James Wharton

Last night I attended a meeting of the Executive Committee of Stockton Conservatives.  The local party is doing extremely well and the executive agreed to establish a number of new branches across the constituency.  I gave a brief presentation on my activities as candidate and what my team have been doing and we heard from Ken Lupton, the Leader of Stockton Borough Council, about the work of the councillors and the challenges the Borough faces in the year ahead. We always hear how political parties are losing members and struggling but I am pleased to say that Stockton Conservatives did rather well in 2008.

This morning I attended a meeting of Tristar residents and a representative from the Northern Housing Consortium to discuss antisocial behaviour in Thornaby and what Tristar can do to help.  It was a good opportunity to hear people’s views and the consensus that emerged was that they want to see the police actively tackling antisocial behaviour and crime.  No one from the Labour Party attended, which is sad and highlights how they continue to fail to take these issues seriously.

Last night I was in Newcastle with other Conservative candidates from across the region.  We discussed a variety of issues and planning for the year ahead, with some exciting possibilities for 2009.  I very much look forward to seeing some of the proposals come to fruition in Stockton South.

Last night I had dinner with a group of Doctors and Medical Students from Queens Campus of Durham University, which is in Stockton South.  Their experiences of the NHS and education system were certainly somewhat different to the general perception of how things work and it was useful to discuss both the positives and negatives of the current setup.  We are extremely lucky to have a first class University with a site in Stockton and it provides great benefits to local people, but not everything is perfect and some improvements could be made.  I look forward to seeing how the suggestions discussed around the table are reflected in Conservative policy in the next manifesto, certainly many of the complaints need to be resolved as doctors are currently spending far too much time form filling and ticking boxes rather than treating patients.

Earlier today I met with the Chief Executive of Tees Valley Regeneration (TVR) to discuss the organisation’s ongoing work and future plans.  TVR essentially replaced the old (and controversial) TDC and has facilitated some extremely positive investment into the area.  At the same time it has not been without controversy.  I was pleased to learn more about the organisation’s work and look forward to working with them and their successors for the good of our local economy and community over the coming years.