Peter Aldous welcomes the development of multi-sport grassroots facilities, but outlines the challenges faced as such developments are very often led by one sport, which then faces a variety of obstacles in getting other sports authorities to participate. He asks what is being done to promote collaboration between different sports authorities so that much-needed facilities can be built?
Peter Aldous acknowledges amendments put forward for Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill designed to reduce flaring and venting of methane by new offshore installations, but takes the view that these issues are better negotiated by the independent North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) which has a good record on delivering net zero, works with the industry and is not impeded by the four-to-five-year political cycle.
Peter Aldous calls for multi-year financial settlements for local government, calls for recognition in the settlements of the added cost of delivering services over large rural and coastal areas such as Suffolk and calls on the Government to provide a sustainable long-term plan for social care, with care workers being fairly paid and provided with proper career paths.
Peter Aldous welcomes Suffolk’s police funding increase of 6.7%, with hotspot response finance of £1 million, but calls on the Government to speed up the long-promised funding review to address the fact that Suffolk is the fourth lowest funded force in the UK, overturn the funding cut for the safer streets initiative and amend the Data Protection Act 2018 to reduce the bureaucratic burden of pre-charge evidence redaction.
Peter Aldous welcomes the Government’s plan to recover and reform NHS dentistry and calls on the Government to provide funding for a new treatment and training facility in the Norfolk and Waveney integrated care board area similar to the University of Suffolk’s innovative service that is about to open in Ipswich.
Peter Aldous highlights the enormous number of job opportunities presented by Sizewell C and asks what the Government is doing to ensure that local people have every opportunity to work on the project and can acquire the skills needed to do so.
Peter Aldous calls on the Government to develop a national coastal strategy to make the most of coastal communities’ significant potential for job creation in the renewable energy, tourism, fishing and maritime sectors. Specifically, locally, he calls on the Government to adjust the Lowestoft enterprise zone boundaries, invest in education and skills and very importantly at the current time coastal defences.
Peter Aldous asks the Government what is being done to help SMEs and new businesses that are finding it difficult to open a bank account and to then obtain the support and services that used to be available in the rapidly diminishing branch network.
Peter Aldous outlines the reasons why he is supporting the Bill, but he cautions that it must be part of a wider long-term strategy that is required to attract the private investment needed to modernise and decarbonise our energy system.