It’s been quite a summer so far. On 12 June, the Environment Agency announced a drought for the Yorkshire region following the driest spring in 132 years, and the past month has been exceptionally warm across the UK, with some areas experiencing their hottest June on record. Who now argues that our climate isn’t changing?

June and July also mean it’s Festival and Gala season, with Hunslet, Beeston, Belle Isle and Holbeck all holding theirs in the last three weeks.

I love attending them. It’s a chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. And I am always encouraged by talking to the various community groups and good causes on their stalls about the work they are doing locally.

It was particularly good to catch up on how the Heart of Holbeck project is developing now that we have secured the £15.9 million of Government funding. There are three big projects it’s going to undertake in the next three years.

The first is the refurbishment of St Matthews Community Centre and the old Box Office building, which is at the back of Holbeck Together‘s office.

The second will be a new traffic scheme for Holbeck, improvements to Holbeck Moor and investing in community green spaces.

And the third will be an energy improvement scheme for nearly 240 back-to-back homes which will improve their insulation so making them easier and cheaper to heat. A number of houses in the Recreations were done a few years ago and I remember talking to a couple about the big difference it had made to their energy bills. I can’t wait to see all this work happening.

At the Belle Isle Gala, I enjoyed listening to a brass quintet from Opera North who, I learned, had performed to a seated audience the previous day on Belle Isle Circus. It must have been quite an unusual but welcome sight for those coming up the hill.

It was also a pleasure to see the picture of Colin and Una Cooper in whose memory last year the Parkside playing fields were officially renamed Coopers Field, and to take in the historic display of rugby league shirts, photographs, and trophies in the Parkside Clubhouse. Colin was a lovely man and such an example of what one individual, with the support of others and a lot of determination, can achieve for a community.

This year is the 200th anniversary of the railways.

On 27 September 1825, George Stephenson’s steam-powered Locomotion No. 1 travelled 26 miles between Shildon, Darlington and Stockton, carrying hundreds of passengers to great acclaim and quite a bit of curiosity. It set in motion a train of events – pun intended – that changed our world forever.

Five years later, in 1830, William Huskisson – a Member of Parliament and a great advocate of the railways – sadly became began the first fatality when he was killed by Stephenson’s “Rocket” at the opening ceremony of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

What we are actually celebrating this year is the 200th anniversary of the first paying passenger train, but South Leeds is of course home to a much older railway. Established in 1758, the Middleton Railway holds the distinction of being the world’s oldest continuously working railway. It was originally built to transport coal from the Middleton Colliery to the thriving markets of Leeds. If you haven’t been to visit it yet, then I would strongly recommend you do so.

Talking of anniversaries, we’ve just marked the first anniversary of the election of a new government.

There have been a lot of positives. NHS waiting lists are at their lowest level for two years. People’s rights at work are being strengthened. The roll-out of free breakfast clubs for primary school children has begun. £39 billion will be invested over the next decade in a new Affordable House Plan – the biggest cash injection into social and affordable housing in a generation. We all know what a housing crisis we have.

There will be new investment in transport to connect our cities and towns, including a new tram line from the centre of Leeds down to the White Rose Centre. Thousands of steel workers’ jobs have been protected as British Steel will provide Britain’s rail tracks for the next 5 years. Nearly 4 million households will benefit from the uprating of the standard rate of Universal Credit – the largest, permanent real-terms increase to basic out of work support since 1980 – and more than 6 million households on means-tested benefits will get £150 off their energy bills this winter. The minimum wage has been increased significantly and the winter fuel payment will now be available this winter to all pensioners with an annual income of £35,000 a year or less.

Some things, however, have been a bit trickier. On welfare reform we didn’t get the process right and we failed to engage in the way that we should have done.

But having listened – and that is an important part of the job – we have been able to reassure all of those people currently receiving Personal Independence Payments (PIP) that they will stay within the current system, and no changes will be made to PIP eligibility criteria until the Government has concluded its review of the assessment process.

Being in Government is not easy, as I think most people recognise. Things come at you. You face difficult decisions. But you also have the opportunity to make things better and that is what we are trying to do.

 

Hilary Benn is our Member of Parliament. He represents the Leeds South constituency.

Email: hilary.benn.mp@parliament.uk  |  Website: www.hilarybennmp.com

Constituency office:
Unity Business Centre, 26 Roundhay Road, Leeds, LS7 1AB
Tel: 0113 244 1097

 

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