By Jerome Mayhew MP

I have been campaigning for extra NHS dentists and succeeded in getting a new dental contract offered for Fakenham, as well as thousands more hours of NHS appointments across Broadland, but there is much more to be done.

I will feed back your views to the Integrated Care Board for Norfolk and Waveney as part of my continued campaign to improve access to NHS dental treatment.

In the medium term I have been campaigning in Parliament to secure an NHS dental training school at the University of East Anglia so that we can “train and retain” local talent in Norfolk and for Norfolk.

Take part in my dental survey to highlight your experiences of NHS dentistry in Broadland and Fakenham. Click HERE to tell me your dentistry priorities.

Campaigning for better postal services

Residents have repeatedly contacted me about poor postal delivery to villages. In particular, some have identified instances whereby post has been stored up for days and then delivered en masse to homes.

I have held Royal Mail managers to account, visiting their sorting office to insist on the importance of regular six-day deliveries for residents and the need to receive urgent mail on time.

With postal costs continuing to rise, Royal Mail must give people the service that they pay for.

Stopping small boat crossings and getting flights off to Rwanda

I knock on doors right across Broadland and Fakenham and, without doubt, anger over illegal migration is the most frequent concern raised.

While good progress has been made in reducing illegal crossings by more than a third in 2023, more needs to be done, so I was happy to support the Safety of Rwanda Bill.

It won’t be a “silver bullet” on its own, but is another step on our way to regaining control of our borders and allowing us to decide how many asylum applicants we accept and where they come from, not violent people-smugglers.

£10m for new Fakenham swimming pool

Following a long-running campaign I am delighted that we have now secured almost £10m from the government for a new swimming pool in Fakenham.

Since being elected, I have made the case with ministers in Westminster for levelling-up funding for a new swimming pool and 3G sports pitch, and I am looking forward to seeing the pool and pitch delivered as quickly as possible. This is the government’s Levelling Up policy working for Fakenham.

My casework roundup for January

I receive hundreds of emails each week from residents in need of my help on a wide variety of issues from help with housing through to campaigns on policy and votes currently going through the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, 40,000 leaflets are being delivered across every home in Broadland and Fakenham, updating residents on my work over the last year in delivering the very best for Broadland. Click HERE for the digital copy.

Have an issue you want to discuss?

I hold regular surgeries in Fakenham, Aylsham, Attlebridge and Acle. If you have an issue or policy you want to discuss with me, please send an email to book an appointment.

Need a postal vote?

On Thursday 2 May, we’ll be going to the polls to elect our Police and Crime Commissioner for Norfolk.

With photo ID now required to vote in UK elections, it’s the right time to ensure you’ve got everything you need to vote.

Don’t have photo ID? There are options:

• apply for free Voter Authority Certificate;
• apply for a postal vote.
   

If you’ve got an issue that I can support, please do get in touch by email and I’ll do my best to help.

Alternatively, please do contact my office if you’d like to arrange a meeting at one of my regular surgeries.

You can also find me on Facebook, X or Instagram or via my website.

Jerome Mayhew, Member of Parliament for Broadland

By Jerome Mayhew MP

A key element of my local six-point plan for Broadland has been tackling rural crime and improving police response times in our communities.

To that end, I was delighted to see the completion of the new Broadland Police Station in Postwick, speak with officers about the benefits this will have for Broadland and meet with some of their new teams focusing on tackling domestic abuse, fraud and local community engagement.

Alongside the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner, I will continue to work to ensure that our local police are local, responsive and effective in their work supporting our rural towns and parishes in Broadland.

Norfolk County Council children’s services rated as ‘good’ by Ofsted

Under the control of the opposition, children’s services had previously been rated as “requires improvement”. Since having taken back control of the council, the Conservative-led councillors have been focused on turning the service around and improving both lives and outcomes for children and families across the county.

Following the announcement of their latest inspection, I was enormously pleased to have a briefing with Cllr John Fisher, cabinet member for children’s services, to hear the feedback of Ofsted and warmly welcome their latest “good” inspection. This is a huge turnaround for the service, and the detailed feedback highlights that the department is well on the way to outstanding.

Enormous congratulations to Cllr Fisher, Sara Tough and the entire team at children’s services for working so hard on this result.

Annual jobs fair 2023

While I welcome the news that unemployment is down in Broadland, and substantially below the national average, there are still 1,130 claimants in Broadland.

I will be hosting another jobs fair to help local residents and school leavers to find their next career. This time, I’m really excited to be working with Taverham High School to deliver on this project, and am keen to hear from businesses in the local area that might like to come along to promote the careers and opportunities in their field. If you’d like an invite to host a free stall, please do email me directly.

