I’VE been pressing the government for answers this week over the £1.3-million a year being spent on suspended Devon and Cornwall Police officers.

New figures I obtained through a Freedom of Information request show that 17 officers are currently suspended on full pay, with one suspension lasting more than four years. I challenged the Home Secretary directly on this during a Home Affairs Committee session this week - given that estimates suggest it would cost around just £100,000 to reopen the front desk at Launceston Police Station here in the constituency. I’ve been campaigning for months for this front desk to reopen, yet Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez keeps refusing outright. I believe that if the government is serious about putting community policing and public trust at the heart of its approach, people need to be able to walk into their local station, speak to officers face-to-face and have confidence that their concerns will be properly addressed.

I’ve also officially presented my ‘Infrastructure First’ Bill to Parliament this week, continuing my campaign to tackle North Cornwall’s infrastructure emergency. New homes are of course needed to address the acute housing shortage we’re facing, but infrastructure must come first to stop Cornwall being left high-and-dry. Developers cannot be allowed to walk away from promised funding for things like local GP surgeries, schools, dentists, and other essential services, or leave communities struggling if developments are left abandoned. My Bill seeks to ensure that the necessary community infrastructure is put in place before the homes themselves are built, and I’ll be building further on this campaign.

Sewage pollution has also been a major focus this week yet again. I spoke in Parliament about the shocking impact sewage pollution is having on public health. I raised an awful case of a constituent from Padstow who was hospitalised just weeks ago after becoming seriously ill following exposure to contaminated seawater.

I also took North Cornwall’s voice directly to the Prime Minister’s front door, joining campaigners from Surfers Against Sewage to hand in our petition at Number 10. More than 340,000 people signed, with clear signals to the Government that the sewage pollution scandal must finally be brought to an end. With a ‘Clean Water Bill’ due to be debated in Parliament in the coming months, I’ll be pushing on behalf of my constituents to make sure very strong protections for our rivers and seas are properly secured in law.

Finally, I’ve spoken out again this week after the reopening of North Devon District Hospital’s maternity services was postponed once again. I cannot stress how serious the effects will be for North Cornwall’s expectant mothers, with around 100 of them already having to travel around much further away to Exeter, or even hours more, to give birth to their baby. I’ve been working alongside MP Ian Roome to push for this vital service to be safely restored as soon as possible, and was very pleased to see our Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, raise the issue directly with the Prime Minister at PMQs recently.