Andrew Ranger MP highlights importance of Hightown Barracks to Wrexham
MP for Wrexham
In 2027 we will mark 150 years since the establishment of the Hightown Barracks in Wrexham.
The symbol of the proud military history of our city.
In both World War One and World War Two, the Barracks were the site of regimental basic training before new recruits were deployed.
This is particularly poignant as this week marks the 80th Anniversary of VE Day.
On a recent visit to Hightown Barracks, I met with Colonel Nick Lock to explore the work of the Hightown Barracks today.
It was saved in 2013 after a huge community effort led by former MP Ian Lucas and local councillors Graham Rogers and Brian Cameron amongst many others, including myself.
I was struck by Colonel Lock's description of the pride that Wrexham feels in its connection with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, embodied by the campaign to save the barracks.
Colonel Lock and I also discussed the difficulties our armed forces currently face after years of cuts and in the context of a rapidly changing global situation.
As a former Air Cadet myself and having met current cadets, serving personnel and veterans, I understand the value of a military career, the skills that are developed but also the challenges that can be faced when that career ends.
Earlier this year I was proud to be a member of the bill committee for the Armed Forces Commissioner Bill.
The Commissioner will be a direct point of contact for personnel and their families to raise service issues affecting their lives, from kit, to housing, to childcare.
The independent Commissioner will have proper powers to investigate issues affecting service life, make recommendations, and report to Parliament.
They will also have access to personnel, information, and to defence sites.
And we want them to hold us to account, too.
According to the House of Commons Library, there are an estimated 3,450 households in Wrexham who have at least one military veteran.
Veteran support is crucial, which is why the UK Government has launched the VALOUR system to ensure easier access to essential care and support.
For most service personnel, a career in the Armed Forces sets them up for success and can be a great tool for social mobility.
VALOUR aims to help unlock veterans' full potential and foster the enterprising spirit of veteran charities.
And where Veterans have complex needs, Valour will help ensure the support on offer is data driven and better tailored to their need.
VALOUR is backed by £50 million of funding, which will help ensure that every veteran, regardless of where they live, can access joined up support.
That funding will establish a new network of VALOUR-recognised support centres in every nation of the UK and deploy Regional Field Officers to connect local, regional and national services – using data to shape better services.
As we mark 80 years since Victory in Europe this week, our grateful nation looks forward to joining our brave Armed Forces and veterans to reflect, commemorate and remember.
We are deeply proud of our Armed Forces personnel, veterans, and the families who support them, for the contribution they make to our country.
Theirs is the ultimate public service.
These are serious times, with war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East, growing Russian aggression and increasing global instability.
The lessons of the Second World War where countries and peoples came together to defeat fascism and defend our freedoms must never be forgotten.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
7 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Nuked Blood: Met Police 'cop-out' on radiation crimes against troops
The Met has batted away pleas to investigate the Ministry of Defence over allegations of a criminal cover-up of human radiation experiments Scotland Yard has been accused of "refusing to investigate" crimes by the state against British troops. Officers of the Metropolitan Police spent 50 days deliberating over 500 pages of evidence about an alleged official cover-up of human radiation experiments. Despite documents which appear to show people still at work in Westminster misled ministers, courts, and Parliament as recently as 2024, the Met decided it was "non-recent" and not in their jurisdiction. Jane O'Connor, who led the complaint when it was made on the eve of VE Day commemorations, said: "This is ridiculous. My father flew through the mushroom clouds, his blood tests were removed from his medical record, and we found them hidden at the Atomic Weapons Establishment under national security. The same probably happened to thousands of servicemen. That's a crime of national importance the Met should investigate, and it's certainly not historic." * You can support the veterans' fight for justice HERE Steve Purse, who has been unlawfully denied access to blood tests taken from his father during a series of toxic plutonium experiments in the Australian Outback in 1963, said: "They're forgetting the people who are the victims of these crimes. The Ministry of Defence is physically next door to Scotland Yard. It feels like they're refusing to look over the garden fence in case it upsets the neighbours." The Met has passed the complaint to Thames Valley Police, on the grounds that the AWE is in Berkshire. But Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who first called for a police investigation last year and supported the complaint, said: "There is a widely-held belief that the misconduct in public office is taking place literally yards from Scotland Yard. So it makes no sense whatsoever