- 10/07/2025
- Posted by: Sojan Joseph MP
- Category: Column
Last week marked one year since the General Election – and a year since I was elected as
the first ever Labour MP for Ashford, Hawkinge, and the Villages.
Since being elected, I have had several key priorities for the constituency which I have
focused on – one of which is transportation. I understand the frustration many people feel
– our roads are blighted by potholes and bus services are inadequate; however, the
Government has designated £23m for buses and £54m for road maintenance in Kent, so
there are reasons to be optimistic.
My colleagues and I are also continuing our campaign to bring European travel back to
Ashford International. We still have the backing of Government Ministers and potential new
competitors to Eurostar, such as FS Italiane, open to dialogue.
Saturday 5th July marked the 77th anniversary of the creation of our NHS – the crowning
achievement of the Labour Party. On the Thursday before the anniversary, we saw the
Government launch its 10-year plan for Health – an ambitious strategy to make the NHS fit
for the future. The plans included digitilising the NHS’s analogue system to improve
efficiency, creating a ‘community-based’ model, and moving towards preventative care,
away from allowing people to fall ill before treatment.
During his statement last Thursday, I asked Wes Streeting how the NHS App could be used
for self-referrals and talking therapies to improve mental health services. I was pleased the
Secretary of State recognised the importance of talking therapies and expanded on my
question to explain how the Government would be moving people in a mental health crisis
out of busy, noisy A&E departments into specialised units instead.
Representing my constituents by working on 4,600+ cases and policy responses and
meeting so many residents across the 19 surgeries has been the honour of a lifetime – I
cannot wait to see what the next four years have to offer!
I am an Instructor in the Cadet Forces, I booked the facilities at St Martins Plain Army Camp for an upcoming residential event for our Cadets, however there was a lack of feeding facilities on site at the moment and the booking team will only accept a onsite field kitchen as an alternative to the fixed facility, despite having a robust feeding plan for our Cadets offsite.
I contacted my MP who wrote to the Minister to confirm that an additional notice will be added to the booking system to support off site feeding plans and also confirmed a permanent catering facility is in planning for the future.
Southern Water’s contractors have now cleared the vegetation along the stream bank. Many thanks for your intervention in this matter.
My wife’s driving licence has been received in the post. Your magic seems to have worked!
I have finally been granted a blue badge. I would like to extend my thanks for your assistance in helping me secure an appeal meeting which I was unable to obtain myself
Thank you very much for your help, I do believe it has helped to speed things up as soon as you got involved everything got resolved very quickly
There are two sets of doors to get into Wye train station. One is automatic, but the other consisted of two heavy, narrow non-automatic doors. One of these was often bolted shut at both the top and bottom, making the remaining opening too narrow for bikes, wheelchairs, prams, and others with accessibility needs. The other door was permently locked and this is what that created the main accessibility issue. As a physiotherapist, I could clearly see how difficult this would be for many people. I raised this with Southeastern without success, so I contacted Sojan. Sojan then followed this up, and I’m pleased to see that fully automatic doors have now been installed.
My pension credit was stopped for no reason in July 2025. Sojan contacted the DWP and my pension credit was restored and backdated.
I contacted Sojan for support regarding unwanted parking in front of my garage. After arriving home from holiday I was pleased to see that with Sojan’s input the council have painted yellow boxes in front of my garage along with a big no parking sign. I want to thank Sojan for his efforts on resolving this issue
My mum moved to Ashford in 2020. Since moving to Ashford my mum was not receiving her pension credit. This accrued to over £10,000. I had been struggling to contact the DWP and decided to contact Sojan. I want to thank Sojan from the bottom of my heart for working on this for me. I very much doubt that, without Sojan’s assistance I would still be on hold to the DWP.
I am an Instructor in the Cadet Forces, I booked the facilities at St Martins Plain Army Camp for an upcoming residential event for our Cadets, however there was a lack of feeding facilities on site at the moment and the booking team will only accept a onsite field kitchen as an alternative to the fixed facility, despite having a robust feeding plan for our Cadets offsite.
I contacted my MP who wrote to the Minister to confirm that an additional notice will be added to the booking system to support off site feeding plans and also confirmed a permanent catering facility is in planning for the future.
Southern Water’s contractors have now cleared the vegetation along the stream bank. Many thanks for your intervention in this matter.
My wife’s driving licence has been received in the post. Your magic seems to have worked!
I have finally been granted a blue badge. I would like to extend my thanks for your assistance in helping me secure an appeal meeting which I was unable to obtain myself
Thank you very much for your help, I do believe it has helped to speed things up as soon as you got involved everything got resolved very quickly
There are two sets of doors to get into Wye train station. One is automatic, but the other consisted of two heavy, narrow non-automatic doors. One of these was often bolted shut at both the top and bottom, making the remaining opening too narrow for bikes, wheelchairs, prams, and others with accessibility needs. The other door was permently locked and this is what that created the main accessibility issue. As a physiotherapist, I could clearly see how difficult this would be for many people. I raised this with Southeastern without success, so I contacted Sojan. Sojan then followed this up, and I’m pleased to see that fully automatic doors have now been installed.
My pension credit was stopped for no reason in July 2025. Sojan contacted the DWP and my pension credit was restored and backdated.
I contacted Sojan for support regarding unwanted parking in front of my garage. After arriving home from holiday I was pleased to see that with Sojan’s input the council have painted yellow boxes in front of my garage along with a big no parking sign. I want to thank Sojan for his efforts on resolving this issue
My mum moved to Ashford in 2020. Since moving to Ashford my mum was not receiving her pension credit. This accrued to over £10,000. I had been struggling to contact the DWP and decided to contact Sojan. I want to thank Sojan from the bottom of my heart for working on this for me. I very much doubt that, without Sojan’s assistance I would still be on hold to the DWP.
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