From Catmore to Cold Ash, there are more than 35 villages in the Newbury constituency, facing issues such as speeding cars or thundering lorries, pub and shop closures, a lack of affordable homes, and crumbling roads.

By using Richard, villagers can ensure their issues reach the right ears, so that action is taken. Richard is also keen to reverse the Government’s unworkable hunting ban, and to reform EU farm policies to protect the environment.

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Richard is committed to further improving community care and psychiatric services for mental health patients in the area, and supports the efforts of organisations from Mencap to the local NHS, and Newbury Resource Centre.   Richard joined the campaign to save the Charles Clore Cancer Unit, which was shut by the NHS in Newbury to pay for a funding crisis in Milton Keynes.

Richard also has a strong interest in improving school meals by providing organic, locally sourced products wherever possible.

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Even though West Berkshire is a relatively safe place to live, there’s so much more that can be done. Richard meets local Police Leaders regularly and has been on patrol with local officers. He works with voluntary organisations such as neighbourhood watch to improve crime prevention. Richard campaigns on improving police manpower, strengthening the courts system, and getting to grips with antisocial behaviour on local estates and in villages.

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Public services are best improved if they are accountable to the people they’re supposed to serve.  Recently, we’ve seen the NHS merging local Primary Care Trusts for Newbury, Reading and Wokingham, Berkshire’s Ambulance Service rolled into a new Thames Valley system, and a single fire call centre for the whole south-east. Richard wants to scrap the unaccountable South East Regional Assembly, and to keep as many decisions as possible about West Berkshire to be taken in West Berkshire.

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Richard has pledged to do all he can to cut red tape for businesses. Nearly 200 new regulations a year are introduced, mainly by the UK rather than Brussels, costing the economy £20bn a year*. Everyone from farmers to plumbers, to website designers, are affected by increasingly bizarre laws. As your MP, Richard co-sponsored a Bill in Parliament to reduce the regulations on small businesses.

* Chamber of Commerce figures

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