Aylesbury's MP reflects on first year in role

Labour's Laura Kyrke-Smith has issued a statement as she prepares to mark a year as the town's MP.

This July marks one year since I was elected to serve you as your Member of Parliament for Aylesbury and the villages.

You may or may not have voted for me, but I aim to represent you all. I promised to be an accessible and active MP, and I've been out and about across Aylesbury and the villages, meeting residents and supporting local organisations. This helps me to be your voice in Parliament, where I've spoken more than 100 times to raise the issues that matter to you.

Most of the local issues that Aylesbury and the villages face require partnership. I am committed to working with Buckinghamshire Council, Aylesbury Town Council, parish councils, Thames Valley Police, local businesses, schools, GPs, faith organisations and many others to help deliver the change our communities need.

The Government is stepping up with new policies and funding, and my job is to help make sure these national changes have a positive impact locally. There are four areas where I'm particularly proud of the progress we're making.

First, improving support and opportunities for young people. We've got a lot of work to do in this regard – not least for children with special educational needs and disabilities for whom a better support system can't come soon enough. But we're making some progress. I'm pleased that two of our local primaries, Ashmead Combined School and St Mary's Church of England School, are pilot schools for the Government's breakfast clubs, making sure children start the day ready to learn and helping parents get to work. We've also extended free school meals to all children on means-tested benefits — helping up to 4690 children across Aylesbury and the villages, and lifting many out of poverty – when it is rolled out from September 2026.

During the Easter school holidays, I was so proud of the 14 students who took part in my "Your Voice, Your Future" work experience programme for local young people interested in politics and leadership — they were so thoughtful and had such great ideas. I look forward to running the programme in future years.

The second priority that I'm pushing is improving our infrastructure. We have lots more to do, not least getting the Eastern Link Road finally built. But back in February, I successfully lobbied the Government to approve the full business case for SEALR — the South East Aylesbury Link Road — unlocking £13.4m of additional funding. The Government has also committed to deliver more than £20m in funding to Buckinghamshire Council to fix the potholes that blight our roads, which should make a real difference. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Transport to make the case for a rail link from Aylesbury to Milton Keynes, which has not yet received funding but I will continue to push for it.

Third, people tell me at my regular advice surgeries that they are starting to notice a difference in waiting times for NHS appointments. Recent data confirms this is not just anecdotal:  NHS waiting lists in the South East have fallen by over 35,000 compared to June of last year. In addition to this, I'm really pleased Stoke Mandeville Hospital was confirmed as one of 13 places across the country to receive a new state-of-the-art DEXA scanner, providing my constituents with key diagnostic tests for conditions such as osteoporosis.  

I know people really struggle to see their GP and I will keep working on this. We had new housing estates built in a poorly planned way under the previous Government, without the necessary GP services being provided. We also have particularly high levels of poverty and health challenges in parts of Aylesbury, which contributes to the pressures on our GP services. There is no quick fix for this, but we are starting to turn things around. Four GP surgeries locally are set to benefit from the biggest investment in GP facilities we have seen in years:  Whitchurch Surgery, Wing Surgery, Aston Clinton Surgery and Bedgrove Surgery. More than 1,700 GPs have been recruited nationally since last October; I hope Aylesbury constituency residents will start to feel the impact of this. 

Fourth, we know we need to do better at protecting and restoring nature. I'm pleased that nationally the government has moved quickly on this, in particular taking decisive action to clean up Britain's waterways. The era of profiting from failure is over: Thames Water and Anglian Water have been banned from paying bonuses to senior bosses. As a Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Steve Reed, I have been helping drive forward the Government's wider plans to boost nature recovery, including how we balance it with future housebuilding. I was pleased to welcome the Secretary of State to Kingsbrook so that he could see this successful example firsthand.

On all these fronts and more, there is so much more that needs to be done. And I know we don't get everything right. But I committed to always showing up, and I have – whether that's holding advice surgeries for pensioners affected by the changes to winter fuel payments, meeting regularly with farmers impacted by inheritance tax reforms, and holding a roundtable with disabled people and local disability organisations on the Government's proposed welfare reforms. I raise residents' concerns at the very highest levels of government. 

The bread-and-butter work of an MP is answering correspondence from my constituents and helping them solve issues they're having.  Since being elected, I have set up my small and dedicated team from scratch. They help me to reply to the large volume of letters and emails that come my way. We have processed over 7000 enquiries since the election, and I have corresponded with constituents on a wide range of subjects from animal welfare to potholes, HS2 to fly tipping. We have also held five village "Meet and Greet" events so far in Ivinghoe, Edlesborough, Cheddington, Wing and Bierton, which provide an informal opportunity to meet with me and my team to discuss anything and everything. This engagement is an essential part of my job and is often the starting point for local campaigns I take up.

For instance, when constituents got in touch about Arriva's decision to end their X5 bus service from Aylesbury to Hemel Hempstead, I worked with them and with Red Eagle, who adjusted their 500 bus timetable to make up for the loss of the X5. Likewise, after an advice surgery appointment on the scaffolding which for years has completely blocked a pavement on Aylesbury's High Street, I started a petition and I am pressing the Council to fix it.

Though change will take time, I am optimistic for the future. One of my favourite parts of the job has been meeting with people who are already doing so much to make a difference locally — the unsung heroes who make our communities better places to live and work. There are too many to mention here, but among them is Amy Scullard, who helps lead Aylesbury PANDAS, a perinatal mental health support group based at Aylesbury Vineyard Church. In my first year as your MP, I have been campaigning for improved perinatal mental health provision. This is an issue personal to me — I lost my dear friend to suicide in 2021. In February I led a Westminster Hall debate, and in May I hosted an event in Parliament attended by over 50 MPs and Peers to mark World Maternal Mental Health Awareness Day.  

These are just some of the things I've prioritised in year one. I am always open to feedback and ideas. Let me know what you'd like me to focus on in year two.