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Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, is highlighting to local residents a free energy efficiency offer, to help a friend or a relative, and benefit from their efforts.

Stephen said, “We have a great community in Stevenage and we can all do our bit to make sure that our friends and family are getting all the help they can in these difficult times.  If you have a an elderly relative or someone you think that might benefit from this offer, then get them to make a call and you could both be £50 better off and save money on your energy bills.”

Stevenage MP Stephen McPartland visited Bupa’s Woodlands View care home last week to meet staff, a selection of the 120 residents, and Richie, the VIP cat at the home in Poplars. He was met by home manager Marianne Allen and Bupa’s regional director for the South East, Rhona McLeod for a tour of one of the home’s four houses, stopping in on residents along the way to speak to them about their life experiences and their time at the home.

Stephen said, “I want to thank Marianne, her staff, and the residents at Bupa’s Woodlands View care home, for taking the time to show me around and making me feel so welcome.It was great to hear so many wonderful stories and, of course, to meet Richie. I look forward to returning to the home for one of their upcoming events in the community.”

Home manager, Marianne Allen said of the visit, “It was a joy to show Mr McPartland around and introduce him to our residents, our fantastic staff. We’ve recently undergone a £400,000 refurbishment in the home and we were delighted to show some of its best features to our local MP.”

Stevenage MP, Stephen McPartland, welcomed the news that the government is investing a further £3.24 million at the Lister hospital which includes the provision of a new MRI scanner.

Stephen said "I am delighted the government is investing more in our local hospital and the new MRI scanner will make a massive difference to thousands of local people. I am delivering on my commitment to put patients first and remain focused on delivering real results for local people that improves our quality of life. These are exciting times for our town as Stevenage continues to attract massive government investment of over £250 million in our local hospital, schools, housing and jobs".

Stephen McPartland MP met some of the newest and longest serving staff during his recent visit to Barclays in Stevenage.  Stephen was shown behind the scenes by branch manager Helen McAndrew and also heard from other staff about the help provided to personal and business customers.  Ryan Whitworth, who is Senior Business Manager for the local area, provided further details on the assistance provided to small and medium business, including the hosting of regular business networking events held.

Staff also provide a lot of support the Stevenage community and a branch day in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support is being held on March 23rd.

MP Stephen McPartland visited a Stevenage resident who recently had a replacement heating system under a Government scheme that provides grants for home heating and insulation.

Stephen was able to see first-hand the impact the scheme is having and commented, “Rising energy prices are a major worry for all of us, but the best way to cope is by making our homes more energy efficient. This resident's new heating system has made an enormous difference to her level of comfort - and has given her the added peace of mind that she can afford to keep her house warm all year round."

Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, is heading a campaign because of local concerns about the proposed expansion of Luton Airport:

I am leading this campaign because I know many local people value Luton Airport but are very concerned about the new plans they are consulting on, which could lead to an increase in passenger numbers from around 10million passengers per year to 18 million passengers per year. This is a huge increase and we are already suffering from the noise generated by overflying aircraft and this will only increase. I am concerned that the projections always factor in quieter aircraft, but from my own experience of living in Stevenage and directly under the flight path, the planes do not seem particularly quiet to me when they are coming in to land or to the many constituents who contact me about aircraft noise particularly in the summer months. It is important that any increase in capacity has to include noise reduction measures, so our quality of life locally is not affected.

I am also not convinced that the consultation process is fair as Luton Borough Council owns the airport and they will be responsible for agreeing the planning permission for it to expand. This is a direct conflict of interest and the plans must be fully scrutinised and decided by an independent party. I will be contacting the Secretary of State for Transport to ask her if she can intervene and ensure any planning decisions are comprehensively reviewed.

I would urge you to complete the online/paper survey being run by one of our local papers, the Comet, and to get involved in the consultation process so the views of all local people are taken into account before we have a plane flying over Stevenage every two minutes.

Stephen McPartland

Stephen McPartland,Member of Parliament for Stevenage has a keen interest in technology issues and has warned that new legislation from the European Commission proposes to charge mobile phone users £400 to use the internet while they are in Europe.

Stephen said “MEPs will vote tomorrow on new mobile roaming regulations, which have the potential to turn back the clock on our mobile phone technology by ten years, as they make it too expensive to access the internet while abroad.  We all welcomed the Government’s commitment to force Europe to reduce roaming charges and prices are coming down for texts and voice calls, but there is a potential disaster rushing our way as the Commission has proposed new regulations to cap the cost of using the internet on our mobiles when any of us travel in Europe.

This sounds like a great idea, but they have proposed capping wholesale charges at €100 for one gigabyte ('1GB') of data and retail rates up to five times the wholesale rate, which would mean consumers paying upwards of €500, approximately £420 for 1GB compared with paying under £10 for 1GB at home.  This is plainly ridiculous and goes against the European Commission’s commitment to reduce the difference between domestic and roaming data usage prices.

Stephen McPartland, Member of Parliament for Stevenage, presented the award at this year’s Astrium Rocket Science Project challenge for the young apprentice engineers.

Stephen said, “I was delighted to be invited to see the projects and make the award to the winning team. I was very impressed with both teams ability to design and build a pulse jet engine in such a small timescale and it is clear testament to the talent, passion, intelligence and enthusiasm of the apprentices, who are a credit to Astrium and Stevenage.”

The winning team of five young apprentices, based at Astrium’s facility in Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, called themselves Black Arrow, after the British rocket developed in the 1960s, and designed and manufactured a working pulse jet engine for World Space Week 2011 - real rocket science.