Happy New Year! I can’t believe that we are over half way through January already. 2012 is going to be an incredible year. You can’t escape the impending Olympics. We are of course hosting the mountain biking in Hadleigh and the Olympic torch will be passing through Southend in July.
Moving away from the Olympics, 2012 also sees us celebrate the Queens Diamond Jubilee in June. I am looking forward to seeing what people will be doing to mark this historic occasion.
Like all of us, I am always keen to do my bit for the environment and I ensure that I always recycle where possible. Whilst taking down the Christmas decorations with the family I was collecting all the Christmas Cards ready to be recycled and I thought it would be a good idea to offer to recycle my constituents cards as well. A number of constituents have delivered their Christmas cards to my constituency office and I took them all to Havens Hospice in Southchurch for recycling. Alongside the benefit of recycling the cards, Havens Hospice receives 5p for every card collected. I would urge anyone that hasn’t yet, to recycle their cards and if possible, support a charity at the same time. They take all cards so remember them for your 2012 Birthday cards.
I was honoured to attend a constituents 100th birthday celebrations recently, Doris had already received her telegram from the Queen and the Mayor came along as well. It was a really lovely morning and I was delighted to have been able to share her special day.
Friday the 13th saw me host an Out and About surgery at Rethink in Southend. This was a fantastic surgery that was very well supported by constituents and Rethink Service Users. As always, I am keen to source different venues to hold a surgery within the community so if you have any suggestions please let me know.