I hope that you are able to enjoy the glorious weather which we’re being bathed in across Furness at the moment.

Of course, with the nice weather and sustained periods of intense heat, there are always consequences. It is important during this spell of a heatwave that we all look out for one and another and I would recommend you take a look at the government advice on how to stay cool and hydrated indoor and out.

This second bout of very hot weather also reopens the debate around the change in our climate. Last year the UK hosted COP26 in Glasgow. Locally I held a Local Climate Summit, bringing together local leaders and stakeholders with expertise in climate change and climate policy to debate the topic with around a hundred of you in attendance.

I’ll be holding the second ever Furness Climate Summit in October, in Ulverston, and I hope to see some of you there. More on that in the coming weeks and months.

On Thursday, hundreds of local students will receive their AS and A level results. I want to wish everyone who’s taken their exams every success. Especially when one considers that most of these young people’s learning over the last two years or so will have been severely disrupted by Coronavirus related restrictions.

Good luck to you all, and thank you to our amazing tutors and colleges locally in Barrow and Ulverston for providing outstanding environments to learn, regardless of the challenges they’ve faced in doing so.

Speaking of learning, I had the pleasure of calling on PHX training on Rawlinson Street in Barrow this week. Dawn and her team have been able to take advantage of the KickStart scheme with two new members of the team finding employment and gaining training to progress to permanent roles – a great success story of the scheme locally.

Walking along Dalton Road this week, it was fantastic to see some of the over £200,000 of Government’s ‘Welcome Back to the High Street’ funding being well spent on pagodas, benches, and planters outside of Home and Finance, Mario House, and the Town House with planters along the route. It’s made a huge difference to that end of the high street, and my thanks go to Barrow BID, and Barrow BC for delivering this project. It looks great and is already being well-used!

Finally, I’d like to end by plugging my summer surgery tour (again!) which kicks off on Monday at St Aidan’s Community Café from 9:45 and runs all week. The full schedule is viewable at: www.simonfell.org/summer-surgery-tour-2022. I hope to see you there!