It's been a busy week, and a sad one for my family. On Monday I was proud to be able to pay tribute, in the House of Commons, to Sir Reginald Eyre who, for 22 years was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham, Hall Green. He was also my father in law.

New figures in from Ofcom suggest as many as two in five households in the East of England could switch to faster broadband.

I met the Secretary of State for the Environment, the Rt. Hon. Micheal Gove MP, this week to raise with him the increasing number of reports of flytipped rubbish and trade waste being brought to me by constituents.

I had a great visit to Doddinghurst Infants School last week. The children's artwork and writing was superb, and the Year 1 class representatives did a great job in enthusing me about abstract art.

Alex Burghart MP has this week signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, pledging his commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day and honouring those who were murdered during the Holocaust as well as paying tribute to the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educat

HMRC is reminding nearly four million people who have yet to complete online tax returns - and pay any tax owed - about the deadline on 31 January. Some 11,564,363 million Self Assessment returns are due in total.

I’m pleased to be able to tell readers that Essex County Council’s Conservative administration has been achieved the prized category of Outstanding for their Children’s Services.

You may read this expecting the latest on the political machinations surrounding the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union.

Over the years I have met a good many elderly people who have been stripped of all or part of their hard-earned pensions by cold calling fraudsters.

Great news from Essex County Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Families, Cllr Dick Madden, this week following an inspection by Ofsted of the council's services for children: