Swindon Advertiser Column: Our Town Has Always Been At The Centre Of Exciting New Innovations

Swindon has always been at the centre of exciting new innovations and last week I got to see how this continues to be the case as I visited Swindon Powertrain in Greenbridge.

Swindon Powertrain is a company with a team of engineers and technicians who supply high performance powertrains as well as components and cutting edge development projects to the automotive world and the motorsport industry. Recently they represented Swindon at the UK’s first ever zero-emission vehicles summit which was attended by the Prime Minister, to discuss their development of a completely electric, classic Mini.

I got to see the classic Mini which Powertrain has created an advanced new electric solution for which miraculously doesn’t take up anymore of the mini’s already limited space- in fact it has created more boot space in this much-loved car. Not only this but adaptions have been made to the car to ensure that the electric battery has maximum efficiency and it can go for an impressive 100 miles before needing another charge.

So why is this important? It is a given that we need to act now to reduce the amount of damaging CO2 emissions which we are pumping into the atmosphere. This is why the Government has already been providing good incentives for people to switch to a hybrid or pure electric car. They have also outlined future plans to vastly reduce the number of diesel and petrol cars on our roads. But as the Prime Minister announced a couple of weeks ago, we need to ensure that we develop the technology to ensure that this is a realistic aim. We need more infrastructure in place for charging vehicles and we need to ensure that electric cars are as efficient as possible so that they can be a real alternative for road users.

This is why the work that Swindon Powertrain are doing is so important. Their incredibly talented team of people are creating new ways to improve electric vehicles and with their new classic e-mini; they are demonstrating that anything is possible when it comes to zero-emission vehicles. The company also showed me their newly developed hyper e-bicycle which is an extremely impressive electric motorbike which can reach speeds of up to 60mph. The bike has been branded as the ‘Swind hyper e-bicycle,’ so as it goes to market we can proudly say that this is yet another advanced piece of development which has been produced and developed here in Swindon.

Elsewhere I was delighted the Prime Minister used the UN General Assembly to highlight the UK’s efforts to ensure every child around the world grows up with access to education.  Having chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education, I know how vital this issue is.

Shockingly 130 million girls around the world are missing out on an education. To help counter this the UK has spent £2billion on global education since 2015; supported 11.4 million children to gain a decent education; including 5.6 million girls.

While this is a positive start, but we rightly want to go further. Education has the power to change lives; perhaps no more so than in this case. That’s why Theresa May we will work to ensure all girls can access 12 years of quality education by 2030.

I know this announcement will be welcomed by the hundreds of students in North Swindon with whom I have to discussed the ‘Send My Sister to School’ campaign in recent years.

This is significant & positive step which shows our commitment to ensuring that this generation leaves the world a better place.