MP Newsletter #11: Assisted Dying, Melksham Hospital, Sewage
Dear reader,
A warm welcome to this latest edition of my newsletter. I hope you all had a lovely Easter and took some time to relax.
Parliament is now back from recess, and it’s been a busy week in Westminster with two speeches in the Commons and one in a Westminster Hall debate. While the parliamentary recess sees a break in Westminster business (although parliament was called back for a rare Saturday sitting!), it certainly doesn’t mean my diary is clear, and it has been lovely getting out and about around the area to meet with residents, businesses and organisations as usual.
I’d also like to make a small request of all of you reading. I am very keen to make sure that I am reaching every area of our quite rural and large constituency. To that end, if you are aware of any local magazines, newsletters, or mailing lists that you think I should be contributing to, please do let me know by responding to this email with any relevant contacts or names of the publications. It’s good to spread the word!
As ever, I welcome all feedback and comments about this newsletter, and I want to make sure that it is as useful as it can be for my constituents. If you have any suggestions, comments or feedback please do feel free to email me at brian.mathew.mp@parliament.uk. A reminder that you can also contact my office on 01225 434216, and please do get in touch via phone or email to book a surgery appointment. These take place at regular intervals at different villages and towns across the constituency and we will do our very best to fit you in at the one which suits you best.
Remember you can follow me on Facebook here, X (formerly Twitter) here and now on BlueSky here.
Please do forward this newsletter along to friends, family, neighbours etc if you feel it would be useful for them too. They can also sign up to receive these emails here.
Assisted Dying
As many of you will know the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is making its way through parliament at the moment and has completed the committee stage in the House of Commons.
The bill will next come before MPs on May 16th and I want to again reassure you all that I am treating this issue with the seriousness of thought it deserves.
From my email inbox I know this is a topic that many of you will have a strong interest in, as well as many strongly held opinions. To that end, I organised an online Q&A session on the topic, held last week. I was joined by Jenny Carruthers (a campaigner with Dignity in Dying) and Rev. Charlie Thomson, the Rector of Melksham Church (who opposes the bill).
We had over 100 constituents join us as we took their questions and wrestled with the issues on the debate. I want to say a huge thank you to Charlie and Jenny, and to Andrew Eberlin who did an excellent job as chair, as well as to all those who attended. I hope you found it as useful as I did.
I will continue to read constituents' thoughts on this topic and will of course update you all as soon as the next vote has taken place to explain why I voted the way I did. As of now, I remain undecided on whether to vote in favour of the bill.
Melksham Hospital
One of the key local issues here in our constituency is access to healthcare. I know that so many of us have to commute long distances just to receive basic healthcare such as dental work or an X-ray. This is a particularly acute problem in Melksham, and I have been pushing the local Integrated Care Board (ICB), as well as the government, to improve services in Melksham.
There is currently no out-of-hours healthcare provision anywhere in the Melksham and Devizes constituency. Patients typically have to travel to Swindon, Bath or Salisbury for urgent medical treatment, or at best minor injury units in Chippenham or Trowbridge.
Most of the constituency, including Melksham and Devizes towns, have limited public transport options to get to major hospitals, and patients unable to travel by car face a lengthy bus journey in most cases.
Yet in Melksham, we already have a working community hospital offering a range of healthcare services from physio to consultant outpatient appointments - but without a minor injuries unit since 2008. On occasion people in need of urgent treatment for cuts and broken bones turn up at the hospital only to be turned away without so much as a sticking plaster. This is simply not good enough.
Melksham is seeing ongoing development in and around the town driving population growth, yet we have not seen the investment in services and infrastructure to match.
If the long-term strategic goal is to shift more care out of larger hospitals into community hubs, is there not a clear case to consider expanding services at under-utilised sites such as Melksham Community Hospital?
Investment in improved services, including a Minor Injuries Unit, at community sites such as Melksham, not only offer greater convenience and potentially improved outcomes for patients, but it is also cost effective, decreasing demand on overstretched services at major hospitals and reducing congestion on our roads.
That’s why I used a Liberal Democrat led debate in the House of Commons earlier this week to put the issue of healthcare in Melksham firmly on the map and to raise it with the government.
I also asked the minister to meet with me, and the Friends of Melksham Hospital, to find a way to improve investment in healthcare in the town.
Local Elections
Next Thursday (1st May) sees local elections take place right across our constituency. You will all have the chance to vote in the Wiltshire Council election to determine your Wiltshire councillor for the next four years, and some of you will also have the chance to elect your town & parish councillors.
I have spent plenty of time on the doorstep in the last few weeks with our fantastic Liberal Democrat candidates, and I know they have tremendous plans for their own local areas and on how they can improve Wiltshire Council’s performance. It has been lovely to meet so many of my constituents, too.
Please do remember to vote on Thursday – your polling station will be on your polling card or you can find it here.
Polling stations are open from 7am to 10pm.
Sewage in our rivers
The state of our rivers is an issue close to my heart and I know for many of you too, given the number of waterways we have right across the constituency.
This is a topic I have addressed time and time again during visits to residential properties, site visits with Wessex Water and when dealing with flooding this winter alongside the Environment Agency.
This week I spoke in our Opposition Day Debate in the chamber on the subject, stating that just last November, Wessex Water was fined half a million pounds for pumping raw sewage into Clackers brook, a small river rising in Bromham and flowing 5 miles through Melksham. This incident resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 fish, including all aquatic life within a 1 km radius of the leak. The systems in place simply cannot handle the pressure brought to bear by the increasing volatility in rainfall levels seen in recent times.
In West Lavington, I have seen where a manhole had been lifted from its housing as a result of a downpour. Toxic sewage then polluted a nearby chalk stream, damaging its unique ecosystem that is home to a variety of species, including trout. These kinds of incidents cannot be allowed to persist.
The current antiquated piping system does not satisfy modern demand. Water companies must update and future-proof these systems, and we need them to do so now. I was pleased to see Wessex Water—credit where it is due—invest £2 million in a sewage storage facility in Bradford-on-Avon to ensure that it can mitigate increased pressure on sewage pipes. However, more must be done to protect our vital aquatic ecosystems.
We must be clear that this is not just a problem for water companies. Developments in farming practices have led to detrimental impacts on both soil quality and river health. Acreage dedicated to the production of maize trebled between 1990 and 2000, making it one of the UK’s fastest growing crops. However, maize allows for high levels of surface run-off, causing soil degradation and the pollution of our rivers. That makes it one of the most damaging crops.
The rise in intensive poultry units is another area of concern. Chicken manure contains far higher levels of phosphates than manure from other farmed animals, and it starves fish and river plants of oxygen. Run-off from chicken farms, or fields spread with chicken manure, is catastrophic to our waterways.
We must expect better from our water companies. Investment in infrastructure must rise with the demands of the modern world.
You can view my speech on this topic in parliament here.
Best wishes,
Brian Mathew MP
Your Lib Dem MP for Melksham & Devizes