This week Parliament isn’t sitting and so I’ve been out in the constituency.
I took advantage of the quieter Monday bank holiday to catch up on some outstanding work and meetings which I have been trying to get sorted for a while and then took the afternoon to enjoy the good weather.
On Tuesday I headed over to Hopwood Hall to meet with Hopwood DePree who is restoring the historic Hall which has been in his family for fourteen generations. I also had the opportunity to meet with local volunteers who are giving their time to the restoration project and heard some of the fascinating stories about the Hall’s history. The work they have done is truly remarkable and once restored, the Hall will be an amazing local attraction.
Wednesday I met with the management team at Middleton Arndale to discuss the work they’ve done to keep essential retail going through the pandemic and discuss what challenges they might face as we begin to return things to normal. I was pleased to hear that there’s a real demand for small locally owned businesses in the town centre and that the recovery is being led by independent businesses.
After my meeting I popped into the Olde Boar’s Head for a bit of lunch with my team – whilst it’s great to be able to sit in pubs again, Wednesday was definitely a sitting out day!
On Thursday I joined the team from Riverside Housing for a walkabout in Langley where we discussed some of the cases we’ve been working on together and they showed me the new affordable housing both for sale and let that they are building in the area. Brownfield regeneration is so important and it’s brilliant to see more affordable housing which is in such demand at the moment.
On Friday I had a some zoom meetings including a briefing about the new ‘delta variant’ of Covid and the rise in rates locally – it’s so important that people get their jabs as soon as they get the call – that’s our best guarantee against going backwards. We can still hit the target of opening things up properly on the 21st, but we will all need to do our bit.
