Milton (Abingdon) Parish Council

In total this will mean an extra £650m for social care next year, a very welcome move.

The Home Secretary has announced an increase in funding to the police. This increase will be worth up to £813 million, which combined with commitments in the Autumn Budget will increase total police funding next year by £970 million.

Particularly welcome is the specific commitment to Thames Valley Police, who will receive an additional £4 million in grant funding as well as £4.3 million to go towards pensions. Altogether Thames Valley Police will see a total increase in funding of up to £33 million next year.

In addition to these local commitments, the government will be investing £90 million to tackle serious and organised crime threats including economic crime, child sexual exploitation, and cyber crime. An additional £160m will be provided for counter-terrorism policing, a year-on-year increase of £59m which will take annual funding for counter-terrorism policing to over £800m.

Free Parking over Christmas

Motorists in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse can enjoy free parking in district council car parks on certain days in the run up to Christmas. The annual free parking tradition is provided by South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils to encourage people to shop locally for their Christmas presents.

Free Parking is available on the following days until 24th December:

• Didcot - Mondays from 3 December
• Wallingford - Thursdays from 6 December
• Faringdon - Saturdays from 1 December
• Wantage - Fridays from 30 November

Reservoir Debate

Last week I convened a debate in Parliament on the proposed plans from Thames Water for a reservoir near Abingdon.

I believe there should be a proper public consultation and that all options should be examined carefully before committing to building the reservoir. You can watch by contribution here.

Last month I asked the minister from The Department of Health and Social Care about Wantage Community Hospital and asked that she use her powers to convene a meeting of local stakeholders & officials to discuss its future.

You can watch the question here.

It was a great pleasure to meet with the National Farmers Union to discuss the Agriculture Bill. I was also pleased recently to visit NorthRow in Milton Park and Archangel in Harwell, two examples of very succesful local businesses.

This month's mailbag
This month I have received 1259 items of correspondence (emails and letters) from constituents. Subjects raised with me include the Withdrawal Agreement, Abingdon Reservoir and local parking.

As always, you can find further details on the news section of my website, found here.

I hope this information is useful. If you know somebody who would like to receive these updates, please do ask them to get in touch.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any pressing issues that you would like help with. Either myself or one of my team will get back to you as soon as possible and do what we can to assist.