Reed said his local party would rely on hard work and shoe leather to win the election.

"We don't have anywhere near the money the Tories have. We aren't funded by this Millionaire from Belize who want to flood seats like Loughborough with his £millions through their marginal seats strategy. I have hundreds of volunteers who give up their spare time and a few quid at a time to help. I believe this is what politics should be about - local people delivering a local candidate because they care about their area."

Business, community and government leaders in Loughborough & Leicestershire came together today (Friday) in Loughborough to respond to the news that AstraZeneca will be relocating it's operations in 2011.

A statement was agreed by all parties:

All parties were grateful for the opportunity to meet today at this early stage. We had a very constructive discussion. The meeting today has been an important step in the process of exploring future options for the Charnwood site and how best to support all those who are affected.

It is still early days and there is much to be done over the next 18 months but it is important that we put plans in place as a matter of urgency to help deal with the situation.

At the meeting today it was agreed that EMDA will establish a task force including AstraZeneca. The priority will be to put support in place to help the people affected to find new jobs or set up their own businesses. The other important aspects will be finding new uses for the site and creating new employment opportunities in the local economy.

One of the early actions will be to carry out an economic impact assessment which will help the task force decide where to focus its efforts.

We have agreed to meet again within the next month.

Andy Reed said "Whilst recovering from the shock and scale of the news it was important that we all rallied around in a partnership. Loughborough suffered massive job losses before and we bounced back with new jobs and a more diversified economy. By working together I am sure we can respond to this challenge too."

Andy Reed MP said he was in a state of shock when AstraZeneca announced on Tuesday that they were moving their Research and Development facilities from their Loughborough site and consolidating in Cheshire.

"Whilst I knew from my ongoing discussion with AstraZeneca management that they were looking to make job cuts across their global operations and some of those in the UK I only expected they would reduce some areas of work and management costs - never in my mind did I ever think they would really close the whole site. It was unimaginable."

"My immediate thoughts are with the 1200 people who now face an uncertain future. Whilst the site will not close until the end of 2011 this will be unsettling for so many family. We all know people who work at AstraZeneca. It is such a massive employer in the town."

"I have called together all the local key agencies to work with the company to minimise the impact for individuals and the local economy. The first meeting of key partners will take place on Friday morning. I have called on them to set up a task force with appropriate resources to respond to the scale of this news. I will probably ask Charnwood to reverse their decision to cut an economic development post as I think we will need people working full time on our response.

"We need to work on a plan to help people, work out what to do with the site and how we bring in new equivalent High tech and high spec jobs."

"The management at AstraZeneca did say that the governments Office of Life Sciences is working and this is why so few job losses fell in the UK as a whole - but that is no consolation to the relocation and consolidation of R&D in Cheshire"

"Whilst I am shocked at the news I have always said that even a large employer like AstraZeneca in a globalised free market economy is only 12-18 months away from threat of closure at any time. Globalisation means companies of this scale move their assets around the globe based on their shareholders needs. We have to understand the bigger picture and work within that."

Leiecstershire County Council today set out their preference for Option 'B' in their consultation on the future of Loughborough schools. The council made their announcement ahead of the close of the consultation period today.

Andy Reed MP said "Over 50% of respondents to the consultation said they were in favour of an Option C or against Option A & B. If the consultation with parents is to mean anything I hope the County Council will listen, even at this late stage to the need to work with the majority of parents and schools who oppose their plans. e really do need to listen to people when we consult otherwise we drive cynicism."

"I have been really disappointed by the whole process. The County Council process and lack of consultation at every stage for the last year has turned this potentially really good news story into potential disaster. They should have built a consensus by involving Heads, Teachers, governors and parents early in the process - not just surprising us in January 5th with a fait accompli which included the shock closure of the Outstanding school at Limehurst."

"Over the last few weeks I have tried to bring people together to address the concerns I have heard in numerous meetings and talking to hundreds of parents but I got the impression County Hall stopped listening a long time ago.

"I was shocked to learn that Heads had not been involved in the planning and decisions and they were as surprised as the rest of us at the plans put forward.

"I will still work hard to have the views of the majority of parents taken on board when delivering BSF if we are successful at getting the £80m from the Labour government. "

Loughborough MP Andy Reed is backing plans by NHS Leicestershire and Rutland to encourage men with problems peeing to get checked out by their doctor, as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month begins.

NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland is hoping the event during March will encourage more men to be prostate aware and to seek help with any problems earlier, instead of ignoring them.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, as well as across Leicestershire and Rutland. There are 464 new cases* diagnosed each year in the two counties and 124 deaths** per year.

The prostate gland’s main function is to help in the production of semen and it is located between the penis and the bladder. It surrounds the urethra, which is the tube which carries urine from the bladder to the penis.

Prostate cancer may not have any symptoms until the cancer has grown large enough to put pressure on the urethra, which can cause:

• The need to urinate suddenly or frequently, especially during the night
• Pain during urination
• Weak and irregular urine flow
• Trouble starting to urinate
• Feeling your bladder is not empty afterwards
• Less commonly, blood in your urine

Reed stated “this is a really important campaign that the local NHS is undertaking and I believe that men should avail themselves of the opportunity if they feel their health circumstances are appropriate”.

For more information on prostate cancer visit NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk

Andy Reed MP today hosted and launched a campaign by SPEAK against government support for the Arms Trade. The campaign "Defend Peace: Disarm Tax was launched by Andy Reed in the Jubilee Room in the Commons.

"I am delighted to have joined SPEAK in launching the campaign amongst parliamentarians. We do not talk enough about the injustice of the arms trade and the untold misery it causes across the world. This campaign is rightly very realistic. It calls for the removal of unjust support for the industry by the government."

More details are available from SPEAK - www.speak.org.uk/armstrade

SPEAK connects the emerging generation to campaign and pray for change to situations of injustice.

Loughborough MP Andy Reed has welcomed the news that Big Lottery funding is benefiting more groups in Loughborough. The Big Lottery Fund in the East Midlands has announced that two further groups have become the latest ones to receive a significant grant from the latest round of awards.

First, Charnwood Independent Youth Association (CIYA) has been awarded £9810 for an Access to Information Technology Project. CIYA based in Loughborough will provide IT facilities for the homeless and vulnerable young people that they work with. The project will enable them to build up important skills and help those trying to re-enter education. The project will also improve confidence and access to jobs.

Second, Gorse Covert Community Association (GCCA) has been awarded £10000 for an initiative called “Furnish it!”. This project run by the charity in GCCA in Loughborough will provide new and replacement furnishings for its centre. The project will improve facilities at the centre and encourage greater use by the wider community.

Reed stated “both awards are fully deserved in my opinion, and will do a lot to help provide both skills for Loughborough people and also regenerate communities”. He added “for the volunteers associated with the club who do work behind the scenes and are often unnoticed, in particular this funding rewards them for their time and efforts”.