Cllr Mark A Kirk

This week has been so busy I forgot to blog about the event I attended this morning! Greg Gough, the council's Tobacco Control co-ordinator, and his team have been out at Asda today offering stop smoking advice and support. The team had invited me down to take a look at the work they do and judging by the number of people they spoke to they are clearly doing a great job.  The team told me that those who seek and receive help are four times more likely to succeed and stop smoking than those who try and go it alone. Greg also told me about plans to set up schemes at Fred Gough school and North Lindsey College to have student advisors trained to give advice to those students who smoke if it is affecting their education. It was a very enjoyable and informative visit.

It has been an extremely busy week, so it's difficult to know where to start when doing a round up of the week!  This morning I was interviewed by Andy Comfort for BBC Radio Humberside about council tax. The BBC wanted to do the interview last week but I was away on Regional Transport Board business so instead it was down for today. All of the local council leaders have been asked about budgets and I explained today that we are committed to providing excellent front line services, looking after our staff and investing where we can. The interview went well I thought and I was able to get the points across such as the £500,000 budget for potholes.

Earlier this week I visited Scawby and Hibaldstow with Scunthorpe County Constituency candidate Nic Dakin to take a look at some of the projects going on in that part of the region.  There have been a lot of Labour successes - the recent announcement that temporary classrooms will be replaced at Scawby school, patched up potholes on the roads and also the good work on recycling. We found a plastic bottle on our travels so decided to make use of the excellent recycling facilities in Hibaldstow to help do our bit!

I came back to the office on Wednesday to find out local firm Skymark are investing £10-million and creating 70 new jobs which is fantastic news. North Lincs seems to be bucking the national trend with many firms looking to invest. Long may it continue!

There is a story in today's Scunthorpe Telegraph suggesting there will be no decision made on the Humber Bridge tolls this side of a General Election.

I am pleased the government has not dismissed the notion of removing the Humber bridge tolls or significantly reducing the cost.  The campaign has already been effective in preventing a further increase to the cost of crossing and I welcome Sadiq Khan’s recent announcement to stop further rises over the next 18 months.  That means five years since the last increase which can only be good for local businesses.

Theresa Villiers, the Tory spokeswoman for Transport, has already admitted looking at the Humber Bridge will not be a priority should the Conservatives form the next government.  I will be seeking assurances from Sadiq Khan that a Labour government, if elected, will make the Humber Bridge tolls a priority.

This is not the end of the campaign and we must not lose focus. I will be working with Ian Cawsey MP for Brigg and Goole, alongside our campaign partners, pushing whoever is in government to give a commitment to look at this very important issue.