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Duncan Hames, prospective Lib Dem MP for Chippenham, yesterday (Tuesday) attended a public meeting of the More Train, Less Strain campaign, based in Bath.

The campaign group aims to challenge the government and First Great Western train company, over their poor standards and high prices, and to push them into providing a better service for passengers.

The group held a ‘Fare Strike’ last year and was successful in gaining more carriages on local services running from Bristol Temple Meads, Bath, Portsmouth, Cardiff and other intermediary stations.

The latest call for action has come following the severe delays and cancellations at the end of 2007 and the drastic fare rises incurred at the start of 2008.

Duncan Hames said: “The service has become so unreliable and expensive that it is putting people off travelling in the environmentally friendly way. We are now in a crazy situation where it can be cheaper to get a taxi than a train on some routes.

“The government and the train companies have a duty of care to their customers that they are not fulfilling. It is not right to expect a passenger to pay over the odds for a train journey, especially when they are often forced into ‘cattle class’ for hours once on board.”

Duncan Hames, the prospective Lib Dem MP for Chippenham, Corsham, Melksham and Bradford-on-Avon, has spoken out against the governments plan to close 2500 Post Offices.

The closures are set to hit Wiltshire this week, sparking claims that the move will cause long term damage to our communities.

The announcement on December 11th is expected to abolish one in five of our local Post Offices. This round of closures comes on top of the 7500 already closed in the past Labour and Conservative administrations.

The consultation period for the public is usually six weeks. Duncan Hames asked the government to extend this period to reflect the Christmas holidays. It will now come to an end on January 31st.

There were angry reactions to those regions hit by the cuts earlier this year. The passionate protests seem set to hit Wiltshire equally. Campaigners are ready to hit the ground running. Duncan Hames has written to every sub-postmaster in the constituency to offer his help to keep our post offices open.

Local Lib Dem county councillor Ross Henning said: “Local people in Chippenham are passionate about their local post office, which is a vital part of our community. We must work together to save it!”

One of the principle concerns will be for the elderly people in the community, who will find it increasingly difficult to access a post office at all. The charity Age Concern said they were ‘extremely worried’ about the closures and that ‘the consultation period is insufficient to canvass local opinions and issues, on public transport for example.’

Duncan Hames, the prospective Lib Dem MP for the Chippenham constituency said: “It doesn’t have to be this way. Our proposals would see the introduction of a broad-reaching diversification and investment program which would benefit the economy, the community and the environment. We are the only party who really understands the vital importance of our local post office and the part it plays in the community.

“We have less than 8 weeks to save our local Post Offices from the Government’s axe. I will do everything I can to help.”

Local residents are being asked to back the campaign – you can sign a petition here.

The two leadership candidates for the Liberal Democrat party paid a visit to Wiltshire on Wednesday. The two contenders: Chris Huhne, the environment spokesman and Nick Clegg, the spokesperson on home affairs visited the home of Lord Bath at Longleat near Warminster for a very special hustings meeting.

The event, which was attended by about eighty members of the party, was an opportunity for the contenders to speak to the voters in the election about what they stand for and how they feel they would benefit the Lib Dems.

The event also allowed members to ask formal questions during the proceedings and also to have informal conversations with the candidates over a buffet laid on by Lord Bath, and the Warminster and District branch of the party.

Duncan Hames, the prospective Lib Dem MP for Chippenham was one of those to attend and following the event said: “Both the candidates gave a fantastic speech, as a party we are fortunate to have two excellent candidates, who would both do a great job at leading our party.”

The government’s health cuts have hit Wiltshire hard this week with the closure of five of the county’s crucial local hospital minor injury units in Melksham, Warminster, Westbury, Devizes and Savernake hospitals.

Duncan Hames, Prospective MP for Chippenham Constituency said: “The closure of these community hospital minor injury units will hit local people hard. Many Wiltshire residents will no longer be able to receive urgent health care in a dedicated local hospital.”

The cuts could mean an extended journey time of 45 minutes for some patients. Chippenham Minor Injury Unit has also suffered changes to the level of medical cover.

Earlier this week, Duncan met with a Local GP to hear his concerns about how cuts to Chippenham hospital are affecting patients.

The cuts have come as local Lib Dems, led by Duncan Hames, have launched the largest ever survey about health services in Wiltshire.

“These cuts and the continued threat to our remaining health facilities are completely unacceptable and residents are speaking out.

“My NHS inquiry is already showing a serious concern among residents who are left unsure over the quality and availability of the services they desperately require.” said Duncan Hames.

Duncan Hames and Liberal Democrats in Chippenham, Bradford and Melksham have welcomed plans that will make Britain a zero carbon country by the middle of the century.

The plans were debated by Liberal Democrats at the party’s conference in Brighton today (17th September 2007).

