I used my time at the party conference in Manchester to highlight important issues for Eastbourne and Willingdon with a series of meetings and events.
I arranged to see Royal Mail to discuss the post or the lack of it going through doors in the town. People have contacted me to say they sometimes do not have letters delivered for days and they are missing appointments or important documents.
There was an assurance these issues will be investigated and it is fair to say recruitment for Royal Mail locally and nationally is one challenge. But I am concerned and we need to see an improvement. With Christmas coming up too, I’ve challenged Royal Mail to look at opening up holiday opportunities to those of school age.
I took part in several panel discussions with a local flavour, including one on schools. Another panel was on sea bathing water quality with the Southern Water chief executive Lawrence Gosden, who was recently in the town with the environment minister to visit Poo Castle, our waste treatments works, on the seafront.
As many know, this is a big topic in Eastbourne and one I am doing a lot of work on with the ambition to ensure our town has the very best seawater quality.
Having the boss of Southern Water there was also an ideal time for me to chase up the promised citizen water quality science kits for the local sea swimmers. I spoke to about my local water slow-release water butt roll out to help stop water entering the system during heavy rain.
Another panel was with the Trussell Trust that runs food banks nationally and the one in Eastbourne.
I met the chief executive Emma Revie, her team and two wonderful people with lived experience now helping as advocates.
One lady described her journey to the food bank - relationship breakdown, anxiety, debt, late autism diagnosis - all moments where had support been in place, things could have been different.
The PM’s support for the family was very welcome in this light along with his focus on improving teachers’ pay in key subjects. Something as a former teacher, I fully support. As he said, education is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet.
