Letter from Westminster and Bristol 21 April 2008

This letter covers one Parliamentary week and the late Easter recess.

A big issue in Bristol and up and down the country is the latest round of post office closures. Four closures have been announced in Bristol West at Alma Vale Road, Derby Road, Redcliffe Hill and Wellington Hill West.

I've written to residents near all of them to gather local opinions.

Petitions have been collected in support of each branch. I was able to present one of them to the House of Commons on the final day before Easter recess - you can see the short clip of me doing this here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w2W3427amc I have also sent my own detailed letter of objection to Post Office Limited. My past experience of such "consultation" by the Post Office does not offer much hope of a change of mind, but a strong case has certainly been made.

In the last three years I have appeared or been quoted on numerous media outlets. During recess I was on the big daddy of political news programmes, Radio Four's 'Today'. I was commenting on the reassertion of the government's intention to get 50% of young people into university. I share the ambition of widening the social profile of people who go to university but think the 50% target itself is pretty meaningless. The fact is that some schools and colleges send 100% of their intake to higher education while other schools send no one at all. More must be done to raise attainment in schools and also to encourage children from an early age to think about the opportunities university opens up to them.

A constant presence in my post bag and email in box are messages from constituents concerned about climate change. I've written to thousands of people about my views on this issue and have presented a petition to Parliament. I've opposed the unsustainable expansion of both Bristol and Heathrow airports so was delighted to take part in a Bristol Friends of the Earth demonstration on College Green. The Climate Change Bill will be discussed by the House of Commons in the next month or so. A major flaw in the Bill is the exclusion of aviation and shipping from the targets for reduction in greenhouse gases. So I was asked to appear with model aeroplanes and a man who had the unfortunate task of wearing a Gordon Brown mask. "Gordon" was refusing to see the planes... The event was filmed by the BBC.

As well as long established Bristol groups that campaign on climate change such as FoE, Greenpeace and Oxfam, in the last year or so other community focussed groups have sprung up. I spoke at the first public meeting of Sustainable Redland a couple of years ago and new groups are about to be formed. You can read about the local groups here http://www.sustainableredland.org.uk/ I met up with Redland and Bishopston campaigners to sign their climate change pledge, calling for tougher targets.

As part of my role as Shadow Secretary for Innovation, Universities and Skills I visit many institutions in Bristol and London and sometimes further afield. In this period I visited Birkbeck College in London and Bournemouth University. Birkbeck specialises in part time adult learning, mainly evening courses for people who work. It will be hard hit by government cuts in funding for those doing second degrees or courses in addition to their degree. I met a group of students to hear how Birkbeck had transformed their lives. Bournemouth is a relatively new university and I joined Mid Dorset MP Annette Brook on a visit. As well as meeting the Vice Chancellor we saw their new digital TV training unit. Bournemouth has one of the largest media schools in Europe.

Back in Bristol I went to a reception at the City Museum to launch the legacy commission for Abolition 200. This is a committee to make sure that last years events commemorating the end of the slave trade are followed up with positive action in today's Bristol.

A big issue in Bristol and many other university towns and cities has been the growth of student and other young people numbers living in flats and houses in the community as universities have failed to build new accommodation to house extra students. A cross party committee of MPs has been working for over a year to press the government to reform housing and planning law so councils can plan for "balanced and sustainable" communities. The government has now announced consultation. In a local radio interview I stress that this is not anti student. Many of the problems are caused by bad landlords.

Bristol University holds an annual lecture for graduates("Convocation") and I was able to attend this years which was by Prof Steve Sparks on volcanic eruptions in Montserrat. Bristol's Earth Sciences Dept is a world leader in its field and Steve gave a fascinating talk that was well attended by Bristol based alumni such as myself.

Back in Westminster the "I" for Innovation part of my DIUS role gives me opportunities to meet with people to discuss scientific research. I met with the Director of the Wellcome Trust, one of the world's largest funders of medical research. I also spoke in the House of Commons debate on the future of government funded science in the regions.

A difficult issue to handle in the media in this period was the objections in two east Bristol schools to the teaching of tolerance and understanding about non traditional family structures. I have of course gained a national reputation for campaigning for schools to have guidance on anti-homophobic bullying. Protests by Somalian Muslims at the gates of two primary schools received national attention. I stress in interviews on ITV and the BBC that bullying of any child is wrong and that all children are entitled to learn in a safe environment. Back in Bristol I met with some of the teachers at the schools to hear their perspective. We constantly have to work hard at good community relations in a diverse city.

The Police are having another reinvention of community policing and I joined Cabot Cllrs Mark Wright and Alex Woodman to meet with the police to discuss approaches to crime in and around the city centre. The police plan to have public meetings throughout the city so they can get a sense of peoples' priorities.

I visit lots of educational and health facilities and have now made an official visit to a pharmacy! The Ashley Down pharmacist talked me through the funding of prescriptions and outlined the many other community health services that pharmacies offer.

A major planning issue in Bristol West for the last two years has been the redevelopment of the Memorial Stadium in Horfield. I objected to the original plans, purely on traffic and parking impact issues. I fully support Bristol Rovers FC and Bristol RFC having a decent modern stadium.

Permission was granted last year (with some concessions on a residents parking scheme) but now the stadium owners have come back with some revisions to the stadium structure. I felt that the design was improved and supported the clubs in a local radio interview. The addition of a crèche and gym will also serve local residents.

I went to two swanky fundraising dinners in this period. The Dorchester in London was the venue for Stonewall's annual dinner. I was on the top table with the main guest Sir Ian McKellen. The next night was our own dinner in Bristol at my old university home, Wills Hall. Both were thoroughly enjoyable evenings.

Finally, there are of course no elections in Bristol this year. This is the first time I have known an election free year since I moved to Bristol in 1985! It's an opportunity to build up our infrastructure. So as well as all my other Bristol visits and activities I joined Redland cllr Sylvia Townsend and some other activists for a successful recruiting session. People are even more pleased to see us at their door when we're not asking for votes, showing that we really are active at all times!

Stephen Williams MP

Bristol West (Liberal Democrat)

Parliamentary email - stephenwilliamsmp@parliament.uk

www.stephenwilliams.org.uk