Cooper's Commons for February 4th, 2010 - 05:22 pm, Thu 4th Feb 2010
This will be my final Cooper’s Commons column for the Advertiser. With the upcoming general election, I felt it best to take a break from the column until the end of the general election.
I’d like to take this moment to reflect a bit on some of the changes that have happened in West Lancashire since you blessed me with the privilege of being your Member of Parliament.
I’ve had the pleasure of officially opening the new Health Centre on Ormskirk that provides much needed health services to the people of West Lancashire. The West Lancashire Health Centre can now provide all needed health services, including urgent care and dental facilities, so that residents will no longer have to travel into Southport in order to receive medical or dental attention.
We’ve recently seen the opening of new NHS dental services in Upholland where an additional 17,000 new places were added, giving residents much needed support. We’ve gone from having no NHS dentists in West Lancashire, to having over 30,000 new places.
We also now have a planned place for the people of West Lancashire to bury their loved ones. When I became your MP, residents were forced to pay exorbitant prices in order to bury their relatives in far away. At the behest of local residents and members of the local clergy, I worked hard to provide new burial grounds and a crematorium in West Lancashire to allow residents to lay their loved ones to rest nearby. Finally, a new cemetery and crematorium are to be built at a site in Pippin Street, Burscough.
We also now have a Skelmersdale that is in the process of revitalising itself thanks to the Government’s investment into its infrastructure and people. I have secured significant investment into Skelmersdale College that will be able to train our next generation of kids with state-of-the-art equipment. We also have now have plans on the table for a revitalisation of the Skelmersdale city centre that will attract new investment to the area.
Since calling the Skelmersdale Summit in October, we now have a clear path to providing real relief and progress to realise a full Skelmersdale vision of the future.
All this done in only a few short years. I look forward to continuing as your MP because there are still a number of issues that the people of West Lancashire need including an Ormskirk bypass, re-establishing the Burscough Curves, and pressing the Lancashire County Council for a more sensible gritting policy during winter time.
To see more about what has been done and what I’m currently working on in West Lancashire, please visit my new website, http://www.rosiecooper.net or you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. It will allow me to listen to your concerns and easily keep up to date with the news as it happens. If you miss the Cooper’s Commons column, you can also find my blog page there that will be updated each week, letting you know what I’m doing in and around West Lancashire.
I look forward to hearing from you during the campaign and on your doorstep.
Working Hard for the people of West Lancashire