Alex Norris MP's Weekly Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of my weekly newsletter. 

Today is Good Friday, so I hope if you are lucky enough to be having a day off, you’re enjoying it, and if not, then thank you for the service you’re providing.  

As it happens, I’ve had the whole week away from Westminster (finally), so I’ve been in Nottingham all week. I’ve been doing lots of campaigning for the local elections, working locally and a bit of catching up on my marathon training. I also went to watch the football last night - the less said about that the better. 

Talking of the marathon, it’s now only 9 days away, and I’m well on my way to reaching my target of £1000 raised for the Bulwell and Bestwood Foodbank. They do tremendous work feeding those in need in our area, so if you can offer any support, it will be much appreciated. You can find my sponsorship page here. 

Read on to find out more... 

As I’ve said before, I will strive to send you a newsletter like this each Friday to keep you updated on the work I’m doing in Parliament as well as in our community, and to inform you of any interesting events taking place in our area. To help me with the latter, if you are running or know of anything that you think may be of interest to others, feel free to drop me an email at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk and I will include it in future issues. Please also forward it onto anyone you think may be interested.

This Week in Nottingham

When it looked like I could be spending at least some of this week in Westminster, I was forced to cancel several engagements that I had lined up. That’s life as an MP, and I appreciate everyone affected being very understanding. It wasn’t all doom and gloom though. Here’s what I managed to rearrange at short notice: 

• On Tuesday I met with a constituent outside of a scheduled surgery to discuss a few different things I’m trying to assist him with. I’m always happy to do this when an issue is urgent and I don’t have a surgery space available, or if you’d simply rather have a longer chat more privately. Please get in touch with if there’s anything I can assist you with.   
• In the evening, I attended a local branch meeting of the Bulwell branch of the Royal British Legion. They meet on Tuesdays so I’m usually unable to go but was glad to make this one. We had a very robust conversation about all sorts of matters including veterans, the Armed Forces and, of course, Brexit. 
• On Wednesday I met with Rebecca Blackman and Mark Done from Arts Council England (ACE) along with Cathy Mahmood from Creative Nottingham North. The incredibly helpful grant that my charity Rebalancing the Outer Estates receives for Creative Nottingham North’s excellent work is soon coming to end, so we discussed next steps. 
• Later that afternoon, I visited Nottingham’s DPD depot, where I was shown around by Tim Jones while having an opportunity to discuss the issues surrounding the industry, particularly related to workers’ rights. 
• I also met with Allie Moors, to discuss Now We’re Cooking in Bulwell, a social enterprise she is setting up that will provide hands on experience of cooking affordable, tasty food in a community setting for small groups of people. This enterprise aims to empower people to cook healthy and affordable food, reduce food waste, improve health and wellbeing, and provide an opportunity to forge new friendships.  
• And tomorrow, I’ll be visiting United Reformed Church for their Community Coffee Morning, where I’m sure I’ll be talking to local residents about all number of issues – hopefully not just Brexit!

Local Elections

If you’ve been on my Twitter, or my dogs’ Instagram, you’ll be well aware that local elections are coming up, with polling day being Thursday 2^nd May. I’ve been busy campaigning whenever I’ve had the time and this week has been one such opportunity.

Here in Nottingham, our local government elections select two or three Nottingham City Councillors per ward, who represent their constituents on a local level, and together are responsible for making the decisions on running services in Nottingham. These include housing, education, transport, planning, parks, leisure, fire and public safety, social care and waste management. 

While most candidates will be representing the same parties as those present in Parliament, and we do work together regularly, the areas of responsibility of City Councillors are very different and independent of those of me and my fellow Members of Parliament.  

More information can be found here.

Looking Ahead

As this newsletter has been a bit shorter than usual, I thought a slightly longer preview was in order, so here’s a few of the things I have lined up in the next few weeks, which you’ll hear more about as and when they happen: 

• I will be continuing to sit on the Joint Committee on the Draft Domestic Abuse Bill, as we work to ensure that when the legislative process begins, the Bill that is presented is one that offers protection to victims at the level required. Next Tuesday we will be welcoming several individuals to provide oral evidence, from organisations and bodies such as Action for Children, Barnardo’s, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner and Central London Magistrate’s Courts. Such varied experiences and expertise should help the Bill cover all bases, if the Government takes the evidence seriously. Throughout this process I will also have plenty more meetings with stakeholders to discuss aspects in more detail. 
• My more traditional Parliamentary work will also continue, beginning with two questions to Justice Ministers next Tuesday, the day the House of Commons returns. After the horrible recent news of a young Prison Officer at HMP Nottingham being viciously attacked by an inmate, I’ll be asking the Prisons Minister what he’s doing about this violence and how he’s going to stop it.  
• And my work here in Nottingham North will of course carry on. Me and my team try to help with all issues, and my next surgery to hear about these will be taking place next Friday. It’s all booked up, but if you’d like to come and discuss something with me at a future date, please do get in touch with my office.

What's On

I want these emails to be as interesting as possible. That means there’ll be some politics – it’s important that I am held accountable. But I also want to offer information about what’s on locally. So, if you have an event you’d like me to advertise, let me know.

If you would like your events advertised here, or further information on those advertised, please email me at alex.norris.mp@parliament.uk.

That’s all for now! Details of how to get in touch or to have a look at the things I’m doing are below…

All the best,

Alex