Very Happy New Year. I hope you had a good celebration. Sarah and I were lucky enough to spend it at a wedding in Manor by the Lake in Cheltenham. 

Alex Chalk MP has welcomed the choice of Gloucestershire to pilot new mental health support services for children.

There are certain guaranteed features of our family Christmases in Cheltenham. Extended family coming to stay, church service in St Mary’s, warring children (obviously…), walks in Cox’s Meadow or up Leckhampton Hill.

And then the great clear up begins.

Peace and goodwill around the world seem to be in short supply this Christmas. Syria’s civil war continues to exact a terrible toll. China and the USA contemplate escalating a trade war. Russia and Ukraine eyeball each other in the Sea of Asov. Here in Britain the atmosphere is sulphurous. 

Hundreds of homes and businesses across Cheltenham and Gloucester will be getting an early Christmas present with the arrival of superfast broadband.

Cheltenham council tax payers should be better off next year following two welcome  Government announcements.

Cheltenham's MP, Alex Chalk, has challenged the Treasury to set out the Government’s plans “to ensure that online digital market places, social media companies and search engines should pay their fair share of tax”.

With Brexit convulsing Parliament, every column could cover the latest instalment in the saga. But with events moving so fast, a piece written on Tuesday might feel rather out of date 48 hours later.

Cheltenham's MP, Alex Chalk, has hosted an event in Parliament (Wednesday 28 November 2018) to raise awareness of the key work of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and its parent organisation GCHQ.

This week I called in Parliament for local health bosses to abandon their plans to shift gastro-intestinal (general) surgery from Cheltenham General to Gloucester Royal Hospital.