Dear Santa… A Few Christmas Wishes
Dear Santa,
I hope this letter and my Christmas card find you and your elves well as you prepare for another very busy festive season.
Here in the South Cotswolds, people have been hardworking, community-minded and resilient. I hope we are firmly on your “good” list and that you might indulge us with some carefully chosen gifts - not just for our corner of the country, but for the UK and wider world as well.
Top of my wish list for here is a new replacement GP surgery for Sherston. It is urgently needed to serve the local community and to prevent some 3,500 patients being forced to go to the already-pressured Malmesbury Primary Care Centre. At the same time, please could you help stop the continuing threats to Cirencester Hospital? Our local health services are the backbone of rural communities, and they deserve certainty, investment and proper long-term planning.
Next, Santa, our schools. Children in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire remain short-changed by unfair funding formulas, while families navigating Special Educational Needs and Disabilities face unacceptable delays, bureaucracy and stress. Please deliver fair funding for both mainstream education and SEND, and persuade the Government to finally publish its long-promised SEND reform proposals. Parents, schools and councils cannot plan around empty stockings.
Our high street businesses would also welcome some festive cheer at this crucial time of year. Independent shops, cafés and pubs are the lifeblood of towns such as Cirencester, Cricklade, Fairford, Lechlade, Malmesbury and Tetbury, yet many are struggling to keep their doors open. Liberal Democrat budget proposals to cut business rates and introduce a 5% VAT reduction for hospitality would be welcome gifts, helping local businesses not just survive, but thrive.
For our farming families, Santa, one request stands out above all: please scrap the family farm tax. Passing a working farm from one generation to the next should not be treated as a luxury. Our farmers are stewards of the land and a vital part of the rural economy; they need support, not punishment.
On planning, we ask for reforms that respect our countryside, protect the environment and leave decisions where they belong - with locally accountable councils. Housing and solar development should be shaped by communities, not imposed upon them.
Looking beyond our shores, Britain urgently needs to re-join the EU Customs Union. Removing unnecessary bureaucracy would unblock trade, support small exporters and give our economy the boost it so badly needs.
Finally, Santa, a global wish: may our Prime Minister stand up firmly to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, while standing shoulder to shoulder with President Zelensky in support of a just peace and an urgent end to Putin’s brutal attack on Ukraine.
If you can fit all these onto your sleigh, dear Santa, it will make for a much merrier Christmas for so many here and elsewhere.
Yours very hopefully,
Roz
Photo credit: Photo by Dylan Freedom on Unsplash
A few of the things I've done this week...
✅ A brilliantly interesting morning at Abbey Home Farm near Cirencester, hearing from head grower Andy Dibben about their organic/agroforestry enterprise, supported by the wonderful Woodland Trust. They are pioneering genuinely nature-friendly ways of producing high-nutrient food, available in their farm shop and café. If you can, do please support our local food-growers. We need them!
✅ Dropped in at the Repair Café in Cirencester Baptist Church to meet the skilled men and women who give new life to old stuff. Do check it out – don’t chuck it out! We need to get away from being a throwaway society.
✅ Went to Kemble Station to meet folks from GWR, Western Gateway, Midlands Connect and GCC to celebrate their announcement of direct trains from Swindon & Kemble to the West Midlands after a 20-year absence. In place by 2031, it’s great to see this investment in public transport. (Now we just need the buses to connect to the train station!)
✅ Enjoyed our Christmas party/fundraiser in the Hare Gallery at Cirencester’s Corinium Museum, with special guest Paul Cooper (maybe best known for his starring role in This Country, scripted by his children, Charlie and Daisy May Cooper), followed by drinks and delicious nibbles next door in Jack’s Café. Thanks to all the party members and volunteers who came to celebrate with us – and congrats to those who won in the raffle!
✅ Caught up with teams from two thriving and innovative local businesses, ZeroAvia (hydrogen-powered planes, based at Kemble Airport) and Wild Hydrogen. Who knew the South Cotswolds was such a hotbed of innovation!
✅ Hosted a webinar for our South Cotswolds farmers with the Nature-Friendly Farming Network, to talk about how regenerating soils can help mitigate the effects of flooding and drought. Huge thanks to Eric Walters, Charlotte Hollins, and Debbie Wilkins who came along to share their insights, and to Martin Lines of NFFN.
✅ A couple of All-Party Parliamentary Group meetings this week – Fair Elections and International Conservation.
✅ Went with Cllrs Joe Harris and Mike McKeown to visit the Tunnel House Inn, currently being renovated by Peter Austen, who also owns the pub at the other end of the Sapperton Tunnel, The Bell at Sapperton. Very exciting to see this beautiful old pub coming back to life, due to reopen next spring. But also tough to hear about the huge challenges facing the hospitality sector, with rising costs, and customer levels still recovering post-pandemic. The following day I had the chance to raise a question in the House of Commons on exactly this subject.
✅ Raised some challenging questions with the Battery Storage Coalition about safety concerns in relation to Lime Down.
✅ Dropped in at a Police Staff parliamentary event, hosted by UNISON, to find out more about the budgetary challenges facing Wiltshire Police.
✅ Quick catchup with BBC’s Paul Barltrop to reflect on a year in Parliament, and look ahead to 2026.
✅ Spoke to the pupils at Kemble Primary School about my ocean rowing voyages and environmental work – just love the questions that they come up with!
✅ Excellent event to launch the River Action Agricultural Water Strategy, a report of very practical recommendations.
✅ Met students from Farmor’s School in Fairford, who had come up to Westminster to find out more about how Parliament works.
✅ A very interesting meeting of the Environmental Audit Committee – we had invited proposals for our next inquiry, and received around 200 suggestions. This week we brought in the top 5 to make their pitches – think Dragon’s Den with an environmental twist!
From the Mailbag….
Casework this week has included:
- The planned closure of Purton Recycling Centre due to a massive price hike by the contractor – we are exploring possibilities, and will do all we can to ensure alternative provision by the time Purton closes in August 2026
- Escalating domestic sewage issues with Thames Water for Fairford and The Beeches, Cirencester
- Pedestrian safety at crossings in Cirencester
- Parking in South Cerney
- Planning issues in Fairford
- Issues with HMRC
- DWP delays
- Visa and settlement issues with the Home Office
Cirencester Hospital Petition
We’re campaigning to stop Cirencester Hospital losing its day surgery unit. We call on NHS Gloucestershire and the Government to guarantee the long-term future of Cirencester Hospital, and to restore and protect its services so that it can continue to deliver high-quality, local care. Our Cotswolds hospitals must be strengthened, not slowly dismantled. They are essential to delivering accessible, patient-centred healthcare for Cirencester and our Cotswolds towns and villages. Sign our petition today to stand up for the Cotswolds' NHS.
Sign our petition!
Quote of the Week
"It's not what's under the Christmas tree that matters, it's who's around it.”
-- Charles M. Schulz
Have a great week!!
Roz Savage MP
