Firstly, thank you to all those who joined me on Saturday outside Leamington Town Hall as we celebrated the 75th birthday of the NHS. It was fantastic to see so many people brave the rain to celebrate all the NHS has done for us and have representations from some of the first babies of the NHS and some of the most recent with Alex who is only a few months old!
It was incredibly clear that the NHS is one of the most valued assets of our country and something people are so proud of. Very appropriately in the NHS’ birthday week, I was delighted to see that our local team won the Excellence in Urgent and Emergency Care Award at the NHS Parliamentary Awards. I was really proud to nominate them and thrilled to see them win this much deserved award. My thanks to all the team for everything they do.
I was concerned to see the announcement last week that the Government intend to close down almost all ticket offices in England, including those at our local stations, Leamington, Warwick and Warwick Parkway. The staff at our local stations provide a fantastic service that cannot be replaced by ticket machines, offering advice, guidance and particularly supporting vulnerable and disabled customers who wouldn’t be able to travel independently without them.
I know from speaking with local residents since the announcement that this has really alarmed a lot of people. Many have said they rely on the help from the ticket office staff to choose and book their journeys and are worried about the impact this will have on the ability for elderly members of their families to book train tickets and travel on their own.
I have started a petition demanding the Government puts a stop to these flawed plans and keep our local ticket offices open. If you would like to sign in, you can go to https://mattwestern.org/campaign/save-our-railway-ticket-offices/
I will keep pushing on this and will do everything I can to ensure that these much-valued local services are not taken from us.
As always, please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any issues or concerns you would like to raise with me. I can be reached on [email protected] or on 01926 882006.
Matt Western
MP for Warwick and Leamington
