By Sarah Atherton

MP for Wrexham

This week, I had the opportunity to visit and meet a range of individuals, businesses, charities in Wrexham and learn about some of the great things happening locally – one of my favourite parts of being an MP. For example, on Tuesday, I had a lovely visit with the Holt Community Gardeners where they told me about their amazing work to enhance the village of Holt. They must have one of the few, if not, the only eco-hub allotment in the UK. On 8th December, they and the community of Holt will find out whether they have been successful in either or both Britain in bloom and Wales in Bloom. Well done again, Holt Community Gardeners – and thanks for the (very large) marrow!

On the same day, I had a really informative meeting with the Vision Support team in Wrexham to learn about the amazing work they do locally supporting around 600 people - in addition to their visual rehabilitation work. I am very pleased to assist them going forward, whether that be to secure funding or raise awareness of the needs of visually impaired as they are discharged from hospital within the community.

On Thursday 31st August, I marked Merchant Navy Day by joining members of the Merchant Navy, Royal Naval Association, Councillors, and other local groups for the flag-raising outside the Wrexham Council Guildhall. The event was marked with a one-minute silence to honour and remember the sacrifices of the, often forgotten and invisible, but very hard-working, Merchant Navy seafarers.

Later that morning, I had an engaging meeting with The Job Centre Plus team on Hope Street. I was really struck by the motivation of the team in helping people get back to work and progress with their careers — with additional support available for people with extra needs to become ‘work ready.’ As is often the case, the team have identified some challenging areas where improvement is needed, and I will be raising this with the relevant DWP Minister.

I finished the week with a fantastic evening chatting to players and meeting staff at Mecca Bingo. I even had the chance to call out a few numbers. (“Rishi’s den? Number 10!”) Thank you to the Wrexham Mecca team for organising!

This week, I also wrote to the Chief Fire Officer and Chief Executive of the North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority outlining my serious concerns regarding their consultation on the future provision of emergency cover for Wrexham. If you, or anyone you know, haven’t yet had the chance to submit a consultation response, I would encourage you to make your voice heard. The consultation can be found here: www.yourvoicewrexham.com. Please feel free to adapt my own consultation response, which is available on my website and social media, when submitting your own and share with any friends and family. You can also sign the petition on my website: www.sarahatherton.org.uk/fire-service-petition.

If you are a resident in the current Wrexham constituency, and need my help with any issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me by email on sarah.atherton.mp@parliament.uk. My team and I will always do whatever we can to help you.