Category Archives: Uncategorized

Read the Church Street and Newbury Street Practice Patient Participation Group Newsletter.

I was honoured last month to be appointed the Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing.

It’s particularly special for me to be placed in the Department for Education given my pre-politics career was spent running organisations for children and young people. It often surprises people when I tell them that, before I became an MP, I had never been in politics before, whether as a councillor, advisor, or candidate.

In my new role I have responsibility for a wide range of areas such as early years and childcare – including the delivery of the Government’s new commitment to provide 30 hours a week free childcare from when a child is 9 months old until they start school – as well as Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), children in care, adoption and kinship care – vital areas that help support some of our most vulnerable young people – not to mention mental health.

I am delighted to have the opportunity to work on giving children across the country the best start in life.

It was also a delight to attend the unveiling of the new Agatha Christie statue in Wallingford, a place she lived for 42 years. The architect has done a really great job and it was a pleasure to meet her grandson, Matthew, who did the actual unveiling. I recommend a visit to see it when you have time!

Some other recent visits made by me included meeting with a group of unpaid carers in Wallingford, facilitated by Val Wolsey and Carers Oxfordshire, to talk about their experiences and listen to their concerns, attending an Innovator Day at Harwell Campus where I gave a speech and talked to staff and investors about the world-leading work that Harwell is doing, and visiting SeeAbility in East Hagbourne who provide support services for people with learning disabilities, many of whom have sight loss.

I have been campaigning to see Grove Station re-opened since I was elected nearly 4 years ago and have now launched a petition of Parliament. This is something MPs can do on matters that are important to their constituents and I’ve done so to keep the pressure up. I am delighted that 1,750+ people have signed so far and the more signatures we collect, the stronger the message we send to the Department for Transport – so please do sign if you are able to and encourage your friends and family that live in the constituency to do so too. You can sign on my website at: www.david-johnston.org.uk/GroveStation.

If you read this in time, do attend or spread the word about my Pensioners’ Fair at the Beacon in Wantage on Wednesday 27th September from 12:30pm to 4:30pm. I am grateful that so many local and national organisations will be in attendance including the Department for Work and Pensions, Age UK Oxfordshire, Barclays Bank, My Vision Oxfordshire, and Vale Community Impact. Details on my website www.david-johnston.org.uk/PensionersFair.

As ever, if I can help with anything then do please get in touch via david.johnston.mp@parliament.uk.

Jamie Carter

Senior Parliamentary Assistant

Office of David Johnston OBE MP
Member of Parliament for Wantage and Didcot

House of Commons

London

SW1A 0AA

020 7219 1639

Email: david.johnston.mp@parliament.uk

Facebook: facebook.com/davidjohnston4wantage

Website: www.david-johnston.org.uk

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Wednesday 13th September 2023 in the Village Hall and will start at 7.30 pm.

Here is the agenda and supporting documents.

Residents are very welcome to attend. Contributions to debates should be through the Chair.

Planned speeches should be no more than 3 minutes and made at the start of an item.

is here!

After breakthroughs for the local AEAT Pensioners in recent weeks, I’m delighted to have just had another campaign success – this time with benefits that are national rather than local.

Part of my campaigning on the environment includes being chair of the Community Energy APPG and the lead sponsor of the Local Electricity Bill. In simple terms, this means I have been campaigning for some time to see more support for community energy – by which I mean clean, renewable energy that local people generate themselves in their local areas. At the moment the setup costs are just too high.

I’ve spent the past few months working with my Government colleagues to try and get the principles of the Local Electricity Bill into law and get some money behind community energy.

This has resulted in a new Community Energy Fund of £10 million being created, which the Government has just announced, and which will be open for applications in the Autumn. I’m really delighted with this as it has the potential to benefit many community energy groups in England and – I hope – Oxfordshire. There’ll be further good news when the Energy Bill comes back to the House of Commons next month too – so watch this space!