Duncan Hames, the Prospective MP said, “Liberal Democrats have long argued that we have to tackle the problem of pollution and damage to the planet. The proposals put forward by Sir Menzies Campbell that we will debate at conference will mean that by the middle of this century, Britain will be a zero carbon country.

“That will mean that we will be producing overall no extra carbon dioxide, the main polluting gas that is leading to global climate change.

“Liberal Democrats have made the environment the main feature of our conference later this month. Going green means changing for the better many of our activities. And it means the Government changing policies as well. Under Labour for example, Gordon Brown has cut the tax burden on pollution, whilst putting up the tax burden on people.

“This means that under Gordon Brown it has become cheaper to pollute. I strongly believe that people in Wiltshire will benefit from the Lib Dems’ green tax switch. At our conference we will debate plans to switch the tax burden from people to pollution.

“We will cut national income tax and scrap council tax. To pay for this, we will increase green taxes on the most polluting activities. For example, we will increase the taxes on the most gas-guzzling cars and on aircraft.

“Liberal Democrats in Chippenham are looking forward to conference. We will be meeting Chris Huhne MP, our Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, and we will be discussing with him how we believe Wiltshire will benefit from the Lib Dem’s green plans.”

Brighton is bracing itself for the arrival of thousands of Liberal Democrats for the party’s conference next week and amongst those attending will be local campaigners from Chippenham.

Leading local campaigner Duncan Hames will be taking his campaign team with him to conference to take part in the debates and brush up on their skills in training sessions.

Amongst those going are Duncan Hames, the Candidate; Mark Packard, the Local Party Chair, Cllr Sylvia and John Doubell, from Pewsham; Cllr Janet Repton, from Bradford-on-Avon; and local campaigners Judith Cunliffe-Jones, and Rosemary Brown.

“The theme of our conference is the environment,” said Duncan Hames. “The big debates will focus on the need to cut down on pollution and to shift the burden of tax from income and onto greenhouse gas emissions.

“Our plans will mean national income tax will be cut from 20p to 16p in the pound and council tax will be scrapped. We will pay for these by shifting the tax burden onto the most polluting, gas-guzzling cars and onto aircraft that cause environmental damage.

“Over the next three weeks, people in Wiltshire will see all three party conferences in action. What is different about ours is that members take real decisions on policy. The Conservatives have discussions but no votes whilst at Labour conference, the Labour leadership either ignores votes or has stopped debates from taking place.”

Duncan Hames has criticised the Conservative plans for the Health Service. The prospective Lib Dem MP has outlined how the Tories would not hand any more say to local people than there was under Labour.

In an interview with the Wiltshire Mail, the prospective MP said: “Tory plans for a remote national quango are no better than Labour’s Whitehall meddling.

“The Liberal Democrats want to give people a bigger say in how their health services are run. We believe that local health trusts should be directly accountable to local communities.

“Why is it that ten years after Labour came to power, they are still needing to ‘save the NHS’?”

The comment marked the start of a national Liberal Democrat Campaign: ‘SOS for the NHS’ which will call the government to account for the damage they have done.

Under labour the NHS has been dictated to by ministers and London policy makers. They have sent ‘intervention directors’ into local NHS trusts to cut budgets and axe local services. Proposals recently published by the conservative party in Westminster plan an independent, national board for the NHS.

Which would create would create an unaccountable, centralised and remote Quango.
The Liberal Democrats instead want local health bosses to be directly accountable to the people in the Community they are meant to serve.

“We have campaigned with local patients and Wiltshire health workers to stop cuts to maternity services and hospitals closures.
We can only stop these cuts if the NHS is forced to listen to what local people want.”

I remember feeling quite proud when London won the race to host the Olympic Games in 2012. From my work with the South West Regional Development Agency, I was well aware of the efforts that many people had put in to support the bid, not just in London, but here in the South West too – where the sailing events will be hosted at the National Sailing Academy in Dorset.

The 2012 Games bring many benefits: economic, cultural and sporting, but above all they showcase some great role-models who challenge to the next generation to raise their aspitations, and to be the best they can.

The good news is that even in Chippenham we may get a slice of the action. I recently met with local sports and business people in the town who have come together to bid for International teams to make Chippenham their base and training ‘village’ for the Games, utilising facilities such as Scott Mackay’s Gym UK (pictured).

Already, the Koreans have expressed their interest but, as Sandie Webb explained to me, it is hoped that Chippenham will be promoted to the world in a brochure to go to all competing teams at next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

This kind of initiative is commendable, and I wish the volunteers co-ordinating our bid the very best of luck. The Olympics promise to inspire a whole generation of our young people to achieve their very best. Bringing top athletes and sports people to Chippenham could make that dream a reality here in Wiltshire.