Alex Norris MP

Welcome to my latest newsletter as Member of Parliament of Nottingham North.

It’s only been two weeks since Summer but Parliament has now taken another break, this time for the three weeks of Party conferences, where all the political parties discuss their policy ideas and plans.

This week it has been the Liberal Democrat Conference and it’s Labour’s turn in Brighton next week. As well as listening to the various speeches in Brighton I’ve got a full diary of meetings with different groups so I’ll be bringing you a Conference Special next week!

I mentioned last week that I have a small favour to ask of everyone for the next few weeks. My two wonderful border collies, Boomer and Corona, have entered this year’s Westminster Dog of the Year competition (read their canine CV here). Part of it is a public vote, so if as many as possible of you could support them by voting here I’d really appreciate it. There will be a related event on 21st October which I’ll keep you up to date with when it happens. Thanks a lot!

I also have some great local news! There’s going to be a new children’s playground on Bilborough (Harvey Hadden) park. And we have a chance to design it. We want it to be accessible to all children, including those with physical and learning disabilities, so please send your ideas to james.tilford@nottinghamcity.gov.uk and help make it the best it can be.

As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested. 

In the constituency

This time last week I was getting ready for my most recent surgery. On this occasion I met with five constituents to talk about situations I will hopefully be able to assist with. While my team are always on hand by email or phone, sometimes it’s easier to be able to sit down and talk about something properly, and it can definitely help me understand what someone’s going through too. If you feel like that’s the case with you, keep an eye out for details of my next surgery or get in touch with my office and they’ll be able to let you know when I next have one coming up. It should only be a couple of weeks!

I kicked off Monday morning with a 6.45am start as I joined Nottingham’s Lord Mayor, Councillor Michael Edwards, to support dedicated Tesco staff who are walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise money for Diabetes UK and the British Heart Foundation. The Great Tesco Walk takes place over a month, with the journey split into legs – this one beginning in Nottingham North. I wish them all the best of luck as they continue on their way north. I walked with them to the edge of the constituency – but not the full 44km!

Once I’d recovered from that I visited our local Ladbrokes store in Bulwell. I’m making an effort to visit all bookies in the area at the moment. There’s a lot of attention relating to gambling whether it’s sponsorship, fixed-odds betting terminals or online apps. I want to understand more the impact, good and bad, that they have in the community to help me play a role in the debate. I had a great chat with the manager and staff, this was really helpful.

I am really excited to say that I also met with a group of constituents who use 38 Degrees to keep me informed on what’s important to them. If you haven’t heard of it before, 38 Degrees is a platform which allows people to have their voice heard through its campaigns. Unlike campaigns ran by charities or other organisations, it doesn’t focus on one issue at a time, but allows the users to dictate what’s important to them and let the people who can do something about it know. Traditionally their members would engage online-only, on a single-issue basis. I really enjoyed meeting them face-to-face discussing all sorts of things. It was such a great session; I’m looking forward to an ongoing relationship with then.

The Great Tesco Walk was only part of this week’s supermarket sweep, as I was welcomed to Nuthall Road Sainsbury’s too. It was very informative to visit a great employer, a useful local amenity and a contributor to the local community all rolled into one. Marek Burzynski, the store manager, showed me around and got me up to date on what they’re doing at this store to make a positive difference to our community. This ranges from supporting local causes to ensuring their customers have access to a great range of products at fair prices. Part of the that is done through Sainsbury’s Local Charity of the Yearinitiative, and I’m delighted to hear that this year the store will be supporting the Aspley Partnership, to provide their services and locations for activities in the community.

As well as the two supermarket activities, I also caught up with two of our local utility providers this week. As well as catching up with Simon Rhodes from Robin Hood Energy yesterday, I paid a visit to Severn Trent Water’s facility in Stoke Bardolph where I was given overviews of the company’s renewables programme and activity done to that end on site, as well as a tour of the site. It was fascinating to see the scale of the work that Severn Trent is doing to turn both sewage and crops into renewable energy. Building a sustainable future is important and sewage treatment is something that most people take for granted – it’s excellent to see these innovative techniques turning waste into clean energy that can be used by local people and businesses here in Nottingham.

