On the day when Councillor Rob Hodkinson from Ramsbottom came down to visit Parliament I had two pieces of good news for Ramsbottom.

Firstly, since it was brought to my attention that farmers in Ramsbottom were being denied access to the Farming Recovery Flood because they are classed as being in Greater Manchester rather than Lancashire. I raised the problem directly  with the Secretary of State at questions to the Department for  Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last Thursday. Well, the good news is that yesterday the Farming Recovery Fund was extended to Greater Manchester so that all farmers in Bury, Ramsbottom and Tottington will be able to claim.

Secondly, Sport England announced they are making a payment of £12,500 to the Ramsbottom Cricket Club to help them recover.

The budget was approved by a majority of 35 ( considerably more than the government’s notional majority of 12 ).

Today, the main attention will be on Prime Ministers’s Questions the final session before Easter. This is followed by the next chapter in the saga of HS2, a farcical piece of business where we have to explain to the EU what we are doing to converge our economy with the rest of the EU!  Then there is a proposal to update the amount of taxpayers money given to the Opposition parties.