Yesterday I took the opportunity of a cycle tour across part of our community with my office intern Sam.
Starting at my constituency office in Atherstone we travelled to The Plough in Shustoke, The George and Dragon in Coleshill, The Royal Oak in Kingsbury and finally the Wolferstan Arms in Shuttington – I am sure you can see a pattern emerging of the stops, but it was just diet coke on the menu!
Cycling in our community gives a totally different perspective, as we have some beautiful local areas which you can appreciate far more by being on a bike. It is also a fantastic way to stay fit and avoid queues of traffic. I enjoyed meeting and chatting to residents during the cycle tour and will certainly try to use my bike more often including more trips planned around other parts of the constituency.
I would like to congratulate local students on their recent GCSE and A-Level results. I know our local schools performed really well, with records broken at the Queen Elizabeth Academy in Atherstone and a new GCSE record following improved A-Levels results at Ash Green School to name just a few local schools.
It was fantastic to hear the good news and no doubt there are some very proud parents. I wish students the very best for their future, whether that be going on to further education, apprenticeships or straight into work, as I did. There are plenty of opportunities out there and with hard work and dedication you will be able to achieve your goals.
Ofsted has reported that there are over 1.4 million more children attending schools rated as good or outstanding than there were in 2010, which is really positive for our education system and a testament to teaching staff.
Finally, I found comments made by Owen Smith, the Labour leadership candidate, regarding the EU Referendum result astounding. He wants to ignore the result and the will of the people, wanting another referendum and stating that he will fight tooth and nail to keep the UK in the EU. To ignore the will of the people, and the vast majority of local people in North Warwickshire and Bedworth, is undemocratic and an insult to the judgement that has already been made; this is a clear lack of respect to every person who democratically and freely voted for independence from the European Union in June.