Swindon Advertiser Weekly Article - 16th October

An exciting prospect lies in stall at the Brunel shopping centre with the announcement of their plans to create a food hub on the first floor of the town centre shopping centre.

What will be called The Crossing will be a new development providing new food service space over seven food outlets and two kiosks, creating a new hub for the shopping centre. Subject to planning permission, The Crossing, will open in Spring/Summer 2016. Located in the area around the existing link bridge between the Brunel Arcade and Brunel Plaza, the first floor of the shopping centre will benefit from a direct link from Canal Walk via a new escalator entrance. I was pleased to be at the launch of these plans and am glad that new ideas are being invested in helping to deliver town centre regeneration.

Elsewhere, I was thrilled to be at the opening of the new offices for Pluss – a social enterprise which has supported more than 500 people with disabilities into work across Swindon. I was joined by 40 people with disabilities in a speed interview session and then faced a mock interview conducted by a panel of disabled jobseekers – my first job interview in 14 years, a very daunting prospect!

The highlight of the visit was awarding Pluss customer Jacqui Evans with the award for Pluss Achiever of the Year 2015. I had spent a lot of time in anticipation of the visit selecting the winners for each award – a very difficult task when every single individual deserves enormous credit. But Jacqui’s story stuck with me as I heard about her battle with schizophrenia. Bravely, Jacqui built her confidence and amazingly now works for SEQOL at Newburgh House.

I was also on hand to award the degrees to the recent Swindon College graduates alongside my colleague Robert Buckland. It was a great day of celebrations and I am sure that those graduating have bright futures ahead of them and I look forward to hearing of their successes.

Finally, it is only one week to go before my major Disability Confident event at STEAM on October 23^rd. A huge amount of planning has gone into the event and I am grateful to both Pluss and the Shaw Trust who have sponsored the event, as well as those at the Department for Work and Pensions who are working hard to make it a success. We have over 100 representatives from 70 different local employers – both big business’s and SMEs – set to attend. It will certainly be the place to be in Swindon on the day! If you are a local employer, or working in HR, then please contact me for more details: Justin.tomlinson.mp@parliament.uk.