Demonstrating our power for an energy filled future
IT was a pleasure to welcome Caroline Flint, the Shadow Energy Secretary, to Anglesey to visit the Wylfa Newydd site and the Coleg Menai Energy Centre.
Combining projects with skills training and jobs is vital and it was fantastic to meet local engineering apprentices who embody this concept. They take pride in their family and community and want the quality jobs that Wylfa Newydd will provide. We must encourage and support them. This forms a core part of these projects alongside energy security and boosting the local and regional economy.
We also visited the Llanfairpwll Women’s Institute to help them celebrate their centenary year. The branch was the first in Britain and I am proud that Anglesey pioneered this national and international movement.
In Parliament, I raised the issue of milk prices. The Coalition Government has watered down the Supermarket Ombudsman which I proposed in my Private Members Bill and which should be helping farmers at this critical time. We need an adjudicator with real teeth – a Labour Government will deliver this.
The dairy industry forms a vital component within the wider food, farming and tourism sector which I have supported from the front both locally and in Parliament.
Infrastructure is vital to the success of the regional economy in an increasingly connected world. It is why I have been campaigning for better mobile coverage and I will be meeting with O2 to discuss its plans for the Island this week.
It is also why I have been campaigning to secure better transport links including faster, more frequent trains to Liverpool and Manchester as well as Cardiff and London. I have also made the case for increasing air link destinations and improving the key shipping and A55 corridors. I am working with Derek Vaughan MEP, who I met with on Anglesey recently, on these projects.
My Cancer Research Dryathlon challenge finished just in time for the beginning of the Six Nations. I am proud to support such a fantastic charity and will continue to campaign with it both locally and nationally.