By Mark Tami, MP for Alyn & Deeside

The last week has been busy in Alyn and Deeside, and at Westminster. Severe weather has caused flooding and major disruption across North Wales, as Storm Christoph struck Flintshire.

My office has been working hard to make sure everyone who has been affected can access the help they need. Mancot and Sandycroft were really badly hit, and this isn't the first time.

I've spoken with Flintshire County Council and other agencies and I am pushing for the major drainage upgrade our villages need. I will be organising a public meeting on this issue, if you would like to be involved, please contact me at tamim@parliament.uk or on 01244 836350.

Flintshire foodbank is doing vital work in making sure nobody goes hungry in our community - a harder job than ever before with the pandemic's impact. Jack Sargeant MS and I have donated the unspent sponsorship money from our Christmas Card competition - £231.10 to help out. Thank you to all the local businesses who contributed.

Meanwhile at Broughton, Unite the Union have negotiated a deal with Airbus to protect jobs during the pandemic, which is currently out to ballot.

This will see a reduced working week with the company paying a proportion towards the lost wages as a result, and will avoid compulsory redundancies in those sectors of the workforce where not enough voluntary redundancies were found.

I fully back the deal and congratulate Unite convenor Daz Reynolds on securing it, however this cannot be a long term solution.

The UK Government must come forward with a sector specific deal like the US and Europe have for their industries and I will continue to push for this.

Down in Westminster I joined the Samaritans for an online drop-in event on Monday. This time of year can be hard without coronavirus, and it's okay to not feel okay. If you're feeling low, please reach out to Samaritans - you can call free from any phone, including phone boxes, on 116123.

Also there was a big vote on protecting our countryside. The Government recently moved to allow banned pesticides to be used which are a threat to bees.

Bees are important not just for pollinating wildflowers but also crops - their big decline in the last few years seriously threatens our food security.

Unfortunately Conservative MPs voted to back the move, which will save some sugar farmers money whilst putting at risk bees and, therefore, other farmers.

The Government also voted to weaken environmental watchdog. At a time when our young people are rightly pressing politicians to do more to protect our planet, Boris Johnson seems set on doing exactly the opposite.