Mail Weekly Column: 25 March 2024

This week, I submitted to the Cabinet Office the formal application for Barrow Royal Town status, for review by His Majesty the King.

I included supportive letters from local enterprises and stakeholders, survey entries from local residents, and a short promotional video which highlights the reasons Barrow deserves to be a Royal Town. Thank you all – individuals and businesses – who contributed with such overwhelming support and encouragement. I will continue to push hard for this visible acknowledgement for our town.

I also attended a number of meetings – in my roles as Anti-Fraud Champion and Rural Connectivity Champion – with business ranging from TikTok to Openreach. At all times I was mindful of the issues raised by many of you about being better connected and better protected, the latter applying especially to the young.

I was pleased to sit down with Homes England too to discuss bringing new homes to Furness, both to support the wider work being undertaken by Team Barrow - with £24million pledged from them to deliver Marina Village - and to meet the need for affordable and starter homes across South Cumbria more widely.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Home Affairs Committee discussed with the Minister for Crime, Policing and Fire, the Rt Hon Chris Philp MP, standards in the Fire Service. The service is experiencing many of the same challenges currently facing the police: poor behaviour and misogyny by a very few individuals is tarnishing the reputations of thousands of dedicated and hard-working firefighters who unselfishly put themselves in danger to protect the rest of us. It was reassuring to hear the Minister’s plans to restore public confidence.

On Thursday I raced back on the early train to meet the Levelling Up Minister, Jacob Young. He was in Ulverston to see the Roxy’s rejuvenation following its successful bid for funding from the Government’s Community Ownership fund. I was delighted to show him both the Laurel and Hardy Museum (he is a massive fan!) and the Cinema, so he could see that how the grant is enabling important works on the building so that it can remain at the heart of the community for many years to come.

We also visited Cooke’s Studios in Barrow, home of Signal Film and Media, who I am delighted to say have secured more than £900,000 from the next round of Community Ownership Fund grants.

Signal is a remarkable organisation, and this will enable them to transform their space into a big, bright, open art centre with a café, serving the whole community. It will also provide a permanent home for the Sankey Photography Archive, an incredible collection of photos of Barrow, Furness and wider North West spanning 70 years of our history.

We used many of those very photos to support our Royal Barrow application, showing scenes from our history – local people, shops, workers, Vickers’ Naval Airship at Cavendish Dock – all of which help us to reflect on our past and inspire our future.

Speaking of past and future, I was pleased to listen to South Walney Infant School students’ Poetry by Heart club; visit the Dock Museum to celebrate English Tourism Week; and on Saturday to watch the Sea Cadets demonstrate clearly that, alongside their seafaring skills, they are also developing leadership and teamwork abilities for later life.

A busy week, but one that ends with a pause to pay tribute to Princess Catherine as she displayed remarkable bravery in being open about her cancer diagnosis. She is one of the most public of public figures, but is also a mother of three small children struggling with upsetting news. She and Prince William have faced the most awful rumours over the last few weeks - and I hope that she’s now given the space to rest and recover. I have sent a card of well-wishes on behalf of my constituents to Kensington Palace.