It’s been another busy week getting around my constituency of Stalybridge, Hyde, Mossley, Longdendale and Dukinfield and celebrating key achievements.

First of all, it was a real pleasure to open the new health and wellbeing facility in Hyde town centre. This will be a significant improvement in local health services in the area. This new facility is operated by Healthy Hyde, which is the Primary Care Network covering the eight GP practices in Hyde. Healthy Hyde have been going for five years already, but they wanted a facility right in the heart of Hyde town centre. A year ago I was able to introduce them to the Martin Group, who now operate the Clarendon Centre, and the result is the old B&M is now this fabulous facility. I’d like to thank the Martin Group for their huge support for this.

Services on offer include extended access weekend and evening appointments, an ambulatory care service staffed by eight paramedics and mental health practitioner appointments. If you want to know more, just call in and have a look as you’re going past. They will be more than happy to let you know what’s going on.

Likewise, it was great to catch up with Northern Rail recently on site at Broadbottom station. Before becoming an MP and moving to Stalybridge, for a long while my morning routine when living in Mottram was heading into Manchester from Broadbottom, a line which has frankly seen the good, the bad and the ugly in service provision over the years.

We discussed the future of the ticket offices, the shelter, and the move to integrated smart ticketing. I want the first lines in Greater Manchester to have this to be this Glossop line and the Mossley/Stalybridge to Manchester services. Meetings like these are really critical in pushing for that aspiration to become a reality.

Still on transport, this week Andy Burnham officially opened the Bee Network, which will over the course of the next couple of years see buses across Greater Manchester come back under local control. I have campaigned for better buses for a decade so seeing this lever for change finally come to fruition is heartening. I’m proud to see a Labour mayor delivering the biggest upgrade in bus services outside of London in decades.

Meanwhile, in less positive transport news, the Government are this week threatening that the nation’s flagship new rail line between Manchester and Central London might not actually get to either Manchester or Central London. The people promising Levelling Up are once again Hurtling Down their ambitions for the Northern economy. You couldn’t really make it up.

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