AUGUST UPDATE
AUGUST UPDATE
New cases opened for residents: 684
Cases resolved for residents: 849
Parliament has been in recess throughout August, meaning I’ve been able to spend all my time in the constituency, alongside a bit more family time too.
These are just a few of the things I worked on this summer:
It's long past time to regulate the funeral industry. Many of you will have read the absolutely shocking story involving a funeral director in Leeds and how she conducted her work. Two of my constituents are victims and came to me earlier this year. They asked for complete confidence until the BBC completed their investigation. I have linked the story below which includes very distressing details. To my horror, I found that funeral directors are not regulated, so no crime was committed and there is nothing in place to stop it from happening again. I am working with my constituents and anyone who will help us to change the law in this area. I will use every tool at my disposal to press the government on this issue and to change the law so that no one experiences this ever again.
Original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gjr0ylenzo
Time to crush the antisocial bikes. I joined with police at Morley Police Station to go through the main challenges facing the area. These challenges will not be a surprise to anyone local reading this, but they include antisocial behaviour, e-bikes and quad bikes, burglaries, and shoplifting. Although the police reported a decrease in shoplifting in the town centre following the arrest and sentencing of several prolific individuals in our area, we need to continue to increase police numbers to deal with this in the long term. The recruitment of 13,000 new officers by 2029 will help. I was also very pleased to support and vote for the Police & Crime Bill which will introduce new powers for the police to immediately seize antisocial vehicles, including e-bikes and quad bikes. We’re introducing new rules alongside this so that police can crush these vehicles within 48 hours of seizure.
There’s almost nothing I won’t do to support a local business. A local company in Drighlington became the first in the world to create an AI version of an MP. I worked with Jeremy Smith and local company Neural Voice to create an experimental prototype AI version of myself. I saw this experiment as a better version of voicemail, something that could answer questions and potentially get quick answers for people when my office is closed, outside of business hours. To be clear, the jury’s still out on if this will be useful and absolutely no one in Leeds South West & Morley has to use it – it’s a free experiment to see if there are any useful applications and I’ll close it down if not. Whatever happens, a business in our constituency has delivered a world-first and that’s worth celebrating.
We celebrated VJ Day in August, marking 80 years since the Allied Forces declared victory over Japan and ended WW2. This was marked with events and celebrations across Leeds South West & Morley. I was honoured to lay a wreath in Morley in memory of all those who have served, alongside local veteran Simon Brown, the Mayor of Morley Carol Edwards, and the SSAFA’s Christine Hurst. I also laid a wreath at the war memorial in Leeds too, on behalf of everyone in Leeds South West & Morley.
I held resident advice surgeries in August, this time in East Ardsley, Morley, Churwell and Wortley. I rotate between 11 different locations across Leeds South West & Morley and hold a mix of open and appointment only surgeries. In addition to this, my regular door-to-door work continued, and I covered more locations in Drighlington, Farnley, Morley and Lofthouse over Summer, alongside the local councillors. Door knocking is for life, not just for election time.
Thank you to our emergency services. I do want to pay special tribute to Morley Blue Team at Morley Fire Station who cover all of Leeds South West & Morley and beyond. I saw their work first-hand as they took me out in the truck to an emergency on the motorway. Thankfully everyone was fine, and I thank all of the emergency services who made sure that was the case. It was clear to me that Morley Blue Team have a great deal of passion for their work as firefighters and that we are very lucky to have such dedicated men and women looking after us in the event of a fire or similar emergency. I’m looking forward to going back so that we can finish our discussion about the challenges facing our area and their response to them.
The Leeds Local Plan 2042 consultation closes on the 15th September. Developers and landowners have submitted their land for consideration for development and time is running out for residents to have their say. MPs have no formal role in the planning process, but I’ve been working with local groups across Leeds South West & Morley to form my own submission. I’d ask any residents to both submit their own feedback to the plan through the portal below, and then email me your comments so I can use them to inform my own submission on all sites. Submit your comments here: https://leedslocalplansites.commonplace.is/
To support different aspects of my work, I met with lots of organisations over summer, including Highways England, the Transpennine Route Upgrade team, Drighlington Parish Council, Channel 4, Leeds Bradford Airport, Leeds Baby Bank, Morley Digital, staff at the White Rose Shopping Centre and more which I’ll address separately on my page. I’ve also been pleased to enjoy family days at the Copley Lane Maid Marion Orchard in Robin Hood, Amblers Orchard in Tingley, Breeze on Wortley Rec, Farnley Fun Day at Farnley Community Centre, bands in the park, including in New Farnley, to name a few. I won’t list them all here, but if there’s an organisation or business you’d like me to support, please just email me.
A quick note to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me about the SEND crisis in schools. The conversations we’ve had and the messages you’ve sent me have been extremely helpful. The Education Select Committee has nearly completed its work now and we will publish our final report and recommendations very soon. We then expect the Government to respond when the Schools White Paper is published later this year.
Parliament has now returned for September and I’m once again splitting my time between London and Leeds South West & Morley. I’ll be focusing on local issues affecting us and national ones too, including the Immigration & Asylum Bill, Police & Crime Bill and fixing the SEND Crisis. I’m required to be in Parliament most weeks from Monday to Thursday while it’s in session. If there is anything I can help with down here, please just email me:
mark.sewards.mp@parliament.uk.