Following this month's Cervical Screening Awareness Week, I am pleased to be supporting the campaign and highlight to women of Rochester and Strood the potential life-saving benefits of cervical screening (smear tests). 

Earlier this month I had the pleasure to visit Chatham Jobcentre and see their work and creative initiatives to help get more Medway people back into work.

Unpaid carers are some of the unsung heroes of our communities, and in Rochester and Strood one in eight do some kind of voluntary care for a friend or family member. And every day, 6,000 people in the UK will take on these new caring responsibilities.

A successful bid supported by Kelly Tolhurst MP has been has been awarded to help tackle the homelessness problems in the Medway towns.

I have been greatly disappointed by the consequences of the South East’s GTR timetable change which has brought chaos to many local commuters’ journeys.

Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst has hailed the new measures in the Rating (Property in Common Occupation) and Council Tax (Empty Dwellings) Bill to equip councils with powers to bring thousands of long-term empty homes back into use.

Last month I visited IPS International to discuss the local skills needs and apprenticeship opportunities in Medway.

Local MP, Kelly Tolhurst, is encouraging primary schools in Rochester and Strood to take part in a poster competition in an effort to tackle litter.

Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst has praised the government’s announcement to launch a new fund to expand existing grammar school places.

On Friday 5th May I held my first ever apprenticeship fair in Rochester and Strood and I was delighted to welcome so many businesses from the local area as well as hundreds of local school pupils, students and jobseekers.