Rory welcomed the news that local family-run business – the Llama Karma Kafe – has been crowned regional champion in the Countryside Alliance Awards, nicknamed the “Rural Oscars”. Mary Walker and her family who run the cafe will now travel down to Westminster on March 13th to receive the regional award, and find out if […]
Following concerns raised by a number of constituents, Rory has visited an area on Fell End Clouds near Ravenstonedale, where Natural England has outlined plans to erect fencing to protect areas of land marked as an SSSI and to reintroduce a specific breed of cattle to the fell. Local residents have raised concerns over the […]
In the lead up to Christmas, Rory paid a visit to Penrith’s postal sorting office to thank local postal workers for their hard work, in what is their busiest time of the year. The local MP was given a tour of the office, where he learned that the branch will process up to 50,000 items […]
Rory recently delivered a fundraising talk on his journey by foot across Afghanistan to a packed out audience in St Lawrence’s Church in Appleby. Accompanied with a slideshow, Rory spoke not only of his walk from Herat to Kabul, but also offered an historical, political and cultural narrative of the region which allowed the audience […]
Rory had the great pleasure of taking part in Penrith’s inaugural Winter Droving event, organised and coordinated by Eden Arts, Penrith Chamber of Commerce and Eden District Council. The local MP joined hundreds of participants parading through the town centre wielding flame-lit torches, sporting an array of masks and costumes, and “droving” five enormous animal-shaped […]
Rory was last weekend invited to attend the Workington Ladies Lunch at the Greenhill Hotel in Wigton where he had the opportunity to talk with those present about the issues they are currently most concerned about. Perhaps the biggest talking point of the lunch was the upcoming elections for Cumbria’s Police and Crime Commissioner. Rory […]
Rory, as chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Local Democracy, last week hosted a meeting of the APPG around the issues of ‘community right to challenge’. He was joined by Ben Llewellyn, Deputy Director of Decentralisation and Big Society at the Department for Communities and Local Government, Karen Mellanby, Director of Programmes at […]
Rory has congratulated the Wigton’s ‘Town Team’ applicants and Allerdale Borough Council on their successful application to become a Town Team partner, following his endorsement of the town’s application. Wigton will now be able to access a support package designed by the Association of Town Centre Management. The support package aims to promote shared learning […]
Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Local Democracy, Rory, this week demanded more power for local communities whilst hosting the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. Speaking at the event, and drawing from his recent articles on localism, Rory said: “We must give local […]
This Monday, Rory convened a meeting to bring together Rachel Miller, area manager for HSBC, and Susan Spence, chairwoman of Appleby Community Acting Together (ACAT), to address current proposals by the bank to close its Appleby branch. The recent announcement by HSBC that it will be closing its Appleby branch on Friday November 30th, has […]