I write to pledge my support for your March for Jobs and apologise for not being able to join you today.
The fight to ensure high levels of employment in Brighton & Hove is crucial to all of us and not just those in the effected industries and the importance of solidarity across all the communities of the City is essential.

Whether it is the University, the banks, the railways, the fire service or the Council the fight to protect jobs and services is at the heart of my beliefs. I have a long history of working with and for the trade union movement and promise to you all that should I be elected to Parliament my support will not waver.

Good luck with your campaign and my very best wishes to you all.

Nancy Platts

Families with a child in years 3 to 9 at school and eligible for free school meals can apply for the special laptop and broadband access by calling 0333 200 1004 or by visiting www.homeaccess.org.uk.

The scheme, which has been launched by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the schools secretary, Ed Balls will mean thousands of children and their parents will be able to get internet access at home to boost their school work. Trials of the programme showed that children who benefitted spent an hour more each week learning online, compared to their classmates who already had the internet at home. And 81 per cent of parents believed that home access had increased their involvement in their child’s learning.

Over the past weeks and months I’ve spent time with faith groups to find out more about the massive contributions they make to the community and hear more about their concerns and views. In the past few weeks, for instance, I was pleased to meet with Archie Coates of St Peter’s Church to find out about the work he and his team are doing. I was delighted to join a service at Gloucester Street Baptist Church a few Sundays ago to talk about my values and also hear from worshippers there. In February I joined the YMCA at their Sleep Easy event to highlight the problem of homelessness.

I’ve also enjoyed a longer association with Fareshare, a charity backed by Churches Together in Sussex that redistributes surplus supermarket food to people who need it. I volunteered for a day with the team last year and was hugely impressed by the tremendous work they do and the boost they give to all sorts of vulnerable people.

Church and faith groups of all kinds make a variety of contributions to our city’s life, in particular tackling poverty on the ground. As an anti-poverty campaigner in my work life, I’m keen to support them. For me, one of the most striking things about the work these groups do is the focus and importance they attach to self-esteem and developing confidence, often having a transformational effect on people’s lives. Whether it’s the volunteers themselves or the people getting the help, making sure that people are valued is at the core of the work. I’m always impressed with that and think that anyone, regardless of their personal faith, can support that too.

I was also pleased to meet the team from UK Chinese Students Society.

They have all signed up to 10:10 – the campaign to help people and organisations cut their carbon emissions by 10 percent in 2010.

Nancy Platts, Labour candidate for Brighton Pavilion and Simon Burgess, Labour candidate for Brighton Kemptown have signed up to support Brighton and Hove 10:10 – the exciting local campaign which aims to make Brighton and Hove Britain’s first 10:10 City.

Nancy and Simon said:

“Brighton & Hove 10:10 is the City’s chance to show what we can do: In our homes, in our workplaces, our schools and our hospitals, our football club and our universities. We’ll be working together as we take the first steps on the road to becoming a low carbon city.

“We are urging people and organisations in Brighton to sign up to 10:10 today and we aim to kick start the campaign by signing up hundreds by the end of April.”

You can sign up to the campaign by visiting our 10:10 Facebook group or by completing one of our postcards that we are handing out across Brighton.

The University of Brighton are planning to close Phoenix nursery in July 2010, which would mean a loss of 20 childcare places. If there is spare capacity because not all childcare places are taken up by staff or students each year, then nursery managers believe there is enough demand locally to fill any remaining childcare places on a private basis. This would mean that the Phoenix nursery could remain open.

This nursery enables parents to have the opportunity to study so they can get qualifications and get a job, we can’t afford to lose it.

Labour has invested heavily in public transport as part of the long-term strategy for a modern and more sustainable national transport system. Of course, there’s always more to do and we should always be asking for more.

As a Labour MP I will fight for more investment in Public Transport. Remember, for all their talk, the Tories are the party that deregulated the buses and slashed services as well as wasting billios of pounds selling off British rail at bargain basement prices.

