New medical facilities and defending communities from new housing among Northamptonshire MP’s priorities

Andrea Leadsom was returned by the electorate for a second term as MP last Friday, winning 36,607 votes, with her nearest rival, Labour’s Lucy Mills amassing 10,191 votes.

And she says her mandate to lobby for the south of the county become clearer through the many conversations on people’s doorsteps about what needs to change and what needs to be protected.

Many people made the case to her for extra GP and community health facilities in Brackley and Towcester.

Mrs Leadsom said: “We need a really decent new health centre in Towcester to go with the expansion going on there. And I think, because of the loss of Brackley Cottage Hospital, we need replacement outpatient facilities there too.

“I’ve been talking to Dr Philip Stevens at NHS Nene and we’ve been talking about having not just GPs there, but physiotherapy, diagnostics, minor injuries unit and health visiting. As an area we are less demanding than other part of the county never mind the country and people having to travel shorter distances makes a lot of sense.”

Other priorities for Mrs Leadsom, who was appointed an energy and climate change minister this week, are better repairs for potholes, widespread broadband and proper compensation and mitigation for those affected by the HS2 railway line plans.

And again and again people were concerned about how new housing developments near villages like Hardingstone and the need to influence how they are built.

She said: “It’s really important now, with the joint core housing strategy confirmed, that the views of the local community are taken into account and that ‘local plans’ are drawn up to say what needs protecting.

“It’s not a case of pulling up the drawbridge and saying ‘no houses here’ but of using local knowledge to decide where houses can go.”