Andrew Percy - Prospective MP for Brigg & Goole

I am the Conservative candidate for the constituency of Brigg and Goole. The constituency covers a vast area stretching from the former West Riding marshland villages around Goole, to Brigg and the villages of the Lincolnshire Wolds in the east, to the Isle of Axholme in the South where the founder of Methodism John Wesley was born. Brigg and Goole covers parts of both East Yorkshire, where I have lived all my life, and North Lincolnshire where I teach in a local school. Having strong family ties on both sides of the Humber, I am delighted to be standing for election in an area I can genuinely call home. Labour hung on by just 2,800 votes at the last election making this one of the key seats at the next election.

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Latest blog posts

Dentists and Ambulances

Submitted by andrew on Wed, 03/02/2010 - 22:46.

It's been an NHS few days with news coming through that the campaign we have supported for a new NHS dentist in Snaith has moved a step forward. This has been a long campaign, with many people involved and much of the pressure for a new dentist coming from Snaith Town Council. Needless to say though the Labour MP has issued a quote which basically suggests it's all his doing. I wonder if there will be a photo of him to accompany this quote in the papers this week!

Local people are not fools, they remember who changed the system and took the dentists away in the first place. Labour's new NHS dentistry contracts saw communities up and down the country lose their dentists. The real heroes are the Town Council who kept up the pressure and of course the local NHS Trust who are after all the ones who found the cash for this.

If you would like to register for the new dentist which should be open in the Spring please call the dental team on 01482 315775 and leave details on the dedicated answering machine or email dental@erypct.nhs.uk.

I also spent a couple of hours yesterday meeting with the Chairman of the Yorkshire Ambulance Trust, Dr Nick Varey (see photo) at the HQ in Wakefield. I wanted to talk about a couple of local issues relating to Goole and so Nick very kindly arranged for a member of one of the crews to be present too.

I also got a tour of the call handling facility which, along with York, takes calls from the 6,000 square miles the Yorkshire Ambulance Trust is responsible for. The technology was amazing, I didn't realise that they can, and very often do, dispatch ambulances to someones address before the actual 999 call has been answered!

Unemployment Rises

Submitted by andrew on Thu, 21/01/2010 - 22:18.

Sad news yesterday that unemployment in both North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire has risen whilst there was a small dip in the rest of the country. We all know that Labour's recession is biting hardest in the north and this seems to confirm it. Sadly, Labour MPs seem immune to the pain here having just voted themselves another 12 day holiday in February, Lib Dems and Tories voted against. I suspect there are plenty of people looking for work locally who would happily vote Labour MPs a very very long holiday.

In terms of unemployment locally we are just not getting any leadership from our politicians. Where is their plan for the area, what are their big ideas, where is the vision. These are same Labour politicians who bemoaned the loss of manufacturing under Mrs Thatcher but who happily sit in a party which has overseen the biggest contraction of manufacturing ever with all the added impact that has in an area such as ours. It's appalling.

I just had some canvassing back this evening from somebody who has been doing what should be a very safe Labour area in the constituency. My word is it bad out there for Labour!!

Latest news stories

River Flood Plans

Submitted by andrew on Wed, 03/02/2010 - 22:22.

The Environment Agency consultation into flood plans for the Rivers Ouse, Aire, Trent and Don have officially being launched with the start of a 12 week consultation period.

The original plans for the River Aire and the River Trent caused an outcry locally when they proposed increasing the risk of flooding on the Isle of Axholme and in the Snaith area.

Andrew Percy led campaigns against both of these plans and the Environment Agency agreed to look again at the proposals and then to re-consult. The new plans are now subject to a 12 week consultation which will run until April 23rd.

Prospective MP and Airmyn Parish Councillor, Andrew Percy, explains, “The new proposals are now live and I hope residents will comment on them. So far as the River Trent is concerned, the Environment Agency is now proposing to adopt a different policy which will see the current levels of flood protection maintained. More details on this will be released via the more detailed Isle of Axholme Flood Strategy which will be released in the coming months.

For the rivers meeting in the Goole area, the Environment Agency has decided that rather than simply apply one policy for the area, they have divided it up into smaller ‘clusters’ where different policies are proposed.

  • Cluster 6 roughly covers the Airmyn, Rawcliffe, Rawcliffe Bridge, Hook and Goole area.
  • Cluster 5 roughly covers Snaith, Gowdall and the Cowicks.
  • Cluster 4 roughly covers the Marshlands and Pollington.

"The Environment Agency are now proposing to adopt a policy that will continue with existing levels of flood protection for the area covered by cluster 4. For cluster 6, they propose to go further by adopting a policy which will see them taking further action to sustain the current level of protection into the future, as the risk of flooding increases. For the Snaith and Gowdall area, cluster 5, they propose adopting a policy which will ‘take action with others to store water or manage run-off in locations that provide overall flood risk reduction or environmental benefits.’They go on to say that this policy would see better use of the washlands in the event of river or tidal flooding. Personally, I want to know more from the Environment Agency about what this will actually mean as I will not accept any proposals which will put homes at risk of more flooding.

"I have contacted them requesting more information as we cannot accept anything which would see flooding increased locally. There is also a consultation event organised for Monday March 8th at the Goole Leisure Centre. Representatives of the Environment Agency will be present between 2pm and 7pm to answer residents’ queries and to record their views."

Anyone wanting to know more can either contact Andrew or visit the Environment Agency website. The plans can be found by clicking on the links below -

Photo: Andrew discussing the plans for the Aire with Cllr Caroline Fox in Snaith.

Andrew Signs Cancer Pledges

Submitted by andrew on Mon, 01/02/2010 - 18:04.

Prospective MP and NHS Campaigner, Andrew Percy, has formally pledged his support to two campaigns committed to supporting research into cancer.Andrew has signed up to both Cancer Research UK’s Cancer Commitment and the Breast Cancer Campaign 2010. Both campaigns have been launched in the run up to the general election with the aim of securing a pledge from election candidates that they will support vital research into cancer and do everything they can to improve cancer research and treatment.

Prospective MP, Andrew Percy says, "A couple of years ago I campaigned on behalf of women in this constituency who were waiting too long for breast cancer screening and so I was happy to support these pledges.

"125 women every day are diagnosed with breast cancer, making it the UK’s most common form of cancer. I hope that more and more candidates and MPs will sign this pledge so that whoever forms the next government, we can be sure that cancer research will remain a top priority.

"Like most people, my family has been touched by cancer and I am more than happy to do whatever I can to support action in tackling this dreadful disease."