I JOINED manager Kevin Taylor and his team last Friday morning at Salisbury’s Royal Mail delivery office. It was pleasing to hear that Salisbury has achieved the highest quality rating in the south-west, at 94.7 per cent.

From there, I headed to Bemerton St John Primary School, which has enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in its fortunes in recent times under the excellent leadership of Alun Richards. The school is now oversubscribed – a clear demonstration of how strong leadership can change outcomes for the better.

Claire Orledge’s incredibly-engaged Year 6 class provided me with 31 questions in an hour – more than John Bercow has ever managed to get through!

A visit to Turning Point on Castle Street gave me a chance to meet service users and providers of drug and alcohol support services. I hope that planning issues can be sorted out to enable the provision of what should be viewed as GP surgery-style services which will help the whole community.

We need to overcome any squeamishness about this subject and focus on early intervention to help those with signs of addiction. This is an important part of public health provision.

Following the latest meeting in an ongoing dialogue with Natural England and the Environment Agency about securing long-term sustainable management of water levels in Britford, the deputy leader of Wiltshire Council came down to meet with a constituent over the provision of high speed, high quality broadband.

After yet another packed surgery, I had the latest in my regular catch-ups with the leadership at Salisbury District Hospital. Chairman Luke March is stepping down and I have very much enjoyed and respected his discernment and judgement in dealing with a raft of difficult funding challenges.

He is an enormous asset to public life in Salisbury and I am hopeful that other roles await him.

Community carols at the Salvation Army and at the recording of BBC Wiltshire’s carol service in the Cathedral completed a festive weekend.

This week in Westminster I intend to speak in the Foodbanks debate and in a Westminster Hall debate on palliative care for children.