Plaid Cymru Ceredigion Your representatives in Ceredigion

On Tuesday 9th July, Ben Lake, Ceredigion MP joined 120 other Members of Parliament at an Alzheimer’s Society photography exhibition to showcase the human cost of the dementia care crisis.

The photo exhibition, 'Dementia Care: The Crisis Behind Closed Doors', depicts the human cost of a care system that is unfair, unsustainable and in urgent need of reform up and down the country.

At the exhibition, Parliamentarians met with people affected by dementia to hear about how the dementia crisis has affected them and their families.

Ben Lake MP is one of a group of 78 cross-party MPs representing rural constituencies urging the Government to support a proposal by the mobile industry to create a ‘Shared Rural Network’ to extend mobile coverage to hard to reach areas.

The MPs have written to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Wright, asking him to support the initiative which would significantly improve rural coverage and enhance economic, educational and leisure opportunities in rural areas where, in some cases, there is no coverage at all.

The four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) put forward a proposal for a ‘Shared Rural Network’ after the MPs called on the Secretary of State to impose compulsory roaming between providers if the industry did not come up with its own solution.

Ben Lake MP heard from their constituents, who were among an estimated 12,000 people lobbying their MPs for urgent action on the natural environment and climate change.

In the largest-ever environmental lobby of parliament, people from all corners of the UK were represented, with at least 300 MPs coming out to meet with their constituents. The Ceredigion MP was taken to meet constituents in the area surrounding the Palace of Westminster. At 14:00 lobbyists rang phone alarms and alarm clocks to symbolise that ‘the time is now to act’.

Constituents urged Ben Lake MP to pass ambitious new laws that create a healthier environment for people and wildlife, and to support measures that end the UK’s contribution to climate change by 2045.

Ben Lake MP visited Ysgol Bro Sion Cwilt yesterday to celebrate the importance of PE and school sport to young people’s wellbeing.

The school is one of thousands across the UK taking part in YST National School Sport Week 2019, which runs from 24 to 28 June.

The annual celebration is co-ordinated by children’s charity the Youth Sport Trust to highlight the important role of Physical Education and school sport in education.

It comes at a time when national research shows that fewer than one in five young people are active for 60 minutes every day and thousands of hours of PE have been lost since 2012.

Ben Lake MP has joined forces with the rail industry to encourage more disabled people in Ceredigion to travel by train using the Disabled Persons Railcard, which offers a third off journeys.

Ben Lake attended a parliamentary event on accessibility and inclusion in rail, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail. The event showcased the work the rail industry is doing to change and improve the network to make it more accessible. This includes enabling disabled people to make more discounted journeys with the Disabled Persons Railcard.

Last year 2969 journeys starting from Ceredigion were made using the Railcard, up from 2401 in 2015. This compares to a 43% increase across the country as a whole, with Disabled Persons Railcard journeys rising from 5 million in 2015 to 7 million in 2019.

Ben Lake MP for Ceredigion has shown his support for investment in MS research, after visiting an exhibition by the MS Society in Parliament this week.

The exhibition, ‘Multiple Sclerosis – The Research Story’, gave parliamentarians the opportunity to hear from people living with MS and leading MS researchers around the UK. It featured personal objects from the MS community, representing what it’s like to live with the condition, alongside the latest developments in cutting-edge research.

In 2017 the RNLI announced that its New Quay lifeboat station in Ceredigion would no longer house the all-weather vessel after 2020.

The decision was met with scorn by local residents and RNLI volunteers alike, who questioned the wisdom of leaving a 75-mile stretch of the Welsh coast unprotected by an all-weather lifeboat. It would, instead, only be covered by the smaller, inshore lifeboat.

However the RNLI has now announced that it has delayed these plans. A review of Cardigan Bay in its entirety is due to take place in 2021, a year after New Quay’s all-weather lifeboat - the Mersey-class Frank and Lena Clifford of Stourbridge - was due to be shelved.

Ben Lake recently met with The Royal British Legion’s Wales Area Manager, Antony Metcalfe, military veteran Chris Headon and representatives of the charity at an event in Westminster to discuss support for the Armed Forces community in Wales.

The Legion is the nation's biggest Armed Forces charity providing care and support to all members of the British Armed Forces past and present and their families. From October 2017 to September 2018 the Legion in Wales; the Legion provided over £460,000 in grants to support members of the Armed Forces community and engaged with 9,100 people directly via its high street Pop in centres and community outreach. The Legion’s own handy van service also completed 2,247 jobs across Wales, helping people in their own homes to live independently and with the support they require.

With passengers losing almost four million hours to significantly delayed train journeys in 2018, Ben Lake MP is backing a call for passengers to receive fully automatic compensation for delays and cancellations. 

Along with Which?, Ben Lake MP is demanding that the the government’s rail review ensures that simpler and easier compensation processes are introduced across the network as soon as possible.

After a record year for disruption sent trust in the rail industry to new lows, the case for making compensation automatic has never been clearer. Currently passengers claim for only a third (34%) of journeys where money is owed for delays and cancellations.

Ben Lake MP for Ceredigion has attended the National Autistic Society’s first ever Understanding Autism session. He was one of 82 MPs who attended one of three sessions, receiving more information on what autism is, guidance on how to create autism-friendly surgeries and tips on how to support autistic constituents.

There are around 700,000 autistic children and adults in the UK, a significant proportion of every MP’s constituency. The National Autistic Society believes that increasing MPs’ awareness and understanding of autism is an important step to improving their ability to support and champion the issues that matter to autistic people in their constituencies and in Parliament too. The charity was delighted that so many MPs attended and will be working with them to ensure support improves for autistic people at both local and national levels.