A few years ago I met with Becky Maddern from Benjamin’s Smile to hear about her campaign to increase accessible play equipment in playparks. Her work has been inspired by her own son Benjamin and his disappointment at not being able to join his brothers and enjoy their local park.
Since that meeting I have worked closely with Becky, Benjamin’s Smile and Mum’s on a Mission to support the campaign and push the issue at a national level. As the former Minister for Disabled People, I was very proud to secure a recommendation in the Disability Strategy that all new or refurbished play parks should include accessible equipment. I now want to make this recommendation mandatory. For that to happen we need to demonstrate support for this - this is where I need your help!
For the guidelines to say that all new & refurbished play parks MUST have a piece of accessible play equipment, rather than should, we need members of the public to show their support and take part in a Department for Local Government consultation.
I believe passionately that all children, regardless of ability or disability, should be able to play in their local park. This campaign is all about achieving that, and public support is vital to ensuring that the recommendation becomes mandatory. I recently shared the link to the consultation on my website, and I would be grateful if people could show their support!
It was delightful to visit the fantastic volunteers at Tadpole Garden Village in Bloom, who were inspected this week by judges for Britain in Bloom – part of the Royal Horticulture Society. TGV in Bloom do amazing work to add colour and vibrancy to TGV by planting bulbs and running a very popular community allotment.
The judges were very complementary of the community spirit in Tadpole, particularly with people of all ages volunteering to beautify the village and manage the local allotments.
For such a new area to have as large and dedicated a group of volunteers is impressive and I wish them the best of luck in the competition when the results are announced in October.
I was also very pleased to sit down with the newly appointed managing director of Swindon Bus Company Andrew Sherrington to discuss various topics related to public transport in Swindon.
Good public transport links are important for a variety of reasons – businesses benefit by allowing customers and patrons to reach them, people who may otherwise be isolated are able to get around, and they can help the environment by reducing congestion and emissions.
One key issue we discussed was how to increase bus usage and help bus companies recover from the effects of the pandemic – which saw bus usage drop as low as 10% of pre-pandemic levels. In January, the Government introduced a £2 cap on single bus fares in England, with the aim of making bus travel cheaper and to encourage more people to use buses. In total the Government has invested over £2 billion to help the sector recover from the pandemic, and more than £1 billion to support local authorities deliver their long-term local plans to improve services, and I was keen to hear the impact this support had made on services in Swindon.
More locally we discussed bus services and routes across North Swindon and plans to ensure that passengers enjoy the best possible experience.
