I met Ed Garrett, Chief Executive Designate at the Two Rivers Medical Practice, who introduced me to Dr. Ayesha Tuzhara and Claire Pemberton, the Primary Care Lead.

Two Rivers medical practice is growing rapidly and has had successes in patient care. The practice is looking for funding to upgrade their service to keep up with patient demands.

We talked about the rising demand for mental health services, with about 50% of patients attending for mental health reasons. Ed Garrett also raised the level of physical inactivity in the Town as an issue, as well as access to dentistry.

I am continuing to push for better funding for our core services in Ipswich. I also recently asked the Department for Health and Social Care about obligating dentists to work for the NHS for 5-10 years after qualifying, to address the serious shortage of NHS appointments we have currently.

I am pleased to be supporting Ipswich Borough Council’s bid for the Levelling Up Fund. IBC have earmarked two projects which have a lot of potential, one of which is Broomhill Lido.

The Broomhill Lido has been closed for 19 years. The prospect of this pool reopening would be very exciting. The Lido would get a new gym, changing areas, high diving boards, and technology to keep it open longer hours. They are also shuttle buses planned to reduce the impact of parking on neighbouring streets. This pool could be the heart of the Broomhill area again, and would have huge positive impact on the local area. In terms of increasing access to a community facility, I think this project goes right to the heart of levelling up. It would be a great investment for the area and I will be lobbying Ministers to give this the best chance at success.

Thank you to Helen Pluck from IBC and Andrew Wilesmith, Operations Manager of Sports and Leisure, for giving me a tour of the Lido facilities. I will be working hard to push for these improvements to the pool and hopefully our bid will be successful.

Community assets like the Gainsborough Sports Centre make sport and exercise accessible and play a huge role in getting people fit and active. We all know the health benefits associated with this, so upgrades to make the sports centre more usable and attractive would have significant benefits for the Town.

The sports centre upgrades will bring 8 sports courts, facilitating mass participation, as well as a health and wellbeing hub and exercise studios. With new high-grade sports pitches for football, Gainsborough Sports Centre will be hosting not only sport and exercise but also community events.

If the bid is accepted, the gym will be made 4 times bigger. This is a significant set of upgrades when it comes to ensuring community access to fitness, and I will by pushing Ministers to see the benefits of this project for Ipswich.

Frugalpac are an Ipswich based company with global reach and a really innovative product. I’m incredibly proud to have this world leading business in Ipswich. I visited in February and have heard about all their plans to expand. It’s great to see such an important and innovative company employing local people in Ipswich.

The Frugalpac paper bottle is the only one of its kind, reducing the carbon footprint of bottles and presenting a real and brilliant solution to excess waste from packaging. The Frugalpac bottle uses 6 times less carbon than a glass bottle and four times less water. It’s also five times lighter, which reduces carbon footprint in transport as well as costs!

Phillip is a great wine lover and is working with Frugalpac for his new wine product. As a customer Phillip explained just how impressive this product is and how innovations like this are the way forward.

A great chance to speak to the team at Inspire Suffolk and the young people involved in their youth program. This project focuses on developing young people’s skills to prepare them for the world of work. As well as paving the way for success and future employment, this program brings young people together to talk about other topics like their mental health. For example, today they raised reliance on public transport – especially when this is unreliable and expensive, and how this can impact employment prospects.

Making sure that local people are able to take full advantage of high-paid job opportunities means making sure our people have the right skills. This project prepares young people for their futures, giving them the tools they need as successful and independent adults thriving in employment.

A great discussion here today with the young people at Inspire Suffolk, the future of Ipswich looks bright!

Thank you to Terry Baxter and Jay Wallace-Lagan from Inspire Suffolk Prince’s Trust Qualifications.