Tessa is celebrating the Treasury’s change of heart on the proposed ‘caravan tax’, which would have had a catastrophic effect on local caravan park owners and distributors.
The announcement to abandon the 20% VAT in favour of a 5% tax with a delayed start of April 2013 was made on Monday night. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Tessa attended a packed first meeting of the new Keep Cheddar Special group last week, where local residents discussed the challenges facing the village.
The group listened to lots of ideas and positive suggestions as to how to keep Cheddar Special. At the end of the meeting there was a unanimous vote to work together to protect Cheddar’s many independent businesses and to ensure that local residents are aware of, and kept up to date with developments planned for the village, particularly the proposed planning applications from Tesco and Sainsbury’s. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Tessa recently met representatives from 2012 Olympics ‘Team South West’ to find out more about the benefits which this summer’s Olympic Games will bring directly to this part of Somerset.
Local Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt has been quizzing more Government Ministers about community benefit and business rate retention from the potential Hinkley C nuclear power station as a way of getting a much better deal for local people.
I wonder whether the Minister could address the problem of different local authorities having different responsibilities. In my area, Somerset county council has shut a number of local recycling centres, leaving the district councils as the level responsible for dealing with fly-tipping. That transfers the cost from the county council’s budget, but means that district councils have to deal with an increasing problem. Indeed, they are left having to charge, through council tax, which seems most unfair.
After discovering that for years, it has been standard clinical practice in UK prisons to re-toxify some prisoners about to be released, Tessa asked the Minister for Justice, a question about this practice last week.
Tessa recently attended the British Red Cross’s ‘Pupil, Citizen, Lifesaver’ event in Parliament to learn about their campaign which calls for first aid and humanitarian education to be included as a core part of the national curriculum.
Thank you very much, indeed, Sir.
The Minister will know of my concerns about the long-term impacts of both the Hinkley Point project and the National Grid’s proposals to put pylons across the Somerset Levels, when we would naturally prefer that it was done underground. Has the Minister had distinct discussions about the crucial importance of business rate retention for the benefit of the local communities? Will he meet me and representatives from local authorities in my area to discuss this further?
What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the potential long-term community benefits of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station and other major infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister says Tessa is “spot on” about Tax Avoidance
Local Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt used her chance to ask the Prime Minister a question about highly paid public servants who avoid paying tax during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions’ session. 