The Romsey Advertiser 4 April 2008

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Fri 4th Apr 2008

The week started with a visit to Naomi House. This is a children's hospice and I have taken a fairly close interest in its progress since I was first elected. The hospice seems to have settled down well. Children's hospices do not serve quite the same purpose as adult hospices. Some children will spend their final days there but most of the children have life limiting conditions and spend up to 14 nights a year there. This enables their families to have a break but in some cases the parents will stay in one of the family rooms so that they can be nearby.

I was surprised to learn that although the occupancy is high there is still a lack of awareness about who they are and what they do. The place is bright, cheery and full of life. So, if you know anyone who has a child who has a serious long term condition tell them about Naomi House and encourage them to visit and see for themselves.

There are a number of children who have attended Naomi House for some years and are now teenagers. It is a tribute to Naomi House that they keep coming back but there is a clear need for a facility which is less focussed around a younger child. The next stage is to build, on the same site, a facility called Jack's Place which will cater for the needs of teenagers and young adults.

I set off for London feeling quite cheery and prepared for a meeting with the transport Minister - Tom Harris. I was accompanied by Nadine Taylor from the Save Our Bus campaign. Surprisingly there are no pots of money available to facilitate and support joined up transport schemes but it was clear that there was a lack of clarity under what terms South West Trains had set the scheme up in the first place. The Minister did seem keen to get to the bottom of this although it does not help the service in the long run.

Tuesday was April 1st but the business of the day was no joke. On the agenda was the Counter Terrorism Bill. There are some aspects of the legislation that we welcome but we remain resolutely opposed to any extension of the period of time for which people can be detained without charge.

Tuesday was also the day when the new scheme for free nationwide travel for pensioners was brought in. I popped along to a Help the Aged reception which was held to celebrate the launch and was interested to find that they are now campaigning for more flexibility to be introduced into the scheme. The new scheme is brilliant in areas where there is a good local public transport scheme but not so good news for people who previously relied on tokens. We have also witnessed the problem locally where some community groups had their funding slashed and are now struggling to take elderly clients to attend medical appointments. I think it will benefit everybody if we can generate a head of steam behind this campaign.

All is generally quiet as we move towards our Easter recess and time for a couple of weeks in the constituency.

Published with kind permission of the Romsey Advertiser