Christmas is always a great time of year in North Cornwall, and I am particularly proud of the great effort that local communities have made on their Christmas lights and displays. I’m very much looking forward to a proper Cornish Christmas at home after what has been a challenging year, and I would like to voice my appreciation for our emergency services and NHS staff who will continue to work hard over the holidays.
Over the past twelve months, my office has dealt with around ten-thousand pieces of casework, supporting the constituency on a range of issues, and helping individuals and families across North Cornwall. Some of the work my team and I deal with can be difficult and many of our constituents need long term support with their cases. In 2021 I have put several cases directly in front of Ministers and I’m very pleased that we’ve been able to land some great results.
This year has been a good year for me personally, having been appointed a Government role in January. I work in the Ministry of Justice, and in the Housing and Levelling Up Department, working to deliver vital new laws for both Departments. Closer to home we have had some great successes with projects that will really help North Cornwall. The STEM skills centre at Callywith is well on its way to completion thanks to an injection of £6.8m from the Government’s Getting Building Fund and this will give us a UK leading facility right here in North Cornwall. It has the potential to change life chances for our children here and I am proud to support it.
I was also very pleased to see that in the space of one year the Okehampton line went from drawing board to all on board! The £40m in funding for the project was made available by the Chancellor at the Budget in March and by November the line had been opened up and the first services were running. Although the line is in Devon it means that many of our communities in North Cornwall have much easier access to the national rail network. I’d like to thank Connect Bude, Launceston Community Groups, GWR, Network Rail and West Devon’s MPs and Council Members for all their hard work in supporting this project.
My office team and I will continue to check emails and calls over Christmas and the New Year. If you have any concerns or need support, please do email via [email protected]. I would also like to invite you to check my website www.scottmann.org.uk and my Facebook page www.facebook.therightMannforNorth Cornwall for regular updates on the work I do on behalf of the constituency.