'I was pleased to tell the Prime Minister about the Love Your Local Market campaign'

MP for Clwyd South

This month, I welcomed the announcement that Wrexham was successful in its bid for City Status. This is excellent news for the town of Wrexham, the wider County Borough, and North Wales as a whole. Wrexham and Clwyd South’s strong cultural identity, mean that we are well placed to reap the benefits of City Status, and I am particularly excited about the opportunity this gives us to celebrate the amazing history, language, and culture of our part of Wales and share them with a wider audience.

In my role as Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Markets Group, I was very glad to visit the market at Tŷ Pawb in Wrexham to celebrate the Love Your Local Market campaign with David Preston, the Chief Executive of NABMA (the National Association of British Market Authorities) and to meet Dave Cupit, the Operations Manager at Tŷ Pawb, where we had the opportunity to speak to market traders and learn more about their experience. I was also pleased to tell the Prime Minister about the Love Your Local Market campaign recently and receive his support.

On Monday 16th May, it was a great pleasure to meet Angela Rees and Paul Thomas, gardening volunteers for the Friends of Chirk Station, just before I caught the train down to Westminster. They and their colleagues do a fantastic job in keeping the station looking so beautiful. The Friends are adding new planters, more plants, and a special display to mark HM The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. They are always looking for new volunteers so please contact them via their Facebook page - Friends of Chirk Station.

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Broughton Community Partnership & Brynteg Community House Café on 13th May. It was wonderful to meet with volunteers who do an amazing job making the café a great asset to the local community. It was also good to hear from some of the café's regular visitors about how much it means to them. The dedication of the volunteers is very impressive, and I would like to thank them for their continuous hard work!

That same day, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet the Paliura family (who my office helped bring over to Wales) and Maryna Ustymenko who have fled the conflict in Ukraine with Russia and travelled to Trevor and Llangollen respectively. I was delighted to hear that since arriving they have been made to feel very welcome. I also want to thank Sarah O’Brien and Kim Evans and their families for welcoming the Paliura family and Maryna into their homes and for the kindness they have shown them since fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. My office is always available to help others from Ukraine in the same way in the future.

It was also a great pleasure to visit the Archwood Group and meet with members of the team at their factory in Chirk. They are an excellent example of a long-established family business, and it was a great opportunity to learn more about their big strides towards renewable energy, as well as their success as a company with rapidly growing sales. I look forward to watching them continue their strong growth in the years ahead.

Following the Local Elections on 5th May, I’ve written to all new and returning County Councillors in Clwyd South who were elected for Wrexham and Denbighshire, as well as to all Town and Community Councils. I’m looking forward to working with them to make Clwyd South an even better place for all our constituents, regardless of party politics.

I continue to send out a monthly e-newsletter so constituents can read more about my activities in Clwyd South and Westminster. If you’d like to start receiving this monthly MP’s e-newsletter, you can sign up using the following link: www.simonbaynes.co.uk/sign-simons-e-newsletter