One of my passions is music and I’m a patron of the Music Venues Trust, which supports grassroots music venues across the country. In Bristol we have such a diversity of venues, which add a huge amount to our city culturally, economically and, most importantly, in terms of building community.

A jewel in the crown is Motion; one of the world’s best nightclubs and a venue that attracts the biggest artists to Bristol.I was shocked to learn at the start of November that Motion is at risk of closure, with its site being up for sale.

I have now met with both Motion and the site owners. There is a lot of development going on in this part of the city, and while housing, education and jobs are important, we need culture to be part of the mix too.

I strongly oppose any plans to transform Motion’s site to another use. I will do whatever I can to ensure that Motion remains on its present site and would encourage other Bristol politicians to offer the same backing.

Nightingale Valley

A somewhat different site, that I am equally determined to save from development, is the Nightingale Valley. This is a beautiful, unique area in Brislington which offers a place where people can walk, relax and connect with nature. The north end of the valley, however, has recently been auctioned off and there are fears the new owners may seek to enclose or develop the space.

Friends of Brislington Brook are running a fantastic campaign to prevent this and maintain public access. I met with them last month to see how I can support their work to protect the valley and maintain access for all. As the site has now been sold, we need to see what the developer plans to do with it, while continuing to pursue steps, such as Rights of Way and Tree Preservation Orders, which will make it harder to develop and close off access.

Nature Recovery Strategy

The Nightingale Valley is one of the green spaces identified as a Focus Area for Nature Recovery and an Area of Importance to Biodiversity in the West of England’s Nature Recovery Strategy. The West of England is the first authority – of 48 areas required to do so – to produce such a strategy. I was delighted to attend and speak at the launch. It was very encouraging to see such commitment to restoring key habitats, enhancing biodiversity and improving resilience, as we all know nature is in crisis and action can’t come soon enough.

Transport remains a recurrent issue across East Bristol and a frequent source of casework. I was very happy to see the Government announce an additional £1bn of funding for bus services, including £14m for the West of England. I have written to both the West of England Mayor and the CEO of First Bus about the reliability issues being experienced by constituents across Bristol, and to ask what steps they can take to improve services.

East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood

I have received a high volume of correspondence from both those in favour of and against the East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood (EBLN) trial in parts of Lawrence Hill, Redfield and St George. It is clear that it is causing significant disruption for some, while others are enjoying the quieter streets where they live. I have been feeding back the views I have received to the Council. In particular, I have written to them about what can be done to improve the ‘Red Church’ junction, in order to reduce congestion on Blackswarth Road and to reduce the impact on bus services. I have also contacted FirstBus regarding this. I will continue to keep a close eye on the trial’s progress and look forward to seeing the initial data from it.

Visits and other work

There’s been a particular focus on education in my local visits over the past month. I visited Whitehall Primary, City Academy, Hillside Day Nursery, Oasis Academy Temple Quarter, and Waycroft Academy to talk to staff, meet with school councils, celebrate Ofsted results, and generally check in and learn more about what they are doing.

I also learned more about the work that National Grid do at their site on Feeder Road and I presented an award to Joe Fortune, General Secretary of the Co-op Party, at the Community Energy Awards at the M-Shed. It was great to see several local organisations amongst the winners too. Under Labour’s Local Power Plan, we will support local authorities and community energy groups to roll-out small and medium-scale renewable energy projects, like the Ambition Lawrence Weston wind-turbine, and develop up to 8GW of clean power by 2030.

I was privileged to attend a very moving event entitled ‘A Celebration of Life’ hosted by Bristol Drugs Project and Bereavement Through Addiction. Both organisations do incredibly important work and if you’d like to support them, or if you need their help, you can contact them here: https://www.bdp.org.uk/ and here: https://bereavementthroughaddiction.com/ 

Finally, as is traditional at this time of year, I visited the postal workers at Easton Delivery Office last Friday to see how they handle the Christmas mail and, increasingly, a huge number of parcels too. After another school visit, I had the pleasure of joining refugees and asylum seekers from Iran for lunch at the Easton Family Christian Centre. And in the evening, I met up with some of Bristol’s Tibetan community at the Journey – Tibet to India, a lovely little restaurant on St Mark’s Road, where we were also treated to some Tibetan music and singing.

