Tracey Crouch

Yesterday I went to Leybourne Lakes to watch the raising of the Green Flag, which had been awarded to the Lakes for the second year running. The Green Flag, the park equivalent to the Blue Flag, is a prestigious award and is by all accounts quite difficult to achieve. There are 11 Green Flags in the whole of the South East and Tonbridge & Malling have been awarded 2 so they were rightly feeling quite proud of themselves yesterday. Some of the volunteers in the park hoisted the Green Flag before we all gave Daniel, the park manager, a round of applause for his achievement.

After the Green Flag ceremony I joined my campaign manager and others in Larkfield to deliver my latest survey. After my recent sun burning I sensibly applied sun cream at every possible opportunity…my campaign manager was not so clever and is nursing burnt arms today!

I then spent the rest of the afternoon with my family in celebration of my 33rd birthday earlier on in the week. My nephews and neice bought me the new Tottenham shirt so in return I took them to watch Kung Fu Panda, which really was meant as a treat for them…honest! (It was brilliant!!!!)

(Tracey & Adrian Gulvin enjoying Ham, Egg & Chips at the Robin Hood Pub)

Yesterday morning I was invited to join other members of the community to watch years 5 & 6 of Aylesford Primary School perform their school play. Sitting in the audience was the Mayor, the vicar, local councillors, school governors, police officers, residents of the Royal British Legion Village, councillors and myself and we all sat there for nearly two hours enthralled by the wonderful performance. The children told a tale of war time evacuation from London to Caerphilly. It was a brilliantly scripted play with a wonderful musical score, which the children sang their hearts to – including some very brave solo performances. They had one more performance last night and I am sure if it was half as good as it was yesterday morning, then parents will be very proud of their children today. After the play I went to see Councillor Les Wicks, portfolio holder for schools at Medway Council, to raise with him some concerns that parents have raised with me about the proposed merger of Chatham South and Medway Community College into a new academy. One particular concern I raised with Les was how the consultation was being run but he reassured me that there are going to be a number of public meetings where parents will be able to raise their concerns directly to the Council. I would urge parents and pupils to attend these meetings – further information of the dates will be published here shortly.

I joined the Brownies this morning for another Bash the Trash event and the turnout was excellent. I was sent with local Councillors Allan Sullivan and Peter Homewood to tackle Fossington Way which was so bad that I had noticed all the litter as I drove past to meet the Brownies in the first place. It didn’t take us very long to fill our bag and we were glad to get back to base for a glass of squash prepared by Brown Owl.

I then headed up to Lordswood to meet other members of the team and help deliver our latest survey, before going over to Snodland for their annual Carnival. Despite the weather not being as good last year, I think there were more people at this year’s Carnival – and there were definitely more floats, including one which nearly got stuck getting into the park in the first place. It certainly added a bit of drama to the occasion!!

After a quick cup of coffee in Sainsbury’s cafe with my President, I headed up to Kits Coty for an afternoon tea with Maidstone MP Ann Widdecombe. It was great that she could come and as I stood in front of the gathered guests I felt proud that at (hopefully) the start of my Parliamentary career I was able to thank a formidable and much admired neighbouring politician at the end of hers. Ann is a politician who has become popular, well-liked and trusted. Even my mum likes her and if I can capture half Ann’s energy and enthusiasm then I’ll be doing OK.

I spent a long time talking to a variety of people including a now retired GP about the issues he faces as a doctor and how difficult it is to practice, whether you are a GP, a doctor or a nurse, with so many managers trying to run the NHS. A point that was being made by one of the doctors at the Medway Maritime today, as the NHS celebrated its 60th anniversary. After the tea finished I had to go to Lordswood for another meeting before calling it a day.

I was very sad to have missed the Veterans Day in Chatham, but I was listening to the news reports on Radio Kent and was pleased that it appeared to have gone very well.

I went to New Road Primary in Chatham today and saw one of the most amazing school initiatives I’ve seen to date. It is “Skip2Bfit” and was sent up by a Kent based chap called John McCormack, a former boxer and boxing trainer, who has introduced skipping into primary schools as a way of improving academic performance.

The pupils (and teachers) at New Road Primary were having a lot of fun skipping to the Eye of the Tiger when I arrived at 2pm and it wasn’t long before I got roped in (geddit?) to having a go – thankfully I had my plimsolls in my handbag so didn’t have to do it in my heels! I only had a token skip – it is hard to do it properly in a suit – but even after a little while my heart was pumping away. That said I think my biggest worry was that I was going to whack some kid with my skipping rope – not exactly a vote winner!

Anyway, my efforts were token but the efforts of John, Dwain and the others who run Skip2Bfit are full time and hugely impressive. John is absolutely convinced that this initiative helps improve academic performance – and with some reason: in Medway alone it has been proven that it has raised concentration levels and learning ability – and it goes without saying that it helps keep children fit and healthy.

I gave out the certificates at the special assembly at the end, which was followed by a “face off” between the best teacher and the best student, which had all the students (and teaching) cheering along. All in all the whole thing smacks of fun – and how else do you get children engaged in learning and fitness if it is not fun. I enjoyed my little skip but annoyingly I forgot to ask for permission to publish pictures of the children I was skipping with – hence the cropped picture above – but hopefully I will publish more soon.

After an afternoon at New Road Primary, I went to see a parent of two children at Chatham South School. He is very concerned about the proposed merger of Chatham South with Medway Community College. More soon on this…