for this crucial case to be transferred to a smaller force many miles away." The Nuked Blood Scandal blew open three years ago with a 1958 memo between atomic scientists about "gross irregularity" in the blood tests of Jane's dad, Group Captain Terry Gledhill. It led to a database, codenamed Merlin, which was locked as a state secret. After parts of it were forced open, it was found to contain more than 30 separate orders for blood monitoring of troops of all three armed forces, and thousands of pages of blood tests, blood data, and official discussion. The MoD had previously denied to courts and Parliament that any such biological monitoring took place. The entire database is due to be declassified as a result of the Mirror's investigation, but ministers refuse to say how or why it was locked in the first place. John Morris, who despite a radiogenic blood disorder and cancer has been denied a war pension after his medical records were missing the results of blood tests and chest x-rays, said: "We're just numbers to them, not people. If that's not the Met's jurisdiction, I don't know what is. Perhaps they need a lawnmower to cut back all that long grass before they kick our case into it." London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who oversees policing for the capital, has been contacted by. MPs, voters and neighbous, all asking him to ensure the scandal is properly investigated. In 2021, Khan signed a letter by all metro mayors calling for "truth and justice for our nuclear test veterans". A spokesman for the Met said: "It was determined that allegations related to alleged offences against an organisation based in Berkshire. As a result, the investigation was transferred to Thames Valley Police in late June. We refute the claim that the Met has refused to investigate this. At this stage of this investigation, the report is sitting with the most appropriate force." A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said: "We have recently been made aware of alleged crimes related to historic nuclear tests. At this early stage, we are not in a position to provide further information." The Mirror's dossier of evidence has been passed to both forces.
Daily Mirror
9 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Third of renters 'could be forced out by rent hikes' despite landmark reforms
Labour's significant Renters' Rights Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, will ban landlords from evicting renters for no reason from their homes - but fears remain As many as a third of renters could be forced out by rent hikes despite landmark legislation to protect their rights, research shows. Labour 's significant Renters' Rights Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, will ban landlords from evicting renters for no reason from their homes. But despite Section 21 evictions being abolished, campaigners have raised concerns that landlords would still be able to use unfair rent hikes to push people out of their homes. Polling by the Renters Reform Coalition (RRC) has found 34% of renters, and 29% of renters with children, said they would "definitely" be forced to move home by a rent increase of £110 per month. Analysis by the campaign group suggests the average rent increase recommended at first-tier rent tribunals is more than double this at over £240 per month. RRC said the government recognises 'unreasonable rent increases' and had promised to 'empower' renters to challenge them through tribunals. But its polling showed more than half of renters (54%) were unaware that rent tribunals exist and only 14% said they were 'very likely' to use one to challenge a rent increase in future - even after the government has made changes to improve the process. The RRC is calling on the government to introduce a cap on in-tenancy rent increases so renters can remain in their homes. The Renters' Rights Bill is in its final stages of the House of Lords and so is due to become law soon. Peers have attempted to amend the legislation to limit rent increases. Tom Darling, Director at the RRC, praised the 'long overdue' Bill to improve renters' rights but said 'the rent rise eviction loophole is a serious gap in the legislation'. 'Even after section 21 is abolished, our research suggests as many as a third of renters will still face being pushed out of their homes and communities by rent increases, and landlords will be able to use rent hikes they know tenants cannot afford to threaten or intimidate,' he said. "The government's proposed solution will not address this - our analysis shows rent tribunals will do nothing to protect the large proportion of renters who already cannot afford average market rents, even if they were willing to take their landlord to a tribunal in the first place.' A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: 'Our landmark Renters' Rights Bill will ensure that landlords are only be able to increase rents once a year to the market rate, and tenants will be able to challenge unreasonable rent increases through the First-tier Tribunal. 'This will prevent unscrupulous landlords using rent increases as a backdoor means of eviction, while ensuring rents can be increased to a fair rate.' The Government has been clear it does not support rent caps. Officials say heavy-handed controls tend to mean higher rents at the start of a tenancy. It was also highlighted that MHCLG secured a £39billion investment for affordable housing at the Spending Review. ::: The RRC commissioned polling from More in Common, who surveyed 1,076 private renters through three separate polls between April 25 - May 5.
