Weekend Update

Saturday saw our canvassing teams out in Kegworth until mid afternoon after which I moved on to a meeting in the Friendship centre in Long Whatton. The meeting was organized to hear about the proposed removal of funding by the airport to support the night time bus service through Diseworth and Long Whatton. A representative of the airport had the unenviable task of explaining to the packed hall (I calculated that over 100 local residents were in attendance) why the airport was no longer willing to support this service to two villages very near its perimeter and the flight path of its aircraft. The airport maintains that very few of the local residents use the evening (7pm to 7am ) service (which was disputed by local residents) The current service is proposed to be removed and re-routed through Kegworth from April. The data presented by the airport seems to be totally at odds with the concerns of local residents and given the number at the meeting indicate that there are more users of the service than the figures provided suggest.

I had a chance to meet the chairman of the protest group Mr John Payter and I have agreed to try to help them, despite the airportmaintaining that the decision has already been made.
 
On Saturday evening I was invited to attended the Bull and Lion public  House in Packington for a 'Help for Heros' fundraising event. I was very pleased to support the event and thanks to David Cameron's help  was able to donate a bottle of House of Commons Whisky signed by our  party leader. Also in attendance was Councillor Graham Allman (also Mayor of Ashby de la Zouch) and many members of the local Conservative  party. I have been informed that the event raised over £2000 for this very worthy cause.  

Sunday morning back in Packington canvassing. Despite the return of  Wintery conditions in the form of 3 inches of snow North West  Leicestershire Conservatives turned up the heat as the media  speculation about the prospect of an early election increased. We  canvassed until lunchtime filling in gaps in our returns. The election can only be a few weeks away now and so we cannot be deflected in our task of holding this Labour Government to task for its record of 13 years of failure.