Richard Foord: High Street banks closure and water quality

Everyone needs one to reflect and look forward.

I hope that you enjoyed the Christmas and New Year break.

I feel full of enthusiasm and energy for whatever the next twelve months will bring, and for the work that I will do on your behalf.

At the beginning of January, I reckon that this year I will be seized by activity on:

• The retention of local services, such as high street bank branches
• Continuing the focus on river and coastal water quality
• Safeguarding our essential health services, in spite of their significant financial challenges

The big banks continue to close their high street branches.

With the final bank in Seaton set to shut in March (Lloyds), I intend to make some noise in the ear of the Government.

Sidmouth and Axminster have banking hubs, but these do not offer the full range of services offered by high street banks.

I will be continuing to focus on the constituency’s water quality, around our beautiful coastline and our rivers.

For example, I will continue to work with the Otter Valley Association to encourage South West Water and the Environment Agency to prioritise cleaning up the River Otter, which is deemed ‘poor’ in terms of its water quality, largely due to phosphates caused by sewage pollution.

The state of the river puts it into the bottom 20 per cent of rivers nationally for water quality.

Additionally, there is much to do in relation to our precious health service.

NHS Devon has launched its ten-year plan, which will be considered by Devon County Council’s Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee later this week.

It goes live against the backdrop of unprecedented financial difficulty, even by the standards of NHS Devon, which has been widely regarded as one of the most financially challenged health areas in the country for several years.

The plan makes much of providing health services for ‘neighbourhoods’, which might be reassuring if it weren't for the misunderstanding in Whitehall about what community means in this context.

It also lacks full inclusion of social care considerations – in keeping with Government policy in Westminster and Whitehall, which does not show enough regard for social care.

I will be working across a range of issues this year.

These three illustrate a few which I receive lots of correspondence about.

Of course, you will have others, and it is always a pleasure to hear from you where you want your MP and my team to focus our energies.

Happy 2026.