Jon Ashworth officially opened the air quality monitoring station at the University of Leicester.

Under European Union legislation, the quality of air needs to be monitored in order to protect human health. The United Kingdom has a number of monitoring stations in urban and rural areas, all forming a network of air quality monitoring.

There is currently a monitoring station in Leicester, located between the Leicester City Council office blocks at New Walk, but as this station no longer meets European Union requirements and the Council buildings will soon be demolished, a new monitoring station has been built on the University of Leicester campus site.

Jon said: “It’s really important that the quality of our air is monitored. A number of my constituents contact me about their concerns on the environment and the effects of climate change, and these monitoring stations are important for those reasons as well as for protecting human health.”

The station built on the University of Leicester campus is part of a joint project by the University, Leicester City Council, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and the international JOAQUIN project (which is part-funded by the INTERREG IV-B investment programme).

The new monitoring station will satisfy statutory requirements set by the European Union, but will also provide research measurements for the University, using state of the art equipment to measure gaseous and aerosol pollutants.

Jon Ashworth MP has joined with members of the retail union Usdaw to campaign for respect for shopworkers as part of the Freedom From Fear Campaign, which seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse directed at retail staff.

The campaign event took place the day after the Government blocked a Labour amendment to the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which would have introduced a specific additional offence of assaulting a worker serving the public.

The amendment would have extended existing protections for police officers and Scottish emergency service workers to all workers serving the public, by making the assault of a worker serving the public an offence in its own right.

At the moment, under sentencing guidelines, assaulting a worker is an aggravating factor, but there are concerns this is not being applied when decisions are made about prosecutions and sentencing.

Jon Ashworth stated: “Too often retail employees are confronted with violence, threats and abuse and it is really important we stand by together and ask people to ‘keep their cool and respect shopworkers.”

On Sunday 20 October Jon was at the Belgrave Road ceremony along with the City Mayor, which saw the switching-on of thousands of light bulbs along the Golden Mile to mark the start of Diwali.

Diwali, also known as the festival of lights, is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains, and commemorates the victory of good over evil.

In Leicester, the Diwali lights are switched on a few weeks before the day of the festival itself, with the Diwali celebrations in Leicester reported to be the biggest such celebrations in the world outside India.

Jon stated: “Diwali is an important religious festival for many communities in Leicester, and I was honoured to be at the switch on of the lights for this special ‘festival of light’.”

“I hope that all those celebrating have a prosperous, happy and healthy Diwali.”

Yesterday Jon Ashworth MP joined fellow Leicester MPs and the Leicester Mercury at Downing Street to hand over a 40,000-signature petition backing the Mercury campaign for Richard III to be buried in the city.

Jon was joined by fellow MPs, Sir Edward Garnier MP, Liz Kendall MP, Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, Nicky Morgan MP, David Tredinnick MP, and Andrew Bridgen MP as well as the Leicester Mercury’s Pete Warzinski.

The remains of Richard III were discovered in Grey Friars car park by a team of University of Leicester archaeologists last year.

The campaign began when a group, named the Plantagenet Alliance, took legal action over the exhumation licence for the king, which currently states that his remains be re-interred at Leicester Cathedral in accordance with the University of Leicester’s wishes.

The Plantagenet Alliance wants the remains of the king to be re-interred at York Minster.

Jon Ashworth MP attended both the Shree Mandhata Samaj Hall and De Montfort Hall on the evening of Friday 11 October to participate in Navratri celebrations.

The festival of Navratri is a nine-night long celebration dedicated to the worship of the Hindu Goddess Shakti. Shakti is considered to be the Mother Goddess in the Hindu tradition, and each of the different nine nights of the festival celebrates the various forms that the Goddess takes.

Jon said: “I was really looking forward to celebrating Navratri with the Hindu community in Leicester. I remember taking part in the celebrations last year, and it was great fun. People from all generations came together, and the festival has such great importance for the Hindu community. I was keen to do it again!”

