Prime Minister says Tessa is “spot on” about Tax Avoidance
Local Lib Dem MP Tessa Munt used her chance to ask the Prime Minister a question about highly paid public servants who avoid paying tax during the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions’ session. 
Tessa recently visited Draycott and Rodney Stoke First School where she met staff and pupils and had the opportunity to attend the Pupil School Council. 
Local MP Tessa Munt welcomed a number of Somerset caravan park owners, a representative from Somerset Tourism Association, Somerset caravan distributors and Ros Pritchard OBE, Director General of the British Holiday & Home Parks Association Limited, the national body representing the parks industry to Parliament last week.
The purpose of the visit was to meet with Treasury Minister, David Gauke MP, to explain at first hand the impact a planned rise in VAT on static caravans would have on Somerset’s economy. 
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Tessa was extremely disappointed to learn that Somerset County Council has refused to listen to the concerns of local people and has decided to withdraw all funding for the 490 bus service which runs every Tuesday morning between Cheddar and Bristol.
After completing his ‘consultation process’, the Cabinet Member responsible for public transport, County Councillor Harvey Siggs, confirmed the withdrawal of this service. The 490 bus stops running on 22nd May. Full Story »
Tessa Munt met with Tim Moreman, Manager of the Wedmore War Graves Appeal, to help raise £2,250 to rebuild the graves of two First World War servicemen in St Mary’s Churchyard in Wedmore.
St Mary’s holds the graves of four servicemen who died during the Great War, either from wounds received while on active service in France, or from accident or illness. 
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Tessa was delighted to welcome one of her younger constituents to Parliament, 8 year old Mimi who has Type 1 Diabetes to a breakfast meeting. This was part of a visit by the charity JDRF who are campaigning to find a cure for the disease. They came to Parliament with 60 children and adults with the condition speaking with MP’s and raising the profile of the conidtion.
Tessa welcomed the Cheddar Scouts to Parliament this week, showing them round the buildings and talking to them about her working life in Westminster.
Local MP Tessa Munt has welcomed the Government’s invitation for local people to comment on the earthquake risks from ‘fracking’, the process of hydraulic fracturing for Shale Gas, by 25th May 2012.
Local MP Tessa Munt debated the County Council’s cuts to youth services in the recording studio for Blue Lounge Radio at The Blue School in Wells with Wells County Councillor John Osman, Thomas Fowler from the Connect Centre in Wells and Jake Pitt, Member of the Youth Parliament for Mendip.
rose—[Laughter.]
Thank you very much, indeed, Sir. The Minister will know of my concerns about the long-term impacts of both the Hinkley Point project and the National Grid’s proposals to put pylons across the Somerset Levels, when we would naturally prefer that it was done underground. Has the Minister had distinct discussions about the crucial importance [...]
What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the potential long-term community benefits of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station and other major infrastructure projects.
The Prison Service spends time and taxpayers’ money detoxing those who enter our prisons with alcohol and drug problems. However, I was shocked to find that taxpayers’ money is then spent on retoxing prisoners for their eventual release at the end of their sentences. Does the Minister agree that funding a drug habit—which is often [...]
Does the hon. Gentleman agree, therefore, that the courts have the ultimate solution in that, if a parent with care prevents a child from accessing his or her other parent, the care can be taken up by the parent who is excluded, and that that is the ultimate sanction and might encourage parents to stick [...]
The hon. Gentleman mentioned that in some way the status quo might be maintained. Does he agree that in fact there is evidence that one parent is often excluded from the life of the child by the parent with care, and that therefore the status quo may become a pattern of one-parent family life as [...]
Those on the housing list whose change in situation, such as having an extra child or additional medical needs, means they meet the criteria for higher banding of need for housing, or those who change the nature of their request, such as for a new location, have to restart their time on the housing list. [...]
The caravans that are made in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency end up in the 79 caravan parks in my part of the south-west, which contains the second largest conglomeration of holidays of that kind. More than 6,000 people in my constituency own their caravans, but 900 of the caravans are part of a letting arrangement. [...]
Currently boats are allowed to discharge effluent into rivers and watercourses. I recognise the difficulties with some locations, which are very remote from any practical answer to the problem, but what measures is the Minister taking to call a complete halt to this practice so that the quality of beach bathing water, particularly in the [...]