This week marks the end of a year and the end of a decade. I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

For a moment, let’s recall the journey we have been on in this decade. When you elected me in 2001 it was after a period in the 1980s and 1990s when Gloucester had been ravaged by cuts. In the previous decade the Conservative government had removed higher education from Gloucester and shut the campus at Oxstalls. One of the first things I did as the local MP was to open the £20m Oxstalls Campus, bringing University status to our City.

When you voted for me you voted for investment in Gloucester after a wasted generation that saw the City suffer remorselessly. I can clearly recall having to get Peel Holdings and British Waterways in to a room with the agencies that mattered and basically locking the door until I had brokered the deal which put a new £35m College in the Docks. That was the trigger for the restoration of the Quays in to a place of jobs and investment. You wanted and deserved that investment, after a generation in which the City had stagnated.

We invested over £30m to rebuild our hospital, opened new wards, massively increased the numbers of doctors and nurses which has saved countless lives. Remember what the NHS used to be like when it was starved of cash?

A new Police Headquarters for the County now houses record numbers of officers. We built it in Gloucester whereas the old HQ was in Cheltenham. New schools buildings – no more schools with leaky roofs and outside toilets, a Police HQ, hospital extensions and Surestart are things we should be proud of – not labelled as ‘a wasteful splurge of public spending’.

It’s been a great decade of investment for Gloucester – a decade in which we’ve been named as one of the country’s top ten Cities.

But roll on the next decade, because I’m determined that we should build on this and make Gloucester even better, and not let anyone tear up the improvements we’ve made. Gloucester needs more investment not less in 2010.

Parmjit Dhanda MP

Member of Parliament for Gloucester