Aylesbury MP pays tribute to residents during Covid-19 debate

During Monday's debate on Covid-19 Aylesbury's MP spoke about the area's response to the pandemic.

Author: Scarlett Bawden-GaulPublished 2nd Oct 2020

Aylesbury MP paid tribute to local firms who are returning to work.

During Monday's debate on COVID-19, Aylesbury MP spoke about the response from locals during the pandemic.

Rob Butler paid tribute to firms and organisations who are returning to pre-covid working:

"I'd like to pay tribute to those across my constituency who’ve shown resilience, compassion and imagination in adapting to live alongside the current pandemic. Just last Friday, I visited Aylesbury Crown Court where under the inspirational leadership of His Honour Judge Francis Sheridan.

"It has become the first in the country to be back working at 100%, screens have been put in the courtroom to ensure jurors are Covid safe, video links connect with Amersham Courthouse so that sentencing can be carried out there for offenders being held in a secure dock in Aylesbury, and some of the work of the employment tribunal has been relocated to the judge’s own chambers."

Rob Butler also spoke about the importance of balancing public health with the needs of the economy.

He highlighted the work of the local health service in doing this:

"Bucks NHS Trust and particularly Stoke Mandeville Hospital is in a strong position to respond to an increase in cases of Covid-19 and crucially to ensure that those with other health problems do not go ignored, people are still getting cancer, they are still suffering heart problems and they still have chronic conditions, and it must be right that we ensure our brilliant doctors and nurses are able to provide them with the treatment and care they need and deserve.

"I've had a considerable amount of correspondence from constituents who say they do not want stricter measures and notably, a good deal of this has come from those who themselves are in at-risk groups, as they themselves acknowledge, particularly some of the older members of the community. Put bluntly there are grandparents who do not want to be forced to live their final days free of Covid, but banned from seeing their families."

The full speech is below: