Justine Greening MP Writes To Residents
March was very busy locally and in Westminster
At the community cleanup of the Putney Foreshore she organised after the Boat Race
Dear Resident,
It has been a very busy month and I'm really pleased to have launched a new national social mobility project just before Easter, the Social Mobility Pledge. As always, it has been great to be out and about working with other local residents on issues that matter to our community, so if you are ever interested in getting involved with any of the projects I am working on, do get in touch.
Working in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields
In March, I had a busy month working on local issues raised by residents, including:
• Wrote over 1400 letters or emails to constituents about their concerns.
• Had 142 meetings in my role as MP.
• Held my weekly constituency MP surgeries at libraries to meet with local residents to discuss their concerns. If you would like to book an appointment for a future MP surgery, do get in touch with my office - if you can’t make it do give me a call and I can make sure someone else can come along.
• Opened the London Stock Exchange with local business AnyJunk, the winner of Business of the Year at the Chamber Business Awards.
• Held a Heathrow Public Meeting with Richmond Park MP, Zac Goldsmith, to discuss Heathrow consultation proposals.
• Met with the Chair of Friends of Wandsworth Park.
• Discussed concerns of housing tenants with Brian Reilly, the Director of Housing at Wandsworth Borough Council.
• Met with leaders of Roehampton Student Union and the Vice Chancellor to plan how to decrease plastic usage on campus and discuss transport concerns raised by students at the University.
• Visited Mosaic Jewish Primary School.
• Met with Chas Newens of Chas Newens Marine to discuss the needs of local businesses down by the Thames.
• Held the first campaign meeting on the Putney Plastics Pledge and discussed how we can get more businesses involved and committed to reducing our plastic usage.
• Had a tour of Brandlehow Primary School and met with Southmead Primary School to hear about their efforts to cut down on plastics and improve recycling.
• Had a fantastic visit to the LTA National Tennis Centre to see how they train coaches for the Tennis for Kids programme.
• Spoke to both boat race organisers and Young's Pubs to discuss how to reduce our local plastic waste on Boat Race day. Young's agreed to use reusable plastic glasses for the first time.
• Attended a meeting of the Southfields Business Forum to hear from local businesses about parking concerns and what they want to see out of Southfields Village Centre improvements.
• Joined the Wandsworth LGBT+ Coffee Morning.
• Met with the local Citizens Advice Bureau and as a result wrote to the Home Office to see about getting a representative to help provide information for residents on proposed rules on EU citizens post Brexit.
• Joined the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community for their Peace Symposium.
• Attended a meeting between the Roehampton Garden Society and Wandsworth Borough Council officials to discuss the future of their allotments.
• Spoke at a dinner for members of the Roehampton Club.
• Opened the renovated Ronald Ross and Greenmead Primary School buildings (pictured above).
Working in Westminster
As a local Member of Parliament, this month in Westminster I have:
• Asked parliamentary questions and spoken in debates on:
o The Warboys Case and the Parole Board.
o The Spring Statement.
o International Women's Day.
• Held a Westminster Hall debate on “Social Mobility and the Economy”.
• You can see my questions, interventions and contributions here.
• Joined thousands of women and men to march in London marking International Women's Day and the centenary of women's suffrage.
• Met with My Life, My Say to discuss how Brexit needs to work for young people.
• Spoke to hundreds of inspiring women to encourage them to get involved in politics at the Women of the World Festival.
• Campaigned with the WWF to raise awareness about Earth Hour.
• Joined local speed skater Peter Riches at a reception for myLotto's Parliamentary reception.
• Met with local students Hal and Leo who won commendations in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award.
• Held meetings with a number of charities and organisations including:
o City Year
o The Social Mobility Business Partnership
o Inspiring the Future
o Access Aspiration
Heathrow Public Consultation and Meeting
At the beginning of March I held a joint public meeting with the Richmond Park MP, Zac Goldsmith, on Heathrow Airport’s consultation on its latest plans for expansion.
In spite of the weather, there was a great turnout and it gave our community the opportunity to hear what Heathrow is proposing and how it will affect our community, as well as highlighting what we can most effectively do to get our local views heard.
Heathrow Airport also held a public consultation on proposals last month at the Community Church on Werter Road. My concerns with this proposal, which I raised at the time, are that there is still no information on possible future flight paths and our period of respite with no planes overhead is also likely to be reduced to just four or five hours a day. Heathrow Airport also wants to bring forward the start of normal operating hours to 5.30am every day, which would be very disruptive for our local community.
The closing date to put your views directly to Heathrow Airport was Wednesday 28 March. Nevertheless, if you still want to write to express concerns, do let me know and I will still feed them in to Heathrow as a local MP. Whilst this is the latest in many Heathrow airport expansion consultations we have had over the years, the reality is that the case for expanding Heathrow is now very weak so we should now make sure we keep up our local campaign.
Putney Plastics Pledge and Post-Boat Race Cleanup
Following meetings with local schools, my Thames Tunnel Community Liaison Working Group, and other residents, I launched a new campaign on plastics in our local area called the Putney Plastics Pledge, about cutting down our usage locally.
I have written out to local schools and businesses on how to get involved and I held an initial public meeting on the 10th of March at St Mary's Church to hear people's ideas. I’ve had a great response from schools, and I saw the work that Southmead Primary School are doing to cut down on plastic and improve their recycling last week, which is absolutely brilliant. We also had a community cleanup of the Putney Foreshore after the Boat Race which I organised, working with Thames21, and BNY Mellon, the Boat Race sponsors. It was great to be able to work with the Boat Race organisers and Young's Pubs to actually cut down usage on Boat Race day itself. Young's switched to reusable plastic glasses for the Boat Race event for the first time.
There’ll be lots more going on locally on the Putney Plastics Pledge, so get in touch if you'd like to get involved.
Social Mobility Pledge launched in Parliament with MPs
I held a Westminster Hall debate titled “Social Mobility and the Economy” earlier this week.
I have been keen to make sure I do what I can to help get more opportunity for young people and to have equality of opportunity wherever you are in our country. I’ve worked with businesses and business organisations to develop the Social Mobility Pledge. It asks businesses to commit to take three steps. Firstly, get a partnership in place with schools by working with one of the many great social mobility organisations, such as Speakers for School, Inspiring the Future or the Princes Trust. Secondly, to provide either apprenticeships or structured work experience, and thirdly to have open recruitment practices that give all candidates a level playing field.
The Social Mobility Pledge is supported by the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses. Companies like Adidas, ITV, PwC, KPMG, Viacom, Clifford Chance and many others have already signed up to support the Pledge.
You can see my Westminster Hall speech on Social Mobility and the Economy here and more information on the pledge is at www.socialmobilitypledge.org. If you’re a local company, do look and see whether you can make the commitment. Businesses can make such a huge different experience to level up opportunity for young people and hopefully right here in Putney, Roehampton and Southfields too.
I hope that this update gives you a brief snapshot of some of the things I am working on as our local Member of Parliament. As ever, if you would like to contact me or raise an issue, than please get in touch and I will do the best I can to help. You can email me on justine@justinegreening.co.uk, write to me at 3 Summerstown, SW17 0BQ or call my office on 0208 946 4557. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook to see all my latest updates.
Best wishes,
April 4, 2018