2022 March

I appeared on the BBC Politics Midlands programme on Sunday 27 March 2022. On the programme we discussed the Chancellor’s Spring Statement, and the lack of support for millions struggling with the cost of living; negotiations over waste collection services in Coventry; and the thousands of houses set to be built on the Walsall Green Belt in the Black Country Plan, including next to Walsall Arboretum.  You can watch the episode here:
BBC iPlayer – Politics Midlands – 27/03/2022

On Saturday 26 March 2022, lights around the world will go out for the hour from 8.30pm, from Edinburgh Castle to Buckingham Palace, for Earth Hour 2022. Hundreds of millions of people in the UK and around the world will participate by turning off their lights.
Earth Hour is organised annually by the World Wildlife Foundation to remind us that even small changes can make a real difference for the planet when we act together. This year marks the 15th anniversary of the initiative.

On 26 March 2020 the community of Joseph Leckie Academy suffered the terrible loss of Principal Keith Whittlestone, after over twenty years of his leadership at the school. This was at the start of the pandemic.

The Office for Environmental Protection was established by the Environment Act 2021, with statutory duties to: scrutinise environmental law and Environmental Improvement Plans, to advise the Government on environmental law, and enforce failures to comply with environmental law. On Wednesday 23 March 2022, I participated in an Environmental Audit Committee scrutiny hearing with the Chair and  Interim Chief Executive Officer of the Office for Environmental Protection, Dame Glenys Stacey DBE and Ms Natalie Prosser.

On Tuesday 22 March 22, the Nationality and Borders Bill returned to the House for the consideration of Lords Amendments. This Bill demonstrates incompetence and indifference from the Government on many fronts.