David Ruffley

David Ruffley MP will be holding a crisis meeting with transport bosses from First Eastern Counties Buses, Suffolk County Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council to discuss the bus service in Bury St Edmunds on Friday 8 September at 3pm.

David Ruffley has not shied from taking First Eastern Counties Buses to task over the level of service they provide and is keen to receive an update on the state of Bury St Edmunds' bus network, which is still a source of concern to his constituents.

David Ruffley MP will be holding a top level meeting at Premier Foods in Bury St Edmunds on Friday 8 September at 11am as part of his campaign to see HP sauce banned from Westminster.

HP brown sauce famously features the Houses of Parliament on its label and US owner Heinz has recently announced the closure of the firm's plant in Birmingham and move production to Holland.

David Ruffley MP will be visiting the home of James and Rudy Pierce on Friday 8 September to see the vital security improvements that have been made possible by St Edmundsbury Borough Council's Healthy Homes Scheme.

David will be accompanied by St Edmundsbury Borough Council Leader, John Griffiths, and Portfolio Holder for Safe, Sustainable Communities, Jeremy Farthing.

Once at the Pierce residence David will have the opportunity to watch local locksmith, Colin Saville, install the much needed improvements.

David Ruffley, Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, expressed concern this week over new sentencing rules from a Government quango that could mean shoplifters will never face the threat of jail.

The Government-appointed Sentencing Guidelines Council is consulting on new guidelines for courts to follow. Under one option, shoplifters will under no circumstances be jailed unless they commit an 'aggravated' offence, such as involving violence or using children. Alternatively, shoplifters would not face any custodial sentence unless they were 'seriously persistent'.

David Ruffley MP, the Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform, has today reiterated his commitment to campaign to save the rural post office network following an Age Concern report that shows that 99 percent of older people in rural areas consider their local post office to be 'a lifeline'.

Suffolk Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) recently highlighted their concern that up to 50 village post offices in Suffolk and Essex could be under threat if the Government decides to halt its financial support to the rural network in March 2008.

David Ruffley MP has spoken of his disappointment at revised figures, published today by the Department for Education and Skills, which reveal the number of full-time equivalent regular teachers in Suffolk has fallen for the third consecutive year.

While the teaching population in both the East of England and the Country as a whole has increased in each of the last eight years, Suffolk is one of the few counties where the teaching population is falling.

David Ruffley MP has today criticised Suffolk West PCT for their poor performance in vaccinating the over-65 population against influenza.

In November 2005 David Ruffley highlighted the trust's poor performance in previous years, however, they failed to heed his advice and remain one of the worst performers in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and performed below the national average for the period October 2005 to January 2006.

David Ruffley MP will be visiting Tesco in Bury St Edmunds on Friday 6 October to see at first hand the vast number of customers taking part in their Green Clubcard Points scheme.

Tesco is offering customers 1 Green Clubcard Point for each carrier bag they

re-use when doing their shopping.

Between 14 August and 19 September Tesco gave out £26,815,614 worth of Green Club Card Points.

So far in the Bury St Edmunds store 50,000 carrier bags have been reused.

David Ruffley MP has today voiced his opposition to Gordon Brown's and John Prescott's latest money-making ruse- a new stealth tax on British holidays.

The Government has asked Sir Michael Lyons to produce plans for new local taxes. In his interim report, he raised the prospect of a new local levy on hotels, bed and breakfasts and hostels.

In the last few weeks the Government Minister for Tourism, Shaun Woodward, has refused to rule out the new tax and stated 'we have to balance the books'.

The company which makes Branston Brown Sauce has been inundated with enquiries from cafí© owners and retailers who want to dump HP Sauce following confirmation by Heinz that it is to close the HP factory in Aston, Birmingham, and move production to Holland with the loss of 120 jobs.

'The news broke last night and since then we have had hundreds of calls from retailers, cafí© owners and even hot dog vendors wanting to ditch HP and switch to a British made brown sauce brand.' Said Sue Knight, general manager for Branston.