Good news this week as the Government announced they will extend their support of local bus networks. The Bus Recovery Grant, set up during the pandemic, is to run for an extra 3 months and funding will also be made available to support £2 fares for that time. I have been in regular contact with the Somerset Bus Partnership and others about our local routes and asked the Department for Transport for more input last year so it’s great to see the commitment extended to give more time for operators to plan for the future in a sustainable way.
Local transport is really important when considering a lot of other things like planning of new homes and accessibility of healthcare and education. I hope that the new Somerset-wide Council will benefit from this Government support and factor in public transport routes when considering such matters.
Leonardo are currently taking part in some defence exhibitions and I like the way they are using their brand and what it represents for the future of the company. They are using the social media tag #HomeOfBritishHelicopters. It’s important to remind the Government and others that whatever the company structure at board level, what we have in Yeovil is unique and very much part of our UK heritage and future.
The company are bidding for the AW149 to replace our fleet of Puma helicopters with the clear message, which I am pushing hard in Westminster, that they are ready to go. The equipment and skills are right here to provide the Ministry of Defence with a proven high-performance platform designed, built and maintained here in Somerset. The potential for export orders is high and they too would be fully built here. No other company can match that whatever they may say.
Not only does the Yeovil site and its supply chain provide thousands of highly skilled jobs in the South West and beyond but they are real investors in people. Their apprenticeship scheme attracts applications from across the region and offers a fantastic start to a career in engineering and other related fields. Joint ventures like the iAero site help share and develop ideas and expertise.
The company has been a leading player in unmanned aerial vehicle research and I have helped deliver Government collaboration on that which has exciting potential. In the meantime though I will be doing all I can to get the Ministry of Defence to make what I think is the right decision on the AW149 and as quickly as possible.
I received notice this week that the Halfway House Inn & Country Lodge in Chilthorne Domer is not going to be used as temporary housing for asylum seekers. I had raised concerns about the location of the site and have been aware of some rumours circulating about it. Whilst small boats crossing the channel have been the source of a lot of frustration, not to mention huge danger to those involved, they account for about a third of asylum seekers. We should still be open to genuine, legally routed asylum cases and be proud of being a welcoming nation. We need though to strengthen our laws on asylum to clarify the cases we can help more quickly and consistently and discourage illegal crossings, to improve things on both sides of the Channel.