On the 27th September, I will be holding a Pensioners’ Fair for local pensioners – whether they live in Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford, Faringdon or any of our villages – at the Beacon in Wantage. I am doing this as a significant proportion of my casework involves trying to help pensioners access support or advice – whether about benefits they’re entitled to, support with hearing and sight loss, or how to protect themselves against online scams. I’m therefore bringing together a lot of the key organisations that can provide guidance – together with some of the clubs that can keep people active and help guard against loneliness – in one place so that pensioners can drop in and talk to a range of organisations at the same time. Further details will be put on my website www.david-johnston.org.uk and do please spread the word.

I’m pleased that after my crime summits in Wantage and Wallingford, Thames Valley Police have taken a number of actions in this area – including following up with each individual who raised a case at the events and broader work to increase contact with local schools/community groups and make visits to places identified as problems – in response to what local people told them.

Far from being a holiday – though I will go away for a week or so – parliamentary recess is a good time to get all over the constituency on days other Friday-Sunday, given MPs have to be in Westminster Monday-Thursday most weeks. I’ve very much enjoyed being out and about, whether in Uffington, Wallingford, Didcot or Grove and it’s been great to visit places I haven’t been to before like Serica Smooth in Wantage and Harwell Bowls Club.

As ever, if I can help with anything then do please let me know via david.johnston.mp@parliament.uk

is here!

Here is the latest newsletter for the Wantage Church Street and Newbury Street Practice Patient Participation Groups

As I mentioned in my last article, access to childcare is something that is regularly raised with me on the doorstep, and I launched a Childcare Survey last month to give parents and guardians across the constituency the chance to tell me about their experiences. Thank you to everyone who took part.

I will be sharing the findings with Ministers at the Department for Education, but the headline results included 95% of people saying we need more childcare infrastructure (much like most other infrastructure!) and 95% of people supporting the Government’s plan to expand free childcare to 30 hours every week for children from 9 months old until they start school. This is the largest ever investment in childcare and will hopefully make a huge difference to the 75% who said that cost has been an issue in accessing childcare.

This month I was pleased to host my third annual Wantage and Didcot Climate Summit featuring a keynote speech by Grant Shapps, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, who took questions on everything from renewables to transport. We also welcomed local and national experts including Mike Blanch from the Westmill Sustainable Energy Trust, Jack Richardson from Onward and Professor Adrian Bull from The University of Manchester to talk and take questions about wind, hydrogen and nuclear energy. This was followed by the chance to question Thames Water’s Director of Sustainability on water quality and tackling storm overflows. It was a very interesting event, and you can watch the recording on my website.

I also hosted a Crime Summit with Thames Valley Police in Wallingford this month after a local resident wrote to me with concerns about crime. It was a productive discussion about lots of issues and there were several things that TVP committed to go away and look at – including the time it takes to report an incident of anti-social behaviour online.

In addition, I hosted a Farmers’ Forum for local farmers with the Farming Minister, Mark Spencer. We had a wide-ranging discussion about food production, farming incentives, the challenges for beef/pig/dairy/arable farmers, the environment and much more.

It is always a pleasure to welcome constituents to Parliament, and it was great to meet with Sarah and a group of young people from SOFEA when they visited again for a tour. I helped organise this after a visit I made to them recently – they do great work for the local community.

As one of the patrons of Play2Give I try to get to as many of Andy Baker’s events as I can and this month he was running a great football tournament in Wallingford, which raised over £4,000. Well done, Andy!

In other news, my campaign for the local AEAT Pensioners hit another milestone as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee finished their inquiry that I helped secure and made recommendations to Government. This is a campaign I will continue to support.

As ever, if I can help with anything please email me via david.johnston.mp@parliament.uk.

The next meeting of the Parish Council will be held on Wednesday 12th July 2023 in the Village Hall and will start at 7.30 pm.

Here is the agenda and supporting documents.

Is here!