Newsletter April 2016

Dear Constituent

 
Welcome to my April newsletter 2016 and hopefully to Spring though the weather seems to be showing little sign of that at the moment. Thank you to all those of you who have been to my ‘Talk to Tim’ public meetings so far where there has certainly been a lot of interest about the forthcoming EU Referendum. There are still 55 days to go and I will be holding further meetings to try to engage as many people as possible in this vitally important constitutional issue. I have been approached by a number of local organisations who are looking to arrange hustings with speakers from both sides of the debate and will hold off organising my own further meetings until those dates have been finalised.
 
I was delighted also with the response to our biggest ever pensioners’ fair held at the Guildbourne Centre in Worthing last Friday. This has become a regular feature now and I am grateful for all those who put in such a lot of hard work to make it a success. I will continue to update the special sections on my website as news comes in on things such as the local rail service and upgrades to the A27.

Meanwhile, the proposed closure of ticket offices by Southern has rather hit the buffers at the moment as both the trade unions and Passenger Focus have lodged their objections and it is now being considered by the Minister who I have spoken to. I have posted a letter from GTR from April 14th on my website which answers some of the upstanding issues raised at the public meeting I held in Shoreham too. Adding to passenger woes there was of course a strike earlier this week which caused major disruption. This is over the proposal to bring in driver-only operated trains. For the sake of balance I have published below the letters from both the GTR management and the RMT union with their respective positions on the action.
 
As regards the A27 we remain in a ‘limbo period’ until the Highways Agency produce their latest proposals which are still expected in November. I am aware that a number of residents’ groups held a meeting earlier this week and expressed concerns about the likely proposals involving duelling the A27 through Worthing and there was support for a bypass option running north of Worthing. This had already been ruled out in the earlier scoping work as representatives of the residents’ groups know who sit on the A27 Working Party chaired by Councillor Tom Wye, and who are specifically there to feedback to residents and represent their views. I know no more than them about the likely plans at the moment and will post everything I have on my website but again we are unlikely to have much more detail until November after which there will inevitably be an extensive public consultation exercise.
 
I hope you have noticed the video podcasts that I have been posting on my website (www.timloughton.com) and Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TimLoughtonEWAS/) recently which is proving very effective way of updating constituents with my position on various topical issues. Do let me know what you think.
 
Best wishes
 
Tim Loughton MP
Member of Parliament for East Worthing & Shoreham

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