Tweet Michael has set his priorities - Please let him know what you think: Michael's Priorities Current Michael's priorities National Issues Get involved Your details Leave this field blank On a scale of 1-10, how much do you agree with the following priorities? With 10 being the most important to you, and 1 being least important. Questions 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Championing Education As a parent to three children all in local schools, Michael has long campaigned for fairer funding for our schools. He will continue to campaign for more funding, and for capital grants for each of our local schools. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ensuring Law & Order Michael has fought for increased funding for Dorset Police, which has secured 174 new officers for our community. He wants to ensure as many of these are deployed locally, to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Supporting local families & communities Recent improvements to childcare support mean that working parents can now apply for 15 hours a week of fully funded childcare. Michael will ensure we deliver more, so that families with children between 9 months and 5 years old will receive 30 hours of fully funded childcare by September 2025. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Promoting local Jobs & Investment Michael has long supported local businesses, and has a range of businesses supporting him as a result. Unemployment is lower in Mid Dorset and North Poole than the national level, and Michael is keen to reduce this even more and help people get into work. Investment into Dorset, and promoting businesses is a key part of that. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Protecting Rural Areas Michael has long campaigned to try to protect our Green Belt from overdevelopment. He wants to continue to push for Brownfield development, to ensure future generations can enjoy our green space 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Investing in healthcare Michael has worked with the Government to deliver more than £300 million of capital funding for upgrades to the three major hospitals which serve the people of Mid Dorset and North Poole. Michael will continue to push for more capital funding, to ensure we continue to have state of the art healthcare locally, and will continue to support local pharmacies - who do vital work to relieve pressure on our GP's and A&E services. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Keeping Us Connected Mid Dorset and North Poole is a beautiful place to live and work, but it can have its challenges when it comes to connectivity. We all know the frustration of struggling with getting a phone signal, and too many of us have not-spots where we cannot use our phones. Likewise, brilliant progress has been made with faster broadband – but slow speeds can still be an issue for some people. Keeping connected is also about infrastructure – keeping our road well-surfaced and uncongested, our buses affordable and our rail network providing the service that we need. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10