IT WAS a pleasure to be asked to speak and hand out awards and certificates to former Year 11 pupils at Llantarnam School’s recent Celebration of Achievement evening.

I know the school hasn’t had an easy time of it in recent years, but the improved GCSE results this year are a credit to the headteacher, staff and students who’ve worked so hard.

It’s always especially good to speak with bright, enthusiastic young people in our valley – they are a credit to their parents and their town, and a far cry from the negative image that young people often get lumbered with in the media.

My association with the school goes back several decades, so I found it sad in a way that this was the last year that the event will take place at the school. I suppose my sentiments can’t change the fact that there are only enough pupils for two secondary schools in Cwmbran, especially if we want to give our young people the widest possible range of subjects to study. However, I hope that the many positive aspects of Llantarnam School will live on at Cwmbran High School, combining with the best of Fairwater too, so that our young people can benefit from the best possible education.

My postbag and email account were also heavy this month with two issues close to the hearts of many local people.

Firstly, I want to reassure my constituents that I voted in favour of the Bill to protect the NHS from privatisation and the ‘TTIP’ trade deal. I agree with those who wrote to me to say they don’t want our NHS sold off to the highest bidder – either because of the effects of TTIP or the Government’s dangerous Health and Social Care Act.

I was also pleased to celebrate a victory in another campaign you may have read about in the Argus, to protect our local pubs. I supported a key amendment to the Small Business Bill to introduce a ‘market rent only’ or ‘free of tie’ option for the tenant publicans whose pubs are owned by large pub companies.

Pubs often lie at the heart of our local communities, bringing people together and helping to make the community a real, living place. Excessive rents and inflated beer prices have left many hard-working publicans impoverished. That has nothing to do with fair competition and everything to do with the greed of some ‘Pubcos’. This amendment will finally force large pub companies to offer fair terms to their licensees and help address the scandal of so many valued community pubs closing their doors.