Meeting with Broadland Housing

The relationship between residents and housing associations can sometimes be fraught. So I recently met the CEO of Broadland Housing to learn from one of the best providers in Norfolk how housing can be better handled.

As always, if you’ve got an issue that I can support with, please do get in touch by email and I’ll do my best to help. Alternatively, please do contact my office if you’d like to arrange a meeting at one of my regular surgeries. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or via my website.

Jerome Mayhew, Member of Parliament for Broadland

By Jerome Mayhew MP

The relaxation of further Covid restrictions on 19 July is by far the biggest piece of news this month.

Normally I try to avoid focusing on a single topic in these newsletters, but this is so important.

So, why is it that the government has decided to move to step four of its roadmap for Covid recovery?

The government set itself four tests to pass before relaxation of the rules should take place.

The first test was a successful vaccination programme; this test has clearly been met.

More than 80 million doses of vaccine have now been given and by 19 July every adult in the UK will have been offered a first dose.

But the important fact is that nine out of ten adults in the UK now have Covid-19 antibodies.

The second test was what impact the vaccination programme is having on hospitalisations and deaths.

Public Health England estimates that two doses of vaccine provide 96% protection against hospitalisation for all the current variants of the virus.

So, while the link between catching Covid-19 and having to go to hospital has not been totally broken, it has been massively reduced.

The third test was whether the likely infection rates would still put unsustainable pressure on the National Health Service.

To answer this test requires use of scientific modelling, a tool that has been immeasurably improved over the past 18 months as scientists have learnt more about the virus.

The models suggest that, while daily cases may increase to as many as 100,000, the effect of the vaccines mean that this will not result in an overwhelmed NHS.

To my mind, this is the hardest of the tests, since increased case numbers will lead to increased deaths, as well as more people suffering from the effects of long Covid.

But we need to remember that continued restrictions are also having serious negative health impacts, even ignoring the continuing economic and social damage.

Domestic violence cases have risen dramatically; mental health issues, particularly among the young, have risen sharply; and illnesses such as cancer are going undiagnosed.

Covid-19 is never going to be totally eradicated. So, given that we cannot keep on maintaining these damaging restrictions forever, the best advice is that we take advantage of the summer weather to relax conditions now rather than wait until the autumn, when additional cases would then combine with winter illnesses to make matters worse.

The fourth test is that all these risks are not fundamentally changed by a new variant of concern.

We need to remain on our guard against a new strain emerging that is either more transmissible than the Delta variant or able to evade the vaccines.

To protect against this the increased vigilance at our international borders will be maintained, as well as further resources being poured into genomic sequencing capability, so that new strains can be identified as soon as they emerge and dealt with.

None of the above is without risk, but the same is true for continuing with restrictions that have caused terrible damage themselves.

If we all continue to be responsible in our personal decisions, we can play our part in the country being able to live with a virus that will never be eradicated but can be controlled.

These are some of the hardest judgement calls a government can be called upon to make, but I hope this explanation helps to set out the thinking behind the decision making.

If there is anything I can help you with, please get in touch via email. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or via my website.

Jerome Mayhew, MP for Broadland

By Jerome Mayhew MP

With more than half the population now having received their first Covid jab, and with over 25% having received both doses, there are positive signs of a return to normality over the next few months.

It’s been good to see our local shops, pubs and sporting groups getting back into action, and I have enjoyed being able to meet so many constituents across Broadland during the parliamentary Easter recess.

It has been a busy time in parliament. I was recently appointed a “Sustainable Agriculture Champion” – looking at ways to help our farmers make the most of science and technology, play their part in the “green revolution”, and ensure our food supplies are both secure and sustainable.

And I have served on the Bill Committee scrutinising the government’s plans to create an Advanced Research & Invention Agency that will help bring together the best minds to find solutions to some of the problems that face us all today.

The government has now launched Project Gigabit, with Broadland one of the areas to benefit in a second wave of investment in high-speed internet connections over the next year to 18 months.

And I was pleased to be able to speak in a debate on the Post Office Horizon (IT) scandal, calling for the government to provide appropriate levels of compensation to those sub-postmasters who have had their lives turned upside down through false accusations of fraud and theft made against them.

The “roadmap” for the country’s Covid recovery is proceeding as planned. By 17 June, all being well, all restrictions will have been eased and life will be close to normal for the first time since March 2020.

This will be great news for our tourism, events and hospitality businesses. Local unemployment, which we have all be worried about, has now started to fall and I hope this trend will accelerate as we emerge from lockdown.

As ever, if there is anything I can help you with, please do get in touch via email. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or via my website.

Jerome Mayhew, MP for Broadland