Jake Berry
LIKE many I am hoping that 2022 will be better than 2021 and I firmly believe that here in the Valley our best days lie ahead of us not behind us.
The work of the Rossendale Levelling Up Board embodies my optimism for the year ahead.
Chaired by Mike Lane of We Buy Books in Rawtenstall, the board has come together to see what projects we can bring forward to support communities and economic growth locally.
It is this sort of grassroots community action that will help us achieve levelling up.
I am often asked how Rossendale will benefit from the levelling up agenda, so I am proud to report that it is already evident in our community.
At the Valley Leadership
Academy levelling up has been reflected in the transformational learning experiences being undertaken by its young people.
Before Christmas I was privileged to visit the Academy where I witnessed an extraordinary transition that has been taking place at the school over several years.
I, along with others including Neil Shaw the chief executive of Rossendale Council, am proud to be part of the team of governors that has worked alongside the exceptional staff at the school and helped to facilitate this positive change.
On my visit I was struck by the positivity of both the pupils and staff in the school about the year ahead.
Other schools such as Whitworth High and All Saints have also been working on plans this year to spend significant new Government funding to build a new school and to update their existing facilities.
Seeing these developments in our schools fills me with optimism that levelling up is starting to touch the lives of the next generation in our community.
For me levelling up in Rossendale must have education and young people at its heart.
As a parent myself I know we all have huge ambition for our children and their achievements should not be set by their post code, but by talent, something we have an abundance of in our area.
It’s still early days, however, I do hope the plans we come forward with in the first part of this year will enable people to engage in an active debate across our community about our ambition for our area.
From Helmshore to Whitworth and each of our towns and villages in between, I am determined that 2022 will see the Valley continue to thrive.
Of course, the New Year is a time for looking back as well as forward.
As Christmas approached, unfortunately Covid reared its ugly head again in the form of Omicron.
In Parliament there was a debate about whether we should move to ‘Plan B’ to stem the tide of infection.
On the run up to the debate I met with many front-line NHS staff including our amazing volunteer army of vaccinators to listen to their views about pressures on our NHS and the success of the booster jab roll out.
Like the majority of MPs, including all of our local ones, I supported the implementation of ‘Plan B’ as a reasonable and proportionate response to the new variant.
Whilst no one likes wearing masks, these temporary measures are a small price to pay to keep our NHS functioning over the Christmas period and beyond.
It also seems these measures may have been ‘a stitch in time’ as numbers over the last week have been stabilising and, in some areas falling.
There are no easy decisions in politics, but I think the action we took the week before Christmas was right. »●Valley MPs thank key workers - see p12.