Friday 20th - Sunday 21st August 2010

Friday 20th August 2010
I was in the constituency office by 8.30 am where I spent an hour or so on the IPSA website reconciling my expenses. IPSA have finally decided that because Sittingbourne and Sheerness stations have been wiped from the face of the planet, I have to use a category called: “Public Transport – Other”. If this category is OK to use, then why bother listing all the other stations on a dropdown?

10 am saw me at Sittingbourne Community College, which is one of the five secondary schools located on the mainland as part of my constituency, for a two hour meeting with Head Alan Barham and his colleague, Geoff Rutt. It was a very productive meeting from which I left with a number of action points.

By 12.30 pm I was back on Sheppey for a meeting with Julie Taylor, who I know well from her years at the Sheerness Resource Centre, which is one of the two local charities that I support.

After my meeting with Julie, Louise and I visited the house in Eastchurch to take some photographs so that we can start to plan modifications and the extension that will be necessary to provide Mother-In-Law with a suitable bedroom and bathroom.

When we got back from Eastchurch it was time for my Sheppey advice surgery, which I hold in the office at the Halfway Hall. We had a full bookings list and we managed to fit in a couple of people who had not booked. It is not something that we encourage, because for security reasons we like to know in advance who is turning up.

At 8 pm I was at Sheerness Police Station to see Sgt Stefan Martin, PC Steven King and Police Licensing Officer, Geoff Rowley. I had expressed an interest is seeing how our local police are tackling the problem of alcohol fuelled anti-social behaviour in general, and the sale of alcohol to under aged drinkers.

After a brief meeting to discuss the local problems with anti-social behaviour and after signing non-liability and confidentiality statements, I was taken out on a typical Friday evening’s patrol in Sheerness. During a busy evening we visited a number of licensed premises to check up on their procedures, including one small high street shop that was in breech of its licence and was ordered to remove all alcohol from its shelves.

In my view the whole system of licensing should be tightened up and the police should have more powers to close down more establishments found to be selling drinks to minors. We were also caught up in an alcohol fuelled brawl in the High Street during which a crow bar and a Samurai sword were brandished! An eventful evening that demonstrated once again how much we rely on members of our police force and how much, sometimes, we under value them. (Photo shows me with Sgt Stef Martin outside one of the off-licences that were checked out during the evening.)

Saturday 21st August 2010
A rare day off from constituency events so I took advantage and went to watch Gillingham’s game against Lincoln City. The Gill’s lost 0-1, but on balance they deserved to get at least a point, if only for their second half performance, which was mush better than the first. It was good to see my colleague, Rehman Chisti, who is the MP for Gillingham and Rainham, at the match.

Sunday 22nd August 2010
Quiet and wonderful. No more to say!