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Rory walked from Reagill to Wintertarn, on Saturday 12th February, to visit proposed windfarm sites with CARST (Communities Against Reagill & Sleagill Turbines). Rory described it as a “wonderfully unique landscape, wholly inappropriate for wind turbines.” The walk organised by CARST showed local MP Rory the 50-foot high anemometer mast, recently erected at Reagill by […]
Nothing that I have done in my short time in parliament has been as exciting or as fulfilling as broadband. My constituency of Penrith and the Border is the largest in England and consists of over 200 villages. Our greatest problems stem from distance and isolation. My neighbour with Parkinson’s has to drive to Newcastle Hospital […]
Volunteers speak up for Big Society By Clare Lissaman BBC News, Wednesday 9th February 2011 Months before Prime Minister David Cameron launched his Big Society initiative with the aim of empowering local communities, villagers in Cumbria were making plans to build their own homes. A survey identifying the need for 23 affordable homes in […]
On Thursday, I defended Cumbrian community action in the London School of Economics, where the rhetoric was as extreme as the setting was bland. My opponents compared parish council initiatives to Athenian slavery and the Bombing of Baghdad, in front of a quiet scholarly audience in a lecture theatre. On Saturday, I was amidst the […]
Last Saturday Rory launched a fundraising campaign for the Penrith Cinema by pledging to match any donations up to £1,500. He was immediately matched by local businessman Dave Harding (owner of the Angel Lane Fish and Chip shop), at a rally to save Penrith’s Lonsdale Alhambra cinema on Saturday 29th January. Dozens of others in […]
Rory officially opened the new Eden Assessment Service at Penrith Hospital at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday January 28th, and met patients and staff as he was given a tour of the new unit. The new service provides room for GPs to refer patients for further diagnostics, tests and short-term treatment, allowing more space and […]
I am writing this having been in the Forestry debate today in the House of Commons but having had to step out to take a call from one of many constituents who have been contacting me over the last few days to express their concern about the forestry commission. Yesterday, I was one of a […]
To read the latest local coverage of the Campaign to save the Alhambra Cinema in Penrith please click on the links below: Monday 31st January 2011 – click here Saturday 29th January 2011 – click here Thursday 27th January 2011 – click here
I am campaigning hard in support of the Head Teacher and Governors of William Howard School to become an academy, and have used a meeting with Michael Gove to press to make an exception for this fantastic school. The latest Ofsted report in July 2009 reported that the school was ‘good’ in all areas, and […]
I spent Christmas with my family. My little sister, who has Down’s Syndrome, made Christmas for us. She spent much of the holiday in a pink, pointed woollen hat, with ear flaps – the kind I imagine a Peruvian wearing. She took my father swimming and me skating (I promptly fell over in the middle […]