Nick's Week

After my own 'surgery' in Barnham on Friday, I went to meet local GPs at The Croft Practice, Eastergate to discuss healthcare issues. 

I also met Jennie Musgrove of Carers Support West Sussex to mark Carers' Week, an important opportunity to thank the silent army who do so much to look after those who need help.

After this, I went to County Hall for a meeting about the A27.  Watch out for news about our campaign next week.

On Saturday, I headed to West Chiltington to open their smart new sports pavilion which will be shared by their cricket and football clubs.  It was good to see that Sport England was one of the funders of this project.

I then had an enjoyable afternoon at the Chiddingfold, Leconfield & Cowdray Hunt Puppy Show in Petworth Park.

I decided to celebrate Sussex Day on Monday by briefly dropping into the first day of Sussex v Yorkshire at Arundel Castle Cricket Club before heading back up to London.

In the Commons this week I voted for mandatory jail sentences for a second offence of carrying a knife, something I've always supported.

Later this week I'm speaking at a conference held by the Better Government Initiative at Ditchley Park, near Oxford.  This links to GovernUp, the project I've set up to reform our system of government.

One of our projects is on localism, looking at how we can return more power to people, communities and councils - something I feel very strongly about here in West Sussex.

That relates to a meeting I'll be speaking at on Friday evening in Burgess Hill against the proposed Mayfields new town.  This is an unsustainable proposal for 10,000 houses on a greenfield site and is not in our local councils' plans.

On Saturday, I'll be attending a drop-in session in Pulborough organised by West Sussex County Council to give local people more information on oil and gas exploration and extraction.

Drilling for oil and gas has been going on in West Sussex since the 1970s, but I am concerned about the proposed location of exploratory drilling near Wisborough Green, which I believe is a poorly-chosen location because it will mean lorry traffic through the village.

After that I'll head over to Storrington's Village Day, which is always a great event, especially with their display of vintage cars.