Any decision on Eastbourne’s maternity unit will be made locally

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has already said it wants to work in partnership with local people, patients and staff to develop the plans as part of its Building for our Future project.

I will be doing just that and I hope everyone else does so too.

The new hospital will give us state-of-the-art facilities and is a once-in-a-generation event that will benefit everyone in Eastbourne and beyond.

It’s therefore important we get it right and we discuss openly and honestly about what is wanted and what can be delivered.

The return of consultant-led maternity services has long been the aspiration of the cross party Save the DGH campaign group, of which I am a member.

I was sorry to see the council leader last week suggesting the government “would not be forgiven” if that didn’t happen.

This is, of course, totally wrong. The government has dedicated the money, it is now up to our local NHS trust to decide how it is spent.

Any decision about consultant-led maternity will be made in Eastbourne.

So, I urge residents to engage with the trust and give their opinion on what they want the hospital to be.

The trust has made it clear already it wants to hear your views and over the last few years it has done a magnificent job making the DGH a much better hospital and a centre of excellence too.

Just this week, it was announced that Eastbourne is only one of eight hospitals to offer National Cardiology simulation training for doctors in a Covid secure environment.

In Parliament this week, I applauded the equalities minister Kemi Badenoch for her speech about Labour’s call for a decolonising of history in a debate about Black History Month.

It was an impassioned and important speech because it made it clear the government will not accept the politicisation of the classroom and that children should not be taught about white privilege and their inherited racial guilt.

She added that any school should be politically impartial and any teaching of elements of political race theory as fact, or promoting partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law.

We can certainly address our country’s history good and bad without the politics in it.

It is right we celebrate Black History Month because that’s our history too.

As a former teacher, I fully support the government’s position and I think the vast majority of parents do so too.