Nick Bourne AM

This week along with Jonathan Morgan, the shadow Health minister for most of the tour I have been visiting hospitals in my own area in Powys as well as Wrexham Maelor.
 

The sheer professionalism of the staff is always uplifting. I never cease to be amazed at the stamina, the unfailing humour and the team spirit of those who work in the NHS. From Brecon in the south of the county to Welshpool in the north another notable feature is the long service put in by the staff– dedicated, committed and often passionate about their vocation.
 

I also had the opportunity to meet up with the Community Health Councils for Montgomeryshire and for Brecon and Radnorshire to hear their views on a variety of issues and not least the suggestion of a forced merger which emanates from the Assembly government, a proposal which was welcomed by Jenny Randerson as Health Spokesperson for the Lib Dems. I immediately opposed this in the Assembly Chamber; geographic considerations alone mean we need two in Powys. I believe and so does my party that each area should be allowed to adopt a model best suited to its individual needs.
 

Good to see both Glyn Davies and Suzy Davies our two excellent Powys candidates as well as Councillors Torrens, George and Harris on our travels.
 

Wrexham Maelor was impressive too with new builds planned for a Mental Health Unit and work already underway on a new A and E area.

 Yesterday I put out a press release on this great national institution which laid stress on the need for it to be run in a business like way.  That is certainly true and clearly there can be no blank cheques from government.  However, I did fail to accentuate the very many positive features of the gardens and so I am putting that right.  

I have been a strong supporter of the Botanic Gardens from the start.  I was there at its Opening and I have been a regular and frequent visitor ever since.  It is in my constituency. 

I marvel at the progress that has been made here and the exciting range of features like the Japanese Garden, the Walled Gardens, the different zones in the dome at the gardens, and the educational facilities that are available here. 

The early pioneers of the garden deserve massive praise. To run an institution like this is difficult, to start one off is almost impossible, and the vision of William Wilkins and others has made a massive contribution to our nation. 

A further exciting and encouraging feature of the gardens is the range of volunteers who work here, cheerfully in all weathers.  This is something that should be a template for other national, regional and local institutions in Wales.  

I look forward to a secure future for the gardens which must, of course, be run in a business like way, but that said around the world, whether Kew, Edinburgh or overseas, governments do and must support Botanic Gardens financially. 

Long may ours flourish. 

I suppose I should be used to losing my staff and those of the Welsh Conservative team to elected office by now. It is a tradition that I hope continues!

 After all Nick Ramsay was first a council seat victor then went on to win Monmouth as an AM last May… I was truly delighted to see my researcher, Craig Williams victorious in this epic battle for a seat on Cardiff City Council. It was a battle that turned out to be a close contest between the Welsh Conservatives and the Socialists with both Plaid and the Lib Dems fading badly from their vote in May, despite the latter crew throwing everything at the campaign. Parties often get blamed for causing by-elections and I suspect that might have played a minor role here but it did not dominate and Labour also had a well liked and local councillor who lost the seat as their sitting councillor in May…

 Against this background Craig in my opinion and despite the very favourable position the party is in nationally faced an uphill task. He worked like a Trojan and remained good humoured and positive and was supported by a very strong and committed team. I went out on four separate occasions to support Craig before holidays intervened and Jon Morgan, David Melding, Nick Ramsay. William Graham and Andrew RT also supported strongly from the Assembly AMs and special mention should also be made of Jon Burns,  Richard John, Clare Bath (naturally) and Craig Piper also did sterling service.

 Craig had a very ready grasp of the issues that mattered to Pentrych and Gwaelod-y-Garth as we canvassed and talked to residents. He had, of course, given the First Minister a good run for his money in the Assembly elections (when The Cardiff West team and Charlotte as his agent had performed so well- Charlotte, of course is  a veteran of tough campaigns– Stefan’s for example )  and so was very familiar with the area.

 I had the good fortune to be sitting by the side of Lake Garda late that night  and heard of the victory first, before the nail bitingly close margin (though news during the day had indicated its closeness) from our Director for Wales, Matt Lane who continues to make everything possible for us in campaigning in Wales.

Well done to all of the team and on current performance Craig will be following Nick into the Assembly Chamber.
 

This year represents a determined effort to holiday by train. 

The excellent faster Eurostar now travels between St Pancras and Gare du Nord in a fraction longer than Cardiff to Paddington. 

I am uncertain how the new line leaves Ashford - stripped of its International designation I suspect. The new line now goes through Ebbsfleet International. Ebbsfleet is  famous only as the place where the escaped convict Magwitch confronts young Pip Gargary in Great Expectations. 

The train arrives to the minute in Paris where we are  staying overnight right next to the Gare de Lyon ready for an early start in the morning for Milan and then on to Sirmione on Lake Garda.
The weather is brilliant and we walk along the Paris Plage which stretches for perhaps three miles and is given over to family entertainments, petanque, deckchairs, music, street entertainment and food. Why don’t we try this along the front at Swansea and Mumbles. Weather may be part of the answer but Paris has its fair share of rain too. We picnic on the Ile de la Cite along with hundreds of others watching the sunset. 

Next day at 7.35 a.m. on the dot the .Mlan flyer leaves and at 14.50 on the dot at the scheduled time it pulls into Milano Centrale– impressive but it doesn’t seem to surprise the Italians who are obviously used to this sort of thing!.  A short break before the train to Desenzano.  We hadn’t trusted the 15 minutes changeover and elected for a safer hour and a quarter. In Britain one would not risk it; in Italy it seems one can. 

Once arriving at Lake Garda we discover something that we do do much much better at home- Tourist Information Centres, and we have noticed this before too. Service is  generally offhand and can be surly. Often basic information is  hard to come by. Not so back home. In my experience we are very well served by our TICs. All the sadder, therefore, that Powys is shutting so many due in no small part to under funding from the Assembly government. I will be touring my constituency next week and will be in a position again to see the excellent work done by the staff of the TICs. Our ferry is about to arrive at its destination and we are hiking into the hills and then a swim to cool off. 

A very useful meeting this week with Network Rail.  During the course of the meeting we discussed the possibility of re-opening stations that have closed and, indeed, of opening stations that haven’t existed before to ease commuter traffic and contribute to a reduction of the carbon footprint.  We also discussed the opening of new lines, again I think something that must be looked at very seriously given the massive growth of rail travel, which I believe will only increase further given the energy cost hikes and the very positive reasons that exist for taking public transport. 

 Very interestingly we talked at some length about the possibility of a high speed link from London to Cardiff and South Wales. It seems that such a link would deliver a journey from London to Cardiff in an hour.  50% of what it is now. This is something the Assembly government should be pursuing as there will be massive competition for the new high speed routes that are being offered, and already there is talk of Glasgow and the east coast to Edinburgh.