Assisted Dying

On Friday 29th November, MPs voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, by 330 votes to 275. The Bill was presented by my Labour colleague Kim Leadbeater, and MPs from across the political spectrum gave thoughtful and sometimes moving speeches.The Bill now has to go through line-by-line scrutiny by the Bill Committee – which includes both supporters and opponents – before it returns to the Commons and then the Lords; at all these stages amendments can be tabled, and there will be further votes before it can become law.

I voted for the Bill, as I believe terminally ill adults with a prognosis of 6 months or less should be able to end their pain on their own terms, providing they have the capacity to do so. I have issued a full statement explaining my views, which you can read in full here.

Having received hundreds of emails on this topic, I understand some constituents will be pleased about the vote, while others will be disappointed. If you have further thoughts you would like to share as the Bill progresses through Parliament – whichever stance you take – please do email me at kerry.mccarthy.mp@parliament.uk.

Breakfast Clubs

For many of my constituents one of the most challenging issues they face is childcare, and, in particular, balancing work with getting their kids to school. In response, this Labour Government is now starting a free breakfast club pilot scheme in 750 schools. All pupils at the primary schools taking part in our scheme can attend breakfast clubs for free, regardless of their parents’ employment status, giving them a healthy start to their day and providing additional childcare for parents who need it.

Schools can apply to become one of 750 early adopters, with clubs launching from April 2025. We’re also continuing to roll out a wider wraparound childcare offer with the eventual aim of providing childcare for all primary children between 8am – 6pm.

Lush – Fighting Animal Testing Reception

I went along to Lush’s #FightingAnimalTesting reception. You’ll possibly be more familiar with Lush’s bath bombs and cosmetics than their activism, but they also do great work promoting the need to replace animal testing with human-relevant research – which as a vegan MP, I strongly support.

Now we have a Labour Government we have a real chance to make positive strides. Steve Race, Exeter’s Labour MP, gave an excellent speech about his Animals in Medical Research (Prohibition) Bill, and, as you can see, my constituency neighbour, Dan Norris and I also caught up with Chris Packham for a chat. This Government continues to support the 3 Rs: the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal testing – as you can read in this response after I wrote to the Minister about ‘Herbie’s Law’.

I had a series of discussions with international partners, spoke at a lot of important events, and even managed to track down a vegan restaurant in Baku! You can read a summary of my COP visit here.

I also wrote an article on my return for the PoliticsHome magazine on why taking strong action on clean energy at home is so important when working with other countries to tackle climate change. As I say in the piece “accelerating global climate action depends on a strong message, backed by clear action at home. Our clean power by 2030 mission is an example of that. This mission is about demonstrating to the world that the clean energy transition can be achieved in a way that creates economic growth, while protecting our way of life.”

Of course, conversations about tackling the climate crisis are incomplete without looking at the protection of nature. I also visited Kew Gardens recently to speak to scientists about nature-based solutions, sequestering carbon, and the promotion of wildlife. You’ll find a video summary of my visit here.

In the last week before Christmas, we had the final DESNZ Oral Question session of the year. I answered questions from the Dispatch Box about how this Government is utilising nature-based solutions to tackle climate change. Solutions like tree planting and the promotion of forests and peatlands can reduce the risk of flooding, cool urban spaces and crucially, absorb carbon.It was also great to hear Ed Miliband speak about Labour’s Clean Energy Plan, which sets out a pathway to a clean power system as we finally move away from being dependent on fossil fuels, petrostates, and dictators like Putin.

A huge 40% of casework has come in under the Transport category, mostly from constituents sharing their views on the EBLN trial. As I’ve already mentioned, my team has worked hard to ensure that your voices have been heard on this issue, and we have raised specific casework issues with the Council.

My team has also continued to handle a large number of housing and planning cases. We’ve sadly seen a lot of constituents contact us about overcrowding in their homes, and we have assisted several families in contacting the Council to ensure they are on the appropriate banding for their situations.

I have also been very involved in recent months with cases relating to excessive leaseholder service charges. This is an issue which Labour is looking to take action on at a national level, but locally we have seen a number of high charges levied at leaseholders, including in the Paintworks development.

Immigration and asylum cases also continue to make up a large portion of our casework. I’ve seen a lot of constituents contact me for assistance with the move from Biometric Residence Permits (BRPs) to eVisas, which I understand has caused a lot of confusion. I was pleased to see the recent update from the Home Office which confirms that some people can continue to use their expired BRPs for travelling to the UK until 31 March 2025, while the Home Office works to resolve these issues.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a lovely festive period.

Kerry