Under Labour we’ve seen that investment in rail is almost 2.5 times higher than in 1997. Rail travel is also at its highest level since the early 1960s: passenger journeys up 38% since 1997. And don’t forget free bus travel for older people and disabled people! Will the conservatives take away your free bus pass?

A turf - cutting ceremony will be attended next Tuesday (2 March) by councillors as well as managers and founders of Fiveways play centre. The new building, which will see a Sure Start centre opened that will cover the Preston Park area, is expected to open in September.

Before I went into politics I worked at the Daycare Trust, the national childcare campaign, and I campaigned hard for a Sure Start children's centre in every community. To see this vision become a reality is what politics is all about. Labour has delivered on the ground for families and children and that's why I'm standing to be a Labour MP.

But I'm concerned that the city’s Sure Start centres will come under threat if the Conservatives get into government.

The Conservatives want to cut £200m from the budget- that means one in five children's centres, just like the one in Fiveways, would have to close its doors.

“Families need to take a close look at the Conservative-led council's budget, to be published this Thursday. There are suggestions they want to knock £600,000 off the Sure Start programme in Brighton and Hove, despite an increase in government funding to £1.1m. Families need to ask where the extra money is going and how long children and families will be able to enjoy these facilities.

In the manifesto the CBT says a better transport system means more choice for getting around, including the possibility of leaving the car at home more often.

The manifesto says: “What do we mean by 'better'? Trains and buses that compete with the car in terms of costs and ease: high-quality services; cheap, straightforward fares; public transport we can all use, regardless of mobility; and an integrated system, so that buses and trams and trains and taxi-buses all connect to each other, giving us a door-to-door service.”

That sounds like common sense to me.

Like most residents in Brighton and Hove, I use and support public transport. Lots of people I know have cars (and we need to ensure that people who need cars and vehicles for work and other reasons can continue to use them) but everyone in our City walks, cycles or takes the bus and train sometimes. I want to ensure public transport is used as much as possible and that means improvements. I want to see greater spending and better services from all the public transport in Brighton and for those commuting to and from Brighton.

Personally, I don't have a car so I often use public transport, walk and cycle around the city. I also support the idea of a rapid transit bus system to connect Brighton with nearby towns to help tackle congestion and parking problems.

That’s why I am supporting the CBT Manifesto. And it’s not just a recent conversion because I’m parliamentary candidate: I’ve been committed to public transport for many years.

I was on the CBT board when it was called Transport 2000, the environmental transport campaign, and I remain a member. I have also worked for the railway trade union TSSA as head of policy and firmly support a publicly owned, publicly accountable railway. My campaign is also backed by TSSA and the RMT trade union.

Nancy visited Coldean School a few weeks ago to see how it is teaching literacy and using National Literacy Trust programmes to boost reading and writing.

She saw local schoolchildren taking part in a range of lessons to support literacy skills and build a lifelong love of reading and writing and joined five to seven year old youngsters, and took part in storytelling sessions that are made fun and interactive with puppets representing storybook characters.

Nancy’s visit forms part of the National Literacy Trust’s forthcoming Vote for Literacy campaign which asks the public to urge political parties, individual MPs and candidates to prioritise literacy. MP and candidate visits in January and February will raise the profile of literacy as an important election issue.

“I am a true believer in the value of building our children’s literacy skills at an early age," says Nancy. "By creating an inviting, safe and fun environment for children to learn in, we are encouraging enjoyment of reading and writing. A love of literacy sets children on a path that leads to a happy, fulfilled and successful life.”

Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust says: “Literacy is more important to local communities than ever before. The next government will need to rebuild our economy and to increase opportunities for all young people. Levels of literacy must improve for them to achieve this.

“We’re delighted that Nancy Platts PPC has chosen to see for herself how literacy is being successfully supported in one local school. In the upcoming General Election, we want the public to challenge all MPs and prospective parliamentary candidates to encourage their party to adopt policies from our Manifesto for Literacy. Together we can address literacy and build a better future for us all.”