Away from parliament and the important job of scrutinising and making new laws one of the roles of a Member of Parliament is to help constituents with problems they are having here in Hinckley and Bosworth, we call it casework.

Casework can often involve helping an individual with a major problem, maybe issues with housing or social care. Equally it can involve helping a wider community.

This week my office and I have been trying to help the residents of Kirkby Mallory with a problematic telegraph pole.

The pole in question was knocked down on Boxing Day by a car and a few days later I was contacted as the incident had knocked out broadband in much of the village. I got involved and in conjunction with Openreach the repair was brought forward by 3 weeks and pole had been replaced with the service reinstated.

I thought all was well until the end of January, when the pole was demolished once again by another errant car – and around 40 homes lost landline and internet for the second time in a month!

I’m pleased to say that after getting involved once more provision was up and running for residents within 4 days – which is so important at this time when many are relying on stable broadband for work and home learning.

My role means that I am able to join up agencies too, so as well as working with Openreach I’ve also been in touch with Leicestershire County Council to ask them what measures they can put in place as highways authority to prevent further incidents.

By taking a joined up approach hopefully we can stop similar incidents from happening again!

Aside from that this week I have:

• Took part in a briefing from International Trade Secretary Liz Truss about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and our formal application.
• Took part in the Health and Social Care Select Committee where this week we questioned the Health Minister and NHS maternity leads about improving safety in maternity services.
• Promoted National HIV Testing week with the Terrence Higgins Trust: https://www.drlukeevans.org.uk/news/national-hiv-testing-week
• Met with the Dogs Trust to raise awareness of puppy smuggling.
• Asked the Justice Secretary about Covid related crime such as lockdown breeches, vaccine and grant fraud and spitting, you can see his response here: https://www.drlukeevans.org.uk/news/dr-luke-calls-robust-action-tackle-covid-related-crime
• Asked the Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi about providing mental health support in vaccine hubs (https://www.drlukeevans.org.uk/news/call-mental-health-support-national-vaccine-hubs) and received a private briefing from him on the rollout.
• Met with the CEO of Britishvolt who are locating to MIRA bringing investment and jobs in the Green sector – R&D in electric battery technology.
• Joined with other cross-party MP’s to continue our lobbying for a Freeport at East Midlands Airport that would see green jobs growth, regeneration of brown field sites and a global trade hub right here in the East Midlands.