Great to see Warburtons create new jobs in Burnley

I do my best not to make it political, I write it purely for constituents interested in how I spend my time as an MP.

However, it may be more political on some occasions that others, so I am very sorry if I have upset Sue Graham in any way.

The start of the week recently was spent out and about in Burnley as Parliament had finished for this session, until the Queen’s speech on June 4th. This means I have been able to spend a lot of time talking to constituents about local and national issues. Lots of people at the moment are telling me how wonderful the new Urgent Care Centre is. I have heard lots of good reports about how impressive the staff and services are; it really is a great step forward from the facilities previously.

I also took my wife to Manchester Road train station which is looking absolutely fantastic. I had the chance to talk with people on the platform who said they are really pleased with the positive change it is making to this part of Burnley. Regular users are excited about the impending official opening.

Yet another shining example of a national company expanding in Burnley is Warburtons, which I visited. I was shown the groundwork of their new £20m. investment, built to produce products for their rapidly expanding wrap market. This will create at least another 45 jobs on the site which I am always pleased to hear. I then went on to the re-launch of Shopmobility in the town centre who provide an excellent service for disabled constituents and visitors. This was followed by a very busy afternoon of meetings with constituents and my regular drop-in surgery.

I was at Towneley Hall to act as a wine waiter for a Ladies’ Lunch which raised a fantastic amount of money for the prostate scanner appeal. I then spent a couple of hours at Lowerhouse Cricket Club seeing a very exciting end to their game against Todmorden. In the evening I attended Nelson House where Nicola Everitt, Phil Preston and their friends organised a fund-raising event for the scanner appeal. It was an incredible evening that raised almost £4,000.

It was pleasing to see the jobless total in Burnley has dropped to only 4.7%.This is very impressive when you consider that, four years ago, it was almost double this amount.