Rounding off a busy week in Nottingham, I also had very informative meetings with Louise Cresswell, Area Director for the East Midlands at the Environment Agency, and Andrew Burns, Principal of the Redhill Academy Trust, which runs Top Valley Academy.

On top of this, I’ve also been campaigning as always. There are by-elections in Basford, Bestwood and Bulwell Forest on October 19th. It’s unprecedented to have so many in the constituency at once but you won’t find me complaining about the chance to talk to local residents!

That’s about it for now. The next message will come from Brighton where I intend to have fish and chips at least once a day.

What’s On

I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know.

Charity Football Match
Raising money for a young St. Ann’s resident, Shachkeil Burrows, who sadly lost his leg in a hit and run
Greenwood Meadows Football Club, Lenton Lane, off Clifton Blvd.
Sunday 24th September, 6.15pm

Bestwood Park Church’s Bestop Kitchen
Social Eating Event, Donations Welcome
Bestwood Park Church, Beckhampton Road, NG5 5NG
Every Tuesday, 12-3pm

Poems in the Pub
Poetry Open Mic Night
The William Peverel, Bulwell
Thursday 5th October and Thursday 2nd November, 7pm

Notts Gets 2 Work Summer/Autumn Programme
Programme of free Dr Bike events (bike servicing) and bike maintenance sessions
Various Nottingham Locations
For further info visit http://www.nottmgets2work.org.uk/programme2017

Free Community Cinema
Free screenings of films, everyone welcome!
St John’s Church, Key’s Close, Bulwell
2nd Friday every month, 7pm

Aviva Community Fund

I’ve also been contacted by Aviva recently, who have asked me to spread the word on grants they are offering for community projects. The Aviva Community Fund awards funding of up to £25,000 for local community projects across a range of categories such as skills for life, health & wellbeing and community support.  Last year there were over 450 winners and this year there are even more up for grabs.

Take a look here for more information, and see if maybe this is something that could help get your project off the ground. Applications can be made until 12 noon on 10th October.

 

If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.

That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below…

All the best,

Alex

 

 

 

 

How to contact me

If you would like to contact me, please email alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk or give my Nottingham North constituency office a ring on 0115 975 2377.

If you are a constituent from Nottingham North e-mailing me regarding a casework issue you are my priority, so please ensure your message includes:

• your full name
• your full postal address, including postcode
• a contact telephone number and
• any helpful details relevant to your case such as date of birth, reference numbers etc.

Strict parliamentary protocol means I can only deal with issues on behalf of my own constituents. If you aren’t sure whether you live in Nottingham North, you can check who your local MP is by entering your postcode online here: findyourmp.parliament.uk.

You may also wish to write to me with your concerns. If so please send your correspondence to Alex Norris MP, House of Commons, London, SW1A OAA. All constituents who take the time and trouble to write a personal letter will receive a reply as a matter of priority.

 

Other useful links

• Alex’s Website: click here.
• Alex’s Twitter: click here.
• Nottingham City Council: click here.
• Find your MP: click here.
• Register to vote: click here.
• School term dates in Nottingham: click here.

LABOUR PARTY

• If you’d like to learn more about the Labour party their website is here.
• To join the Labour Party click here.

LOCAL NEWS

• Nottingham BBC news: click here.
• East Midlands BBC news: click here.
• Nottingham Post: click here.
• Notts TV: click here.

LOCAL INFORMATION

• Benefits Information: Here’s an excellent site that allows you to find out exactly what benefits you are eligible to claim: EntitledTo
• Housing: please contact your City Council
• Problems with benefits or the Child Support Agency? The Citizens Advice Bureau and the Nottingham Welfare Rights Service can give advice. Remember to have your National Insurance number handy if you make an inquiry.
• Local schools / education matters: please contact your City Council.
• Employment rights: see Citizens Advice Bureau or the Trades Union Congress for info.
• Social services, environmental health, noise nuisance, parking, and Council Tax should all be addressed to the City Council.
• Another useful website on public services is Direct.gov.

NATIONAL LINKS

• For the main Parliamentary website click here and to explore the Parliamentary education site click here.