We are looking forward to the State Opening of Parliament next week and what is being trailed as a big legislative programme for the forthcoming session. There are going to be some significant Home Office Bills, introducing the new immigration system, which I am sure will provoke a great deal of debate and discussion. I have recently started working with the RAMP project – which works on refugee, asylum and migration policy.
I was pleased last week when the Home Office announced it had abandoned plans to place a camp for asylum seekers at Barton Stacey. The location was wholly unsuitable, adjacent to the A303 which has a very poor accident record, remote from support services, without running water and within earshot of both Moody’s Down firing range and the Owl’s Lodge Shooting School. I know it has come as a relief to both local residents and to many charities working with those fleeing persecution and war, who had expressed their concerns at the remote location without access to appropriate services.
There are also very high expectations for an Employment Bill, which most of us were expecting in the last session. The last year has taught us all a great deal about flexible working and I am looking for ways the Government cannot just make that a cultural expectation, but enshrined in legislation. It is not just the female workforce who can benefit from more flexible working, and I have been struck by the number of men who have celebrated the new ways we have all found to work.
The hospitality sector can open again in full from the 17th May and I am looking forward to those businesses who have not been able to open yet to get back trading. I popped in to the White Horse this week, where they are making preparations to re-open and I know that will be welcomed by many in the Town. It is great to see two new businesses opening on the Market Place, with The Exchange and the Cocky Anchor, and hopefully we can all be optimistic about a great trading summer for them.
