Full council meeting today at New Shire Hall. One of the items on the agenda was the Health Scrutiny Annual Report. I am particularly happy to see the work on NHS dentistry highlighted in this report as this is something that was and continues to be one of the key issues our residents raise with councillors. A few months ago at full council we debated NHS dentistry in one of the motions I proposed and there has been cross-party consensus that we need to prioritise this area of work for our residents. It is good to see that the recommendations of the committee were sent to the local integrated care board and that there is a follow-up health scrutiny session planned for 2024-2025. However, as we are all aware, many residents are still unable to get NHS dentist appointments and it is worrying to see the evidence on children experiencing tooth decay in particular as well as the numbers of people attempting their own dentistry at home. Like many of us, I keep on hearing from residents things like “I’ve lost my dentist again” or “I had to go private and used up my savings” - as highlighted by @huntingdonteeth in their response. The general consensus seems to be that many residents don’t see much improvement locally, although we have seen some targeted improvement for example in dental health check times for children in care, which is very welcome. Those experiences do tell us that there are limits to what we can do locally on this issue and the NHS dental contracts which are pushing dentists into private practice need to be reviewed by national government. One of the promises the new Labour government made to the public is to prioritise NHS dentistry and provide 700,000 new urgent and emergency appointments a year and recruit new dentists in the areas that need them most, as well as reforming the contract. Therefore, I would like us as a council to work together to make those promises on NHS dentists a reality and use any follow-up scrutiny sessions we have at the local level to push our ask to central government to have a fair deal for our county with the new appointments and new dentists. Do you have any thoughts on local NHS dentist provision? Let me know!

One of the things I want to do in politics is make it more accessible to the public. Council meetings are live streamed but only watched by a few people and it's not always easy to ask public questions given most meetings are during working hours and in Alconbury Weald, which is not the best connected by public transport in particular. I'm re-starting my "Answers with Alex" Facebook Live events which I did last year, where I welcome questions in my capacity as County Councillor and I'll do my best to answer or let you know where to find the information you need. You can join on my Facebook page on Sunday 12-1pm to ask your questions live or message me your questions and I'll cover as many as I can (the videos will be saved on my page). This will be focussed on council work and Q&A rather than debate - the "Coffee, Buses and Politics" series will continue Fridays 7.30 am with David, Stephen and Martin - and there will be lots of bus conversations there!

11 days til #generalelection! Good to see some of the Labour boards up today 🌹 Short campaign update in the car - what topic would you like to see in the next discussion video?