Barry Sheerman MP

MP’s often pick up on a local issue or tragedy which then becomes the focus for a national campaign. This is what happened when Stacey Rodgers’ son, Dominic, tragically died from carbon monoxide poisoning 3 years ago. Stacey’s campaigning so impressed me that I promised her that I would back her as long as she continued to campaign. This has become a very vigorous local and national campaign that I am involved in for which Kirklees has won an award. This is largely down to Stacey Rodgers and she should be acknowledged for all the work she has done on this. I would like to see her able to independently campaign full time in the near future.   Carbon Monoxide poisoning is a dreadful problem, a silent killer, which at least 50 people die from every year. This is a very good campaign which is coming to fruition, locally with the Kirklees campaign and nationally, in part through the work of the All Party Gas Safety Group which I co-Chair. Let’s keep at it! Another local campaign which I have been involved with is to help those who I regard as amongst the most vulnerable in our community; people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and those with mental health problems. Increasingly I’m finding that a lack of joined-up government across different departments – whether that be health, education or social services -  means that once a young person with particular mental health problems or special educational needs gets to age of 18 there is very little provision for them or their families or carers. I see this locally in Huddersfield with the closure of the Vocational Enterprise Centre, the parallel cut-backs from Learning and Skills Council in terms of the courses available to people with SEN, and the inability of Social Services to really address how to maintain a viable range of interests and activities for people in this category, from post 16 to 18 in particular. It does seem that Government departments, locally and nationally, are not talking to each other. I have had meetings with local colleges and the West Yorkshire Mental Trust and I have now offered to chair a meeting of all parties to see if we can do something about it.  Another local campaign which worries me is that we’ve seen a recent report of the Competition Commission on supermarkets. I believe it’s a rather weak report and I’m saddened by this. I don’t think it delivers enough sharpness to confront the fact that we are far too dependent for food and other supplies from large monoliths in the supermarket world, particularly Tesco’s which occupies roughly 30% of the market. I believe a lot of communities are far too dependent on these large supermarkets and this means local retailers are driven out of business and as a result diversity suffers. I don’t want that to happen in Huddersfield and I would like to see full local and public consultation before any real decision is made by the local council.