September in Cirencester – by Roz Savage MP

Summer has kept me busy in Cirencester, and there is plenty to share.

The moment that has stayed with me most from the past few weeks involves an eight-year-old constituent named Elizabeth Ling. Earlier this year Elizabeth wrote to me about the removal of a basket swing at Thistledown Park, a swing that had been particularly popular because children of different ages and abilities could use it together. She supported her letter with a petition and connected the campaign to her Brownie badge work on speaking out. I tabled an Early Day Motion in Parliament recognising her initiative and calling on councils to take young people’s voices seriously when making decisions about shared public spaces. Cirencester Town Council responded: they budgeted for, purchased, and ordered a replacement bird’s nest swing designed to be more robust and inclusive. In July I was at Thistledown Park for the opening with Elizabeth. It was one of the more joyful moments of the summer. She is a remarkable young person, and her campaign is a reminder that writing to your MP is always worth doing, at any age.

Later in July I spent a full day in town as part of my Summer Tour. It began at the Bingham Library on the Waterloo, where I dropped in during the Babies, Bounce and Rhyme session – a morning of conversation with parents and young families. From there I moved to the Corinium Museum, where I held an open drop-in in the Winstone Room for residents to raise whatever was on their minds. Over lunch at the Phoenix Café – a Ukrainian-run café in the Woolmarket that I would encourage anyone to visit – I heard from residents about the pressures they are facing. The afternoon took me to the Cirencester Open Air Pool on Riverside Walk, a community asset of real importance run largely by volunteers, and then through Bathurst Park to Roots and Seeds at the Old Kennels, where the conversation continued over tea into the early evening. It was a long day, and one of the better ones.

The following day I met Laura Patterson, a GP at Watermoor Point surgery, for a frank conversation about the pressures facing primary care in this constituency. The picture she painted was consistent with what residents tell me: appointment availability is genuinely stretched, GP workloads have grown substantially, and the infrastructure supporting primary care in rural areas like ours has not kept pace with demand. That conversation will directly shape the questions I take to NHS commissioners and ministers this autumn.

If you have a concern to raise, please do get in touch or come to one of my surgeries.

Warm wishes,

Roz Savage MP
Tel: 01285 286 160 | roz.savage.mp@parliament.uk

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