I met with union leaders and employees from Springfields on College Green ahead of my Westminster Hall debate to help garner further support for Springfields and the vital role the facility plays in the UK energy sector.
Following that meeting, I called on the Government to commit to ensuring all nuclear power plants in the UK – both those operating now and those in future – have fuel manufactured at Springfields.
There are 800 highly-skilled workers employed at Springfields and around 4,000 further jobs in its supply chain and we must protect those jobs and that skills base.
I asked for the Government to help the industry as we enter a period where fuel contracts are set to end and power stations are decommissioned, and before any new power stations have opened.
I wrote to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to ask several questions about the Future High Streets Fund as we prepare a bid for St Annes.
We saw phenomenal success in Kirkham and have secured close to £10 million of funding across a number of bids. We must do the same for St Annes, working in partnership with business owners in the town.
I wanted firmer details of the next rounds of the funding, to make sure our bid, with Fylde Council, St Annes Town Council, and the St Annes Enterprise Partnership all involved, is aiming at the right criteria.
The fund can be used to buy vacant premises and improve them, improve transport access, and improve our streetscene.
We need to see better use of the empty spaces above retail units in St Annes, to create high-quality homes and offices which will bring further people into the town centre. I also asked if we could secure funding from the Government to help prepare our bid.
It was great to see the kites on our beautiful beach at St Annes over the weekend, and a large number of visitors enjoying them. Congratulations to the organisers for not only the event, but also for the swift clean-up afterwards.