Vince Cable

Health

I have maintained a longstanding campaign, via debates and questions in parliament, to improve and extend cancer screening (especially for breast, cervical and bowel cancer).

I have long been involved in the issue of care home standards and maintained strong support for the successful Whitton Homelink which provides respite to carers.

I have campaigned actively on mental health issues. I successfully campaigned with others to save Maddison Centre services and helped secure alternatives for residents of St John's Hospital following its closure.

I'm a patron of the Shooting Star Children's Hospice in Hampton.

I supported local families with children with complex needs, including the Hampton Saturday Project.

Environment

I have launched the Green Investment Bank with £3 billion of government funding to support new projects which are critical to the future low carbon economy.

Locally, I have strongly supported residents' groups resisting overdevelopment and encroachment on urban green belt land.

I succesfully campaigned alongside others to fight the expansion of Heathrow and asked many questions in Parliament regarding night noise and numbers of flights at Heathrow.

I worked with the Friends of Bushy Park and the alliance of amenity groups to defeat parking charges in the Royal Parks.

I am supporting local micro generation projects like the proposal for a small hydro power unit at Teddington Lock, by local community group Ham Hydro.

I remain a strong supporter of local allotment holders and Twickenham bee keepers.

Transport

I frequently meet senior management of South West Trains to raise local commuters' concerns. Punctuality and reliability have improved but overcrowding remains a serious problem for local commuters.

I'm working with local residents groups to improve bus services. I've raised with Transport for London the problem of delays on routes R70 and H22. I'm currently supporting Whitton residents to extend route 110 so that it takes in Whitton High Street.

Crime

I chaired the All Party Police Group for 5 years and raised many police issues in Parliament such as gun crime, and the "knives destroy lives" campaign with the Victims of Crime Trust based in Twickenham.

I have also worked extensively on the role of armed officers, and funding of the Metropolitan Police and the Transport Police. I secured the first parliamentary debate on graffiti, demanding it take greater priority by the police and the courts. My debate in parliament on Graffiti and Vandalism gave momentum to a variety of initiatives to curb and clean up graffiti.

After criticising the growth of anti social drinking in Twickenham there is evidence of tougher admission policies by bouncers, better use of 2-way radios and more police patrols. There is however simply too much licensed capacity in Twickenham and I have regularly urged the licensing authority and the council to get to grips with this issue.

Post Offices

I have fought the closure of post offices, locally and nationally, and until recently the future of the network of local post offices was one of relentless, rapid decline. There were seven closures in the constituency.

With colleague Ed Davey I have taken a Bill through Parliament which will enable private investment, and worker shares, to be introduced into Royal Mail as the government seeks ways of turning round the fortunes of this failing business.

I have sought and received assurances that the Twickenham Post Office will be found a new permanent site.

Schools

I continue to work with our local schools as they look to develop and improve.

I recently attended the opening ceremony for the excellent new school buildings at Teddington, and also the opening event for the new Hampton Academy with its Swedish sponsors, Kunskapsskolan.

Whitton School, now Twickenham Academy, is also being run under the auspices of Kunskapsskolan. Central government investment proceeded on schedule at the Academy after I made representations to my colleague the Education Secretary.

The schools budget has been protected but there have been financial pressures and I have taken up issues, for example sports funding, that have affected local schools.