Michael Fabricant has welcomed the decision to approve planning permission to transform the Whittington Barracks at Lichfield into a new headquarters for the Defence Medical Education and Training Agency (DMETA). "I have been lobbying the Secretary of State for Defence, Des Browne, hard to secure the long-term future for the barracks ever since the Government […]

Michael Fabricant opened the Huddlesford Boat Gathering near Lichfield on the morning of Saturday 22nd September. Michael arrived in grand style on a narrow boat travelling up the Coventry Canal and cruising into the Lichfield Canal together with the President and Chairman of the Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust and officers of the Lichfield […]

Michael Fabricant is convening a meeting to be held at Noon on Saturday 29th September in The Committee Room, first floor of The Guildhall, Bore Street, Lichfield to discuss the future of the closed Kwik Save building in Tamworth Street, Lichfield – formerly the Regal Cinema. "I have been blown-out by the response to my […]

Following an approach by the committee set up to mark the tercentenary of Dr Samuel Johnson’s birth in Lichfield on 18th September 1709, Michael Fabricant has enlisted the help of the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (the department formally known as the DTI), Rt Hon John Hutton MP, to ask the […]

Michael Fabricant has issued a challenge to enterprising Lichfeldians to find a new use for an abandoned supermarket and open a specialised cinema in the City. "There are a number of small towns in the midlands with newly opened specialist single-screen cinemas able to offer different choices from the usual multi-screen complexes. They have become […]

Kevin Pearce, Franchise Director for Virgin West Coast trains, has written to Michael Fabricant with the draft timetable for the West Coast Main line effective from December this year and valid until December 2008 when the ‘permanent’ timetable comes into force. "From December 2007, there will be high-speed tilting Virgin Pendolino trains to Euston (London) […]

Although digital TV switchover won’t happen in the midlands until 2011, Michael Fabricant has heard of a number of cases where elderly and vulnerable people have been conned into buying unnecessary and expensive outdoor aerial systems by cowboy contractors. "I first heard about this when my constituent, Ray Bridge, contacted me and I have since […]

In a statement issued to MPs today (Tuesday 24th July), the NHS West Midlands has confirmed that the merger of the Staffordshire Ambulance Service into the West Midlands Ambulance Service will take place on 1st October. The statement (reproduced below) says that this comes about because the "convergence criteria" set by the Government have been […]

Michael Fabricant joined Terry Robertson, holder of the Royal Yachting Association Instructor’s Certificate, for training on the narrow boat Shropshire Lass at Great Haywood on the Trent & Mersey Canal on Saturday 14th July. Michael is a keen narrow boater, Patron of the popular Lichfield & Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust, and a member of the […]

At a meeting held at the House of Commons on Thursday afternoon (12th July) between senior officials from the Department of Transport, the Managing Director of Virgin Trains West Coast (Charles Belcher), representatives of the Lichfield Commuters’ Club (Dorcas Batstone and Douglas Neill), and Michael Fabricant, it was agreed that the planned morning commuters Virgin […]