Article for The Clarion

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 1st Apr 2003

In my last article I wrote about the proposals put forward by the Office of Fair Trading to deregulate community pharmacies. Since then I have taken more petitions signed by Upton residents to the Government and I have spoken in a debate on the importance of retaining our community pharmacies. Although a final decision has yet to be made, Patricia Hewitt, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, has stated that 'we need a balanced package of measures' and 'that simply deregulating the market will not enable pharmacists to fulfil their present role and the wider role envisaged for them in the NHS Plan'.

A number of Upton residents have contacted me about problems with high hedges and I was recently in the House of Commons supporting a Private Member's Bill on this issue. A balance has to be struck between having privacy on one side of a hedge and a possible severe loss of amenity such as daylight on the other side. The proposals make it possible for one neighbour to lodge a complaint about a hedge over two metres high, if all efforts to achieve agreement between neighbours has failed. There will then effectively be a mediation process through the local council planning department. The Bill has cross party support and the backing of the Government. I have also urged the Government to provide adequate resources to local councils for this new function. The Bill has now achieved its Second Reading, but still has some way to go.

I have also been very proactively supporting another Private Member's Bill on the control of fireworks.

I was sorry to miss the Town Council's Annual Assembly but I was delayed in London because I particularly wanted to speak in the Second Reading of the Anti-Social Behaviour Bill. I meet so many people who want to see 'bad' behaviour tackled but I am not convinced that this Bill will provide the panacea. I really feel that at the end of the day we need to see more bobbies on the beat and more neighbourhood wardens as a uniformed presence to act as a deterrent to the wide range of nuisance behaviour from which all our communities suffer. I was joined by many other speakers calling for more police. The Bill includes a wide range of measures to deal with crack houses, replica guns, truanting, noise, graffiti, litter, and it provides mechanisms for enforcing parental responsibility for children. While I find that I agree with many parts of the Bill, I do have a number of reservations which I will be raising again in Committee.