The Guardian
11 hours ago
- The Guardian
As a visibly physically disabled MP, my view on the welfare bill is clear: we need a reset and fast
In March 2020, when the Conservative government looked like an outlier in appearing to pursue a Covid strategy centring on herd immunity, for the first time in my life I felt raw, hot fear. Thinking of my toddler and what might happen if I caught coronavirus and was treated under the then Nice guidelines 'frailty' score was too much. I sobbed deeply. After 10 years of austerity, I knew then that disabled people would pay an enormous price for the pandemic thanks to the government's handling of it. Disabled people did: almost 60% of Covid-related deaths involved disabled people in that first wave. I vowed then that I would do all I could to use my skills and experiences of 20 years working in disability law and policy to deliver a country that treats disabled people with dignity and respect. Five years later, I am one of the only visibly physically disabled members of parliament. I was proud to be elected last year as the first person to have grown up in my constituency to go on to represent it in parliament for more than a century. I am proud, too, that Labour's manifesto committed to championing the rights of disabled people, and to the principle of working with disabled people to ensure our views and voices are at the heart of all we do. Consequently, since April, I have been engaging relentlessly with government, at the very highest level, to change its proposals as set out in the universal credit and personal independence payment bill. I made it clear from the start I could not support the proposals on personal independence payments (Pip). Pip is an in-work benefit, designed to ensure disabled people can live independently. There are 4 million disabled people in poverty in the UK. As a matter of conscience, I could not support measures that would push 250,000 disabled people, including 50,000 children, into poverty. Nor could I accept proposals that used a points system, under current descriptors, that would exclude eligibility for those who cannot put on their underwear, prosthetic limbs or shoes without support. The concessions now announced are significant, including that all recipients of Pip who currently receive it will continue to do so. I know this will be an enormous relief for many of my nearly 6,000 constituents in receipt of Pip and for disabled people across the country. However, I will continue working, as I have done from the beginning, to look at these concessions carefully against the evidence on the impact upon disabled people, including my constituents, and disabled people's organisations. Fundamentally, I will be looking for further reassurances that the detail will fulfil Labour's manifesto commitments to disabled people. The social model of disability must be central to this – removing barriers to our inclusion in society. Proposals must take a mission-led approach across all five missions to break down barriers to opportunity for disabled people. I hope to see three things from government, embedded in the text of the amendments, if the bill reaches the report stage. First, the review being led by Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, must not be performative. The government must not make the same mistake twice. I strongly recommend bringing in a disabled expert on equality and employment law, such as Prof Anna Lawson at the University of Leeds, to support this work. Second, the government must consult disabled people over the summer to understand the impact of the proposed changes from November 2026 on future claimants. These must mitigate risks of discrimination for those current recipients with similar disabilities and against pushing new disabled claimants into poverty after November 2026. In doing so, it must produce an impact assessment that also reflects the impact of unmet need for future recipients on health and social care services, and clarifies the application of new criteria on those receiving Pip if they get reassessed. Third, growth must mean inclusive growth. In implementing the £1bn employment, health and skills support programme, there needs to be a clear target for closing the disability employment gap. Importantly, there needs to be a commitment to a sector-by-sector strategy on closing this gap and a skills training strategy for the employment support workers enabling disabled people into work. These approaches outperform cuts or sanctions in getting disabled people into sustainable employment. This matters. The Conservatives left us with a pitiful 29% employment gap and 17% pay gap for disabled people. The Labour government has an opportunity to bring in a new era of policymaking for disabled people that takes a laser focus in closing this gap. The disability sector believes that this can be reduced by 14%; generating £17.2bn for the exchequer. We must seize this moment to do things differently and move beyond the damaging rhetoric and disagreements of recent weeks. In line with the prime minister's statement that reform should be implemented with Labour values of fairness, a reset requires a shift of emphasis to enabling disabled people to fulfil their potential. I will continue to engage with government and disabled people's organisations, to fight for a country that treats disabled people with dignity and respect. Marie Tidball is Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge, chair of the all-party parliamentary group on autism and co-chair of the disability parliamentary Labour party Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
