'Shining example of Wrexham’s community coming together'

MP for Wrexham

This past week, the news from Ukraine, the UK Government’s support and the amazingly kind assistance provided by people here in Wrexham have been high on my agenda. Like many in Wrexham, I was shocked by Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and so I am pleased that the UK Government’s response has been swift and deep, with targeted sanctions on Russia’s economy, financial institutions and President Putin, alongside military support for Ukraine and our NATO allies in eastern European, and humanitarian assistance.

Closer to home, I welcome the work of Anna Buckley and the Polish Integration Support Centre (PISC), who launched an appeal to gather supplies for Ukrainian refugees arriving at the Polish border. The Polish have a long history of welcoming those in need and the PISC’s appeal will make a huge difference to the lives of many of those displaced by the war in Ukraine. Highlighting the success of the appeal, Anna has had to find additional storage space in Wrexham because of the huge number of items donated! On hearing about these issues with storage, I put a call-out to businesses across Wrexham to find Anna more space and I am very grateful to all the businesses that responded, with several, including Wockhardt, providing much needed additional capacity and volunteers at less than a moment’s notice. Thank you to all those that were able to help – this is a shining example of Wrexham’s community coming together in support of such an important cause!

With the Defence Select Committee – a committee of Parliament that scrutinises the UK’s Defence policy – I was honoured to visit Scotland last week to learn more about our nation’s Naval capabilities. As part of the visit, the Defence Select Committee visited Rosyth and Govan dockyards. Both dockyards are central to the Royal Navy’s ship building capacity, so it was important for the Committee to visit to better understand how our Navy is changing.

Importantly, it was also useful to hear about the local importance of both dockyards to their respective local areas. Our Armed Forces, and the defence sector more widely, are really important to the UK’s regional economies and prosperity, and this is certainly true for both Rosyth and Govan dockyards with both contributing massively to the local economy in which they sit. The defence sector has a similar impact here in North Wales: defence companies with a local footprint, such as Raytheon and Qioptiq, are also hugely important parts of our regional economy, which is why I am also proud to champion the UK’s defence sector.

Finally, I have written, once again, to the Welsh Government to ask for further information on Wales’ new Phosphates Strategy, this follows letters sent at the end of last year which have still not been responded to. Unfortunately, whilst the aims of the new strategy are laudable, the implications on small and large-scale developments in Wrexham have been hugely detrimental. Last week, the Leader of Wrexham Council said of the situation that, “if we’re not careful we’ll have serious issues with investments, developers and projects standing still… it will have a massive impact on the economy of Wales if it’s not resolved quickly.” Therefore, I am urging Ministers in Cardiff to provide clarity on this as soon as possible, otherwise Wrexham and Wales will be held back.

As always if you are resident in Wrexham and need my assistance with any local or national issue, please make contact with me by emailing sarah.atherton.mp@parliament.uk.