The Hundred Parishes Society and the launch of its new website

This week I received notification that the Hundred Parishes Society website which can be found by visiting http://www.hundredparishes.org.uk, has been officially launched. The Hundred Parishes Society is an organisation which has been set up to increase awareness of just over a hundred administrative parishes, some of which are in my constituency, and which fall within an area of approximately 450 square miles of northwest Essex, northeast Hertfordshire and southern Cambridgeshire. The website provides information about each of these parishes so that people in the area can enjoy and care for the places in which they live.

This part of the country is largely unknown apart from by those who live in the region but in fact each of these parishes retain a unique character which is enhanced by attractive belts of countryside. This makes the region a very pleasant place to live and work. The area boasts an interesting stock of over 6,000 listed buildings and I am pleased to see that the Society’s website has a section on local attractions, walks and events taking place throughout the year. The website also includes historical details about each of the parishes which will interest history enthusiasts. I am a firm supporter of the Society’s work and I hope that my constituents will visit its website and support its cause.

Constituents Beware!

I wanted to draw the attention of my constituents to a scam which is in operation at the moment and has defrauded people of significant amounts of money. The scam involves someone ringing up a person pretending to be from a computer company offering a fix for an alleged virus that the person has and then demanding a fee for the fix. Scammers have also been responsible for convincing people of the need to fix a problem on their computer, and having gained access to the computer remotely, they have installed a virus which feeds back information to the hacker about personal banking details which are then used to abstract money from peoples’ accounts. I urge my constituents to be wary when they receive phone calls from people offering computer services and never to reveal bank details or provide remote access to their computer to the caller, unless they are a trusted source.

Website launched to gather evidence from NHS workers: www.freedomtospeakup.org.uk

This week I was pleased to hear that a website called http://www.freedomtospeakup.org.uk has been launched as part of the Freedom to Speak up Review which is looking at encouraging an open and honest reporting culture in the NHS. This website enables people working in the NHS who have raised a concern whilst at work to provide feedback about how their concern was handled and whether they thought it was dealt with appropriately. This Review follows the Mid Staffordshire Hospital Public Enquiry and the information provided by people online will feed into the Review. It is clear from the findings of the Mid Staffordshire public enquiry that there were chronic failings in the NHS during the Labour years about the ability to raise concerns about the NHS and I encourage constituents who work within the NHS to respond to the Website providing details of their experiences. I understand the closing date for submissions online is 10 September.