THERE is a huge agenda for domestic reform but, more particularly, plenty to do locally.

Securing jobs and attracting more investment are two obvious priorities.

The Festival of Manufacturing and Engineering (Festomane) has gone from strength to strength and in addition to the already advanced arrangements for next year’s festival, exciting plans for apprenticeships and awards are being formulated – you can be sure the spotlight will continue to shine on this crucialimportant part of our economy. 

Long- term plans for infrastructure investment are also being promoted.

The Air Balloon roundabout – a serious traffic bottleneck and a cause of many road accidents – is being tackled.

This is a complicated civil engineering challenge, requiring careful design not least because of the environmental considerations, but an agreed solution after appropriate consultation is a realistic and, hopefully, timely expectation. 

Another scheme being promoted is to reopen the Bristol Road railway station in Stonehouse.

This station would connect the Valleys and Vale directly to Bristol and Birmingham therefore removing the need to change trains at Gloucester or Swindon for such journeys.

There is a recognised need for an additional station somewhere along this particular railway line so the immediate need is to demonstrate a business case for the choice to be Stonehouse. 

Two areas of domestic policy reform are of interest locally.

One is the drive to improve standards in all of our schools.

The academies programme has, in some quarters, been controversial – especially in connection with the now abandoned policy of ensuring all schools become academies by 2020 – but a more measured debate about their potential is now under way. 

The other policy area with possible consequences for the Valleys and Vale is devolution, or, more precisely, the process of bringing more public services, including healthcare, into local budgets.

Some large cities are already experiencing the impact of devolution with Manchester being a star example but bringing together all the component parts of a shire county such as Gloucestershire is not without complications. 

Investing in infrastructure, improving our skills and training, and modernising our public services are all about providing life fulfilment opportunities for everybody.