Tracey Crouch

However I must confess that as I went on the tour and saw the big boxes on the conveyor belt ready to be labelled, caged and sent here, there and everywhere, I remembered that when I was little I wrote to Jim’ll Fix It asking to be a parcel. Sadly he never replied and I was heartbroken to see someone else do it in a Royal Mail van. I also never got to drive a train…or meet Shakin Stevens…

Yesterday I met a lady who has been a volunteer in Medway for 40 years! What a star and an inspiration. She was one of the many people who volunteer at Hands Rochester Volunteer Bureau providing a valuable transportation and befriending service across Chatham and Rochester. I met some “befrienders” and listened to the stories about their friends (I much prefer saying that than clients). Their dedication and commitment to their voluntary work is amazing and, sadly, much required. I really enjoyed meeting them and I shall be writing on Monday to Medway Council and Lloyds TSB Foundation to thank them for enabling the Bureau to function as well as it does thanks to their funding.

I am sure that many people were as shocked as me after the recent report by BBC South East exposed bogus charity clothing collectors operating in Chatham and other parts of Kent and Medway. On this occasion they were doing so under the guise of Breakthrough Breast Cancer but other charities have been victims in the past. The recent flyer for Breakthrough Breast Cancer looks perfectly normal – it uses corporate branding, there is no dodgy spelling, it has a registered charity number and outlines the contribution from each bag to charity. The only problem is, the leaflet is fake, and the only way someone would know that is if they rang the number on the flyer. If I am totally honest, I would have been duped by the flyer.

However the impact of these bogus collections on genuine charities is immense. Not only does it mean people become more sceptical about donating clothes in collection bags, but it deprives them of much needed funds. I have tabled some written parliamentary questions on this matter including how much it does cost charities each year, but the estimate banded around on the Internet is that it is somewhere in the region of £5 – 14m per year. This is shocking but not as much as perceived lack of interest from enforcement agencies. Because it appears to be such a small crime, it is not a police priority. However given its cost, the organised nature of the crime and the fact that many clothes are being exported for cash, I would say it is very serious indeed.

It was for that reason that I tabled the following motion in Parliament:

“That this House condemns the activities of fraudulent charity clothing bag collectors who abuse the goodwill of those who donate clothes for good causes; recognises that this organised crime is becoming a nationwide issue; expresses concern that these activities undermine the valuable work of genuine charities, depriving them of millions of pounds worth of donations per annum; and calls on the Government to ensure that local police authorities tackle the criminal gangs responsible and facilitate the strict enforcement of the House to House Collections Act 1939 and punishment of those found in breach of the Act”.

I hope to secure a debate in the next few weeks to raise this issue with a Minister direct but I will not rest until this issue is being taken seriously by the authorities and people can donate to charity collections safe in the knowledge that it is genuine.

It was over a month since I last blogged so I thought I’d quickly recap on some of the things I have been up to.

Just before I took some time off I went to see the amazing group of volunteers on the Medway SOS Bus. The Bus provides an excellent service to those who may have found that their good night out in the pubs and clubs has not quite gone to plan and are unwell, injured or simply feeling vulnerable and need some advice or help to get home. I was really impressed with the team on board, some of whom travel from as far as Ashford to help, and they clearly provide an essential service that can not only reduce the need for blue light services but can also prevent people needing to go to A&E. I had left before things hotted up but I understand that night they had 20 plus people needing their help.

My last engagement before the break was to attend the opening of the new Aylesford Football Pavilion with Ron “Chopper” Harris. What a great man and what an excellent new football club house. As someone who travels around the County with my girls team, I can say categorically it is by far the best facility I have seen in Kent.

I then took a two week staycation at home in Aylesford and my partner David and I caught up with friends, family, house administration and DIY – it was not our ideal holiday but it needed to be done!

Once back, the priority was to go through the post and emails that had accumulated in my absence. Thankfully my wonderful staff had dealt with most casework in my absence but there were a mountain of reports and papers to read when I returned to my desk in Westminster. Luckily I managed to get through them quite quickly before returning to the constituency for more meetings and an extra surgery.

One absolutely fascinating meeting I had was with a charity that is about to be entirely based in Aylesford called Computers4Africa. In this global age of technology where we can’t move for things that bleep, that instant communication with people all over the world is a requirement not a luxury, and that new year 7s are told to have a laptop as required by their new secondary school, it is difficult to appreciate that our old desktop PCs are so enthusiastically received by many in Africa. Computers4Africa clean data from old PCs and send them to countries, such as Tanzania, where they are given to schools and communities to use. The best story I heard was that they were being donated to schools where people were being trained to become ICT teachers so they themselves then learn how to build a computer before going on to teach what they’ve learned. That is sustainability in action! Whilst I only had a preliminary meeting with the charity and am very much looking forward to seeing their warehouse where they clean the computers of data and prepare them for shipment. If anyone has a PC they would like to donate, their details are on their website and I know it will be gratefully received.

So now we are back in Parliament for two weeks before the Conference Season. Yesterday’s debate on the Alternative Vote was certainly a feisty affair and although I voted in favour of the Bill at second reading, I have severe reservations about the date of the referendum (hence why signed the Early Day Motion). There were 74 people down to speak in yesterday’s debate and not all got called. It will be interesting to see what happens at Committee Stage, where each clause gets discussed (in theory anyway), and how many people get a chance to speak in those debates.

I have celebrated the honour of being put on the list of Top MP blogs by changing the layout of my blog! The new template design provided by Blogger is amazingly easy to use and despite temptation I shall refrain from playing with it too often. I shall also try to do the Total Politics award justice by updating it on a more regular basis!