David Johnston MP - April 2023

Whether you live in Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford, Faringdon or any of the 64 villages I represent, my constituency-wide survey on local health services is currently open. It’s just 8 questions long and should only take about 5 minutes – no more than 10 – and you can complete it until 17th April on my website: https://www.david-johnston.org.uk/health. 
Increasing our health services relative to the population growth we’ve had is one of the things I have campaigned on most since being elected 3 years ago – particularly the need for more GP surgeries. I’ve spoken about this in 19 debates in parliament and had numerous meetings with the local councils, local health leaders, ministers and local people about it. The more people who complete it, the stronger the message we can send.

I held a successful inaugural meeting of my Science and Technology Forum for the companies we have at Harwell, Milton Park and elsewhere which George Freeman, the Minister at the new Science Department, spoke at. He and I are very keen to promote what is going on here more as it is of both national and international significance – and we discussed some good ideas to do so. Watch this space!

I’ll be holding an Apprenticeship Fair for local young people and employers across the constituency at Didcot Civic Hall on 24th April. I visit at least 1 school and at least 1 employer almost every week (and have been to 600 odd organisations overall since being elected) and I hear regularly that young people don’t know the apprenticeships open to them and that employers struggle to recruit enough apprentices. I’m hopeful this fair will help. 

My campaigning on behalf of the local AEAT Pensioners has been bearing fruit: the National Audit Office has published its report on the case following my request and Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee recently held a hearing on it, with their own report to come. 

A few highlights from many visits in the last month. It was good to be interviewed on Wallingford Radio which has been going great guns since it got its FM license. You can listen live on 107.3FM. I had a great visit to the new wedding dress shop in Wantage, About You Bridal, set up by Sharon to make the process of buying dresses, shoes and accessories as stress-free as possible. It’s also home to Gallery Cakes, set up by Nicki, so that you can order your wedding cake too! 

It was very good to see The Place in the Corn Exchange in Faringdon, having seen the space when it was just an idea, which supports parents and their children under 5. I also met Keith and Sue to talk about the Faringdon Day Centre and will be back to visit that soon. And I’m pleased to say Michael Gove was very impressed with the Greencore Construction houses I took him to see in Southmoor.

As ever, if I can help with anything then do contact me via [email protected]

• Postal Address: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
• Tel: 020 7219 6350
• Email: [email protected]
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