Over the last few days there have been large swathes of the Romsey and Southampton North constituency without water, due to the latest technical failure at Southern Water's Testwood pumping station. Alongside Councillors at Hampshire County Council, TVBC and fellow Southampton MP Darren Paffey, I met their Chief Executive on Thursday, a regular catch up meeting which was inevitably dominated by the latest water outage.
Back in October I asked Southern Water about their Winter preparedness, and I know they have a significant investment underway at Testwood. But not only is unacceptable that these issues keep occurring, but their deliveries of bottled water to priority customers have once again been woeful. I could be found on Thursday evening at Fleming Park picking up bottled water for North Baddesley residents on the PSR but who even by yesterday evening had not had a delivery at all.
In Parliament this week I have sent some time in the Education Centre talking to pupils from Cantell School who were here on a visit. It is always great to have the opportunity to do a Q&A with local pupils and teachers, and their questions were excellent. It followed a visit to Longparish School last Friday, to talk to their Year 5 & 6 pupils, and Braishfield School were also in Parliament quite recently. I always think Primary pupils have the best unfiltered questions, sometimes a little off the wall which makes them even more interesting.
Last weekend I was at a wonderful event in Chilworth Village Hall with the WI and the Thornden Community Wind Band playing Christmas carols and tunes, the Romsey Youth Choir Christmas Concert, saving Santa in the Market Place on Friday evening, and the Christmas Market on Sunday. We are lucky to have so much going on in the town and I am looking forward to Carols in the Market Place next week. I would just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas.