Happy new year to all from Westminster, after some wonderful festivities, fantastic church services – it’s been a gloriously sunny return to Parliament with clear blue skies and the sun shining – although the freezing weather has been something to contend with. I hope everyone is keeping safe on the roads and warm with snow around and chilly temperatures for the return to school and college.
Coming into 2026, I know the ongoing lack of mobile connectivity is a hugely frustrating issue for almost all of us across East Grinstead, Uckfield, and the villages and this is something you know I’ve been working on and meeting with multiple phone providers on including Three and Vodafone to make some changes. Whether a resident or one of our hard-working businesses, this is causing ongoing misery as our lives, work and families need our phones to be able to connect and for us to be more contactable. On my first day back in Westminster, I was very pleased to have the opportunity to speak in the chamber on exactly this topic, representing residents in this key debate and sharing the views of all who have generously taken the time to complete my survey on my website.
I know residents and businesses still understandably remain very concerned about both the Crowborough Training Camp and Copthorne Hotel community impacts to our area. I hope you saw ahead of Christmas my update regarding our small win where the Ministry of Defence has agreed to secure an alternative site for our Cadets and the Home Office delay on safe, legal & compliant challenges at the camp. Nus Ghani MP and I are back to work on this already and we will be sharing updates as soon as we can to ensure residents are fully up to date with everything we’re working on and any progress.
As you may know my pre-Christmas updates, I managed to take the opportunity to speak in the House of Commons regarding the challenges at Weir Wood and Ardingly Reservoirs in my constituency. Water resources continue to drive significant correspondence on from constituents regarding their concerns and worries about the water supply dependability. As a reminder, I wrote to the Secretaries of State for DEFRA and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero regarding water shortages and DEFRA’s response can be seen here - https://www.mimsdavies.org.uk/news/mims-davies-mp-shares-defra-response-regarding-ardingly-reservoir-and-balcombe-oil-exploration. I will be sharing further updates with you all as soon as I have them. Rest assured; I’m on the case.
We’ve some new year changes happening both with staffing and my MP office so please bear with us. If you’ve any personal casework you’d like assistance with, or would like to share your thoughts on Government policy or national issues, or would like to invite me to join or highlight your event, organisation or activity please do email me at [email protected] as I love joining in locally on what matters to you, your family and see what is going on across our wonderful, vibrant and positive community.
