David Ruffley

David Ruffley MP is a founder member of a new, cross-party parliamentary group on rural services.

The All-Party Group on Rural Services will, as a first step, inquire into and produce a report on the future of rural post offices, to include positive recommendations for their future role. The Group will hear evidence from Alan Cook, the Managing Director of Post Office Ltd, at its next meeting on 8 March 2007.

The Group has already exposed shocking new facts on the future of the Post Office network:

David Ruffley MP has today summoned Bury St Edmunds Town Centre Manager, Steve Peters, to a meeting to discuss the role of independent retailers in shaping the future of Bury St Edmunds.

David and John Deane-Bowers, the owner of Trotter & Deane, will meet with Mr Peters on Friday 23 March.

A summit meeting between independent retailers in Bury St Edmunds and representatives of St Edmundsbury Borough Council organised by David Ruffley took place on Friday 2 March.

David Ruffley MP will be visiting two cutting edge environmentally friendly Suffolk firms on Friday 9 March.

David will be visiting PHP Rainwater Systems at 2.30pm and DEVI Electroheat Ltd at 3pm.

PHP Rainwater Systems are specialists in products designed for new homes which harvest rainwater for use, instead of mains water, in tasks such as flushing the toilet or watering plants and washing the car.

DEVI Electroheat are market leaders in under floor heating products.

Both firms are based on the Brickfields Business Park in Woolpit, Suffolk.

David said:

David Ruffley MP has organised a Green Action Day on Saturday 10 March, between 10am and 1pm.

The event will focus on cleaning graffiti from a climbing wall in the children's play area on Stowmarket's Cedars Park estate.

THE private company involved in Labour's bungled tax credits system has been rewarded with a £3.5billion boost to its contract.

Capgemini will pocket £8billion for providing computer support to HM Revenue and Customs instead of the £4.5billion it had been expected to earn.

MPs last night claimed the huge increase in IT spending is evidence that the Government has 'lost control' of its computer costs.

David Ruffley MP has today encouraged young people in Suffolk to apply for a Save the Children 'Here to HELP' award, funded by British Gas. Awards of up to £1,000 are available as well as a small number of grants of up to £3,000 that young people can apply for to improve something in their local community.

David Ruffley MP has today released new House of Commons figures which reveal that admissions to hospital with an alcohol-related diagnosis have shot up by 126 percent since 1997/98 in the former Suffolk West Primary Care Trust (PCT) area.

David obtained the figures through his questioning of Caroline Flint, Minister of State at the Department of Health.

David Ruffley MP will be visiting Stowmarket Middle School on Friday 2 March at 2.30pm to give students a 'bird's eye' view of the House of Commons and the process of a debate.

David will be met by David Etchells Butler, Head of Geography, and will be listening to what staff at the school have to say about plans to scrap three tier education.

David will also be giving the school's students advice for a Youth Parliament competition.

David said:

David Ruffley MP, who is David Cameron's Shadow Minister for Welfare Reform with responsibilities for the voluntary sector, will be presenting certificates to five trustees from Bury St Edmunds Volunteer Centre to mark their becoming Open College Network (OCN) accredited trustees on Friday 2 March at 12.05pm.

Bury St Edmunds Volunteer Centre is the first charity in the Country to have OCN accredited trustees.

The five trustees from the Centre underwent a four day course accredited by the OCN and submitted work on being effective trustees.

David Ruffley MP has personally called and will be chairing a meeting between St Edmundsbury Borough Council and a delegation of local independent retailers on Friday 2 March at 11am.

David called the meeting at the Borough Council's Angel Hill Offices following his tour of independent retailers during December 2006.