It’s been a fairly hectic period, notwithstanding the very welcome May Bank Holiday weekend which saw my beloved Reading Royals fail to take advantage of a wonderful opportunity to get back into the Premiership without suffering the vagaries of the playoffs. Last Monday saw me raising the issue of Labour’s expansion of nursery provision in Reading and Berkshire on the floor of the House, on Tuesday I was at Home Affairs Committee hearing powerful evidence from the mother of murdered London teenager Stephen Lawrence, before chairing a meeting of environmental organisations concerned about water quality in Britain.

Campaigners were today celebrating the end of a three year long battle to protect the Kennet water meadows in South West Reading from being earmarked for development in the South East Plan, which covers the period until 2026.

A pilot project developed by the eleven schools in the Whitley Excellence Cluster (WEC) together with the Ufton Court Educational Trust and local MP Martin Salter was presented to Education Secretary Ed Balls last week at a special meeting held in the Department for Children, Schools, and Families.