Frank's Westminster Blog

As I write this column almost £900,000 has been raised for Macmillan Cancer Support from this year’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning. Birkenhead’s residents and councillors did their bit at the Rock Ferry Library on Saturday by raising over £350. This great effort shows the extent to which locally and nationally people are keen to contribute to causes with which they strongly associate. Most of us have family or close friends who have benefited enormously from the

Rock Ferry’s Councillors and I met with the head of Magenta Living on Saturday.   We pressed for action to address the damp, disrepair and mice infestation that has blighted the Dacre Hill estate. Much to our disappointment, Magenta Living were not keen on allowing residents themselves to attend the meeting.   I began the meeting by pointing out how wonderful Magenta Living’s offices are looking, following their refurbishment. I then expressed my wish for local...

My office and I have been working hard to help local residents, some of whom report problems which have left them almost penniless. Since my last column we have helped to resolve a few of these problems. The first involved HMRC, who had told a local resident working for low wages that he owed them £3,300 in overpaid Working Tax Credit. He and I were gobsmacked by this eye watering sum of money. Having disputed it, though, HMRC last week accepted that they had made an error. They have...

A large number of Birkenhead residents contributed to last year’s cross-party inquiry, which I co-chaired with the Bishop of Truro, into the rising need for Britain’s food banks. The inquiry came to Birkenhead for its first evidence gathering session, and dozens of the town’s schools and churches sent in written evidence. Thanks to this input we were able to produce a report called Feeding Britain last December. Since then the Feeding Birkenhead campaign has been putting...