GET IN TOUCH
As your local MP, I can help you with, or offer advice on, issues such as; benefits, immigration, tax, the NHS, child maintenance and education.
I would love to hear from you about what you think my priorities should be as your MP and what matters most to you.
Please use the contact form to get in touch with me. Please remember to provide as many details as possible, including your name, address and full details of your issue.
Pride in Place is bringing £20 million to Darwen over the next decade, and the decisions about where it goes will be made here rather than in Whitehall.
When I dropped into the Darwen Youth Zone, I could see for myself what a difference that approach makes. Here is a service which is genuinely being used and appreciated by the children and parents of Darwen.
That's why it may not come as a surprise that three bids associated with the Youth Zone were approved by Darwen's Pride in Place Board:
- The Making Rooms will be setting up a new Maker Zone at the facility.
- Blackburn College has partnered with Newground Together and the Youth Zone to set up Launchpad, a learning and support hub designed to help young people re-engage with learning, training, and employment
- The Youth Zone's own StreetZone mobile youth bus has received funding to expand its schedule and reach more young people across the community.
If you would like to have your say in determining which projects across Darwen are supported by Pride in Place funding, the Pride in Place board are recruiting for more board members as well as a new Chair. You can click the link in the comments below to learn more and to see how you can apply for a position. ... See MoreSee Less
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To everyone across Rossendale and Darwen opening an envelope today with A-Level results inside, well done.
Whatever the grades say, this is the end of two years of hard work, and whether today has gone the way you hoped or not, there are so many good options available to you - more than you might think. You don't have to have perfect results to get into a university. There are worthwhile apprenticeships to look into across Rossendale and Darwen, or you might find a year spent doing something else to be the best option, including potential resits.
The National Careers Service exam results helpline is open today on 0800 100 900 until 8pm. Your school or college will have someone there as well, and they would much rather hear from you than not.
To the teachers, support staff and parents who got this year group through to today: thank you, and good luck to all those students opening their GCSE results next Thursday as well. ... See MoreSee Less
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People across Rossendale and Darwen tell me the same thing about their town centres. They ask me why there's another vape shop or a betting shop opening up, when residents don't want them and nobody asked.
This is changing.
From the start of next year, vape shops and adult gaming centres will need planning permission before they can open. That gives the council the power to say no when the location is wrong, including near schools, and when there are already too many in one place. New powers will enable police and local authorities to close premises linked to crime for up to 12 months rather than six, which will give them time to do the job properly.
The Government will also be holding a consultation on scrapping the rule that has made it hard for councils to refuse new gambling premises.
This is just the first step to reclaiming our high streets, with more to come in the following months and years. And much more will be needed to fill the empty units along our high streets. That's what my Reindustrialisation Research Group is working on - bringing prosperity back to post-industrial areas like ours. But these new changes will put the decisions back in the hands the people who live here, which is where it should have been all along. ... See MoreSee Less
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William Cartwright's petition for a safe crossing across Burnley Road got over 4,000 signatures, but Lancashire County Council refuses to listen to Rossendale residents and continues to rely on an outdated approach to road safety. This has to change. ... See MoreSee Less
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A constituent with a foster child contacted me after being issued with a £900 invoice for respite services. Funding for the child's respite is provided by Bury Council through the Shared Lives scheme, but the services are provided by Lancashire County Council. When my team notified Bury Council, they took action and confirmed that the £900 invoice will be covered through the Shared Lives scheme.
Bury Council say this is not the first time it has happened. They told us that Lancashire County Council does not inform them when the cost of their respite care service increases, and residents are left holding a surprise bill.
Lancashire County Council tell me they are looking into the issue. But this is a symptom of a failure in joined-up thinking, and a sign of just how far we have to go to get our local councils working together properly. It's one of the many reasons pushing ahead with Local Government Reorganisation is so important.
If you are facing a situation which you just can't seem to get resolved, don't hesitate to contact me with your full name, address and the nature of your problem.
My office phone numbers are
Darwen: 01254 476410
Rossendale: 01706 489387
You can fill in a contact form on my website:
www.andymacnaemp.com
Or you can email me at:
[email protected] ... See MoreSee Less
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Adult social care touches nearly every family in Rossendale and Darwen sooner or later, usually at the hardest possible moment.
The Government has asked Baroness Louise Casey to lead an independent commission on how we fix it, and she has opened it up to the public. It is called the Big Conversation on Care. You can put forward your own ideas and vote on other people's.
It asks three questions. What is care? Who should get the most help? And who should pay for what?
If you have cared for someone, or been cared for, or tried to work out what help is available and got nowhere, your experience is worth more here than any policy paper. Please take a few minutes to click on the link in the comments and share your thoughts. ... See MoreSee Less
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Really good to meet with trade union reps in Darwen this week. An open and honest conversation, and I'm grateful to everyone who came along and told me straight what they are seeing at work.
Much of what they told me comes back to the same thing: they want to see secure, decent jobs making things, close to home. That is what my work with the Reindustrialisation Research Group is about, and it means a lot to hear it from the people who would be doing those jobs. ... See MoreSee Less
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Rossendale's Pride in Place programme will be delivering real results for Staghills residents this October.
Drawing on funding I have secured from the Government, improvements are being made to the woodland paths at Woodside Crescent and Heys Walkway, backed by an additional £30,000 of match funding from the Lancashire Environmental Fund.
If you live on the estate you will know these paths well. Between them they are the everyday route for a lot of people, and they have needed attention for a long time.
The plan is to resurface the footpaths, cut back the overgrown vegetation, check and upgrade the lighting, and put in new signage so the route is easier to follow. There will also be native bulbs, wildflowers and woodland shrubs planted along the way, and bird boxes going up through the woodland to give local wildlife a hand.
Like all of the Pride in Place schemes, this is community-led, not dictated to us from elsewhere. There will be planting days and artwork to get stuck into, so don't miss out on your chance to participate in a project which will bring real improvements to the area.
In the comments below, you'll find links to the project's website as well as a survey to fill in. ... See MoreSee Less
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Today the government announced changes to make social value count for more when public contracts are awarded. In short, that means when a council or a department buys something, the jobs, apprenticeships and local spending a bidder brings with them count for more in the decision.
On behalf of the Reindustrialisation Research Group which I am convenor of, I welcome this news:
"Today's announcement on reforming social value is a big step in the right direction. Reindustrialisation will require a clear focus on investment and skills if we want to bring good jobs to every postcode. Procurement is a critical tool in the arsenal of reindustrialisation and increasing the weighting of social value will enable us to reward more businesses that are doing the right thing. These changes need to be a beginning of a cross-government effort to Buy British and provide British businesses with all the support they need to win contracts and create decent jobs."
We have engineering and manufacturing firms here in Rossendale and Darwen that take on apprentices, pay properly and spend their money in the towns they sit in. Too often they lose out to bids that look cheaper on paper because none of that gets counted. Getting the weighting right starts to change that.
I will keep making the case for public money spent in our towns to do more for the people who live in them. ... See MoreSee Less
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