Newquay's MP, Stephen Gilbert, has today said that the Newquay to London airline is "secure for years to come".

The MP, the Government, Cornwall Council and Newquay Cornwall Airport today announced a deal with FlyBe to run three return flights each day to Gatwick as part of a four-year package to support the key route.

Nurseries, childminders and other early years providers in Cornwall are set for a £342,734 cash injection to help three and four-year-olds from disadvantaged families.

Children from low income families have often fallen behind more well off classmates before they even start school.

But from April 2015, the Early Years Pupil Premium - which has been backed by groups like Barnados, 4Children and the Child Poverty Action Group - will mean extra money to make sure every child gets a fair start.

Last week, Stephen Gilbert MP chaired the launch meeting of the new Protect Our Waves All Party Parliamentary Group in conjunction with Surfers Against Sewage.

The meeting, which was attended by the Minister for Marine Environment (George Eustice MP), launched a new report into the effect of marine litter on the UK coastline which was produced in conjunction with World Animal Protection and the Crown Estate.

The report highlights the environmental impacts on marine ecosystems and wildlife, and the unaffordable costs to industries including fisheries and tourism. The report calls on government, industry and the public to adopt new strategies to reduce beach litter by 50% by 2020.

The basic state pensions will rise by at least £2.85 a week thanks to the Liberal Democrats triple lock. It means 115,241 pensioners in Cornwall will benefit from an increase in their pension.

This rise will bring the level of the state pension to at least £115.95 and will benefit millions of pensioners across the UK. This is £18.30 more, each week, than in 2010 when the Liberal Democrats entered coalition. This means pensioners on the full basic state pension are £950 a year better off than they were under Labour.

The triple lock delivers a pension rise of whichever i

The Liberal Democrats campaigned for the triple local in opposition, have delivered it in Government and have pledged to write it into law in the next Parliament.s the greater of average earnings, inflation or 2.5%, meaning pensioners across Cornwall will see more money in their pockets.

Former Liberal Democrat Leader and Member of the House of Lords, Paddy Ashdown, will make a special visit to Cornwall on 11thDecember in support of Stephen Gilbert's re-election campaign.

Paddy became an MP after serving in the Royal Marines and the Secret Intelligence Services. Following his time as Liberal Democrat Party Leader from 1988-1999, he became the International High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is now a member of the House of Lords and is the chair of the Liberal Democrat's 2015 campaign team.

During his visit, Paddy will be the guest of honour at a fundraising dinner to be held at the Atlantic Hotel, Newquay where he will speak about his time in the forces and give his take on current international affairs.

The event is open to all and tickets costing £50 (to include a three course meal and entertainment) can be purchased fromhttp://bit.do/PaddyinNewquay or by phoning 01637 850507.

Stephen Gilbert, MP for St Austell & Newquay, has welcomed a further fall in local unemployment during the month of September.

Figures published today by the Office for National Statistics show that the number of claimants in the mid-Cornwall constituency has fallen to 959 (1.6%) – the lowest level in six years and down from 1,551 (2.6%) in the same month last year.

After his election, Stephen Gilbert pledged that his top priority as the local MP would be to boost jobs and encourage business investment into the community.

Getting off at the right bus stop is like "playing a game of chance", says guide dog owner Linda, about her experiences navigating the bus network without sight.

Mr Gilbert got a chance to experience for himself why people with sight loss need audio-visual announcements (AV) on buses, through playing a memory game, at the Liberal Democrat Party conference this week.

AV is essential for people with sight loss to live independently, yet only one fifth of the UK's buses have AV. Without AV bus passengers with sight loss have to ask the driver to remember to tell them when they have reached their stop.

Finding out more about Guide Dogs' work, the MP for St Austell and Newquay heard that 7 in 10 bus passengers with sight loss have been forgotten by a bus driver. For a sighted person, missing a stop is an annoyance, but for someone with sight loss, it is potentially very dangerous.

AV doesn't just help people with sight loss - tourists, older people and infrequent bus users all find AV useful. Guide Dogs released their Destination Unknown report this September showing that nearly half of survey respondents said they would use the bus more frequently if it had AV.

St Austell & Newquay’s Liberal Democrat MP, Stephen Gilbert, is “delighted” that the Cornwall Growth Deal, worth almost £200 million for our community, has been finalised and signed by the Government.

The deal, which was agreed earlier this year, will see £48.9 million of Government investment into the area and help unlock £150 million from partners and the private sector.

The investment is key to Cornwall’s continued economic growth and will create 4,000 new jobs and allow 6,000 homes to be built across the county, helping to meet the needs of the community and tackle the housing crisis.

St Austell & Newquay’s Liberal Democrat MP, Stephen Gilbert, has written to the Health Minister, Daniel Poulter MP, to call for statutory regulation to be extended to new groups of healthcare professionals. 

Since 2003, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) has recommended that 11 new groups of healthcare professionals should be brought within the framework for statutory regulation, but, according to the HCPC, only two have been.

There are concerns that non-statutory Accredited Voluntary Registration fails to provide the robust safeguards necessary to ensure patient safety; with one registrar (the Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists) highlighting instances of practitioners leaving the register following negligence claims and simply gaining new employment at another NHS provider.

In his letter, Stephen asks the Minister to address the concerns regarding the disciplinary process for voluntarily registered practitioners and to extend statutory regulation to the groups recommended by the HCPC.