A festival of nine nights, Navratri is celebrated with nights of Indian folk dancing. The festival is popular amongst the Gujarati and Bengali communities in particular, but is largely celebrated across the whole Hindu community.

The Navratri celebrations at Shree Mandhata Samaj Hall were organised by Shree Mandhata Samaj Sahayak Mandal, and the festival at De Montfort Hall was organised by the Leicester Hindu Festival Council.

Jon Ashworth, Labour MP for Leicester South, appeared on EAVA FM this afternoon to talk about the role of a Member of Parliament.

EAVA FM is a Leicester-based radio station that broadcasts in fifteen different languages, and has a variety of shows that range from cultural music programmes to advice programmes.

Whilst on the show, Jon was asked about his Parliamentary duties and what the responsibilities of an MP entail. He also described the various ways an MP is able to help their Constituents, from taking up casework on their behalf to raising issues in the House of Commons.

Jon was also asked to describe the various multicultural community activities he has been involved in. The discussions focused on how Jon fasted during Ramadan, his Navratri celebrations, and his ‘sewa’, or service, in local Gurdwaras.

Jon hosted a conference entitled ‘Next Steps: Mental Health & Wellbeing’. This event was part of Jon’s on-going work aimed at improving mental health services in the City and will be attended by people who use mental health services and their carers.

Jon stated: “In the week of World Mental Health Day it is important that the focus is on services and well being. As a local Champion for Mental Health I am pleased that I am able to bring together the different organisations, both from the statutory and voluntary sectors, for the benefit of those suffering from mental health problems and their carers.”

As a Local Mental Health Champion Jon announced that his office will hold regular Advice Sessions at the Resource Centre at Network for Change. This gives people suffering from mental health problems who may not want to, or be unable to, visit Jon’s Constituency Office greater access to their MP.

As with all the events held to date, ‘Next Steps’ is a multi-agency event involving the City Council, Leicester City Clinical Commissioning Group, Healthwatch Leicester, SUCRAN from De Montfort University, the Voluntary Sector Partnerships Forum for Mental Health and the National Involvement Partnership.

Fran Singer, from the National Involvement Partnership, stated: “Leicester is a pilot site for our national programme 'Involvement for Influence: Influence for Improvement'. We launched our Leadership Training at today’s event supporting service users' involvement and influence in improving mental health in Leicester. We are delighted to co-produce this event as part of our National Involvement work.”

Jon Ashworth MP attended a coffee morning at Knighton Evangelical Free Church on Brinsmead Road.

The coffee morning, which was well attended by local parishioners, began with Jon talking about the role of an MP and the some of the different issues he has campaigned on. Included in this talk was Jon’s visit to India in February this year where he visited Save the Children’s projects in Delhi and Calcutta.

Jon Ashworth MP celebrated the Social Enterprise Mark award to Leicester’s Highfields Centre.

In response to the Public Services (Social Value) Act, which was given Royal Assent in March last year, the Social Enterprise Mark serves as recognition that local agencies create social value in their area through the work they do.

At the event on Friday, Jon presented this award to a local agency in Leicester City that has proved it is in business to benefit the local community. The agency is the Highfields Community Association, trading as Highfields Centre.

Jon said: “I’m pleased that the Social Enterprise Mark has been awarded to Highfields Community Association in Leicester. Social value is an important aspect to consider when delivering public services, and it affects all types of public services – from the delivery of mental health services, to the consideration of housing in the public sector and the provision of services for local communities, including its young people.”

“Highfields Community Association already does an excellent job at a local level, and I’m glad their work is being recognised. Not only that, I’m glad that this Social Enterprise Mark will enable them to continue in improving public services in Leicester.”

To mark the event, the Playgroup encouraged children to drink milk and understand the nutritional benefits milk provides, alongside hundreds of schools and nurseries across the UK throughout September and October 2013.

An initiative driven by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, World School Milk Day (25th September 2013) has celebrated children drinking milk in school and early years settings in over 30 countries around the world since 2000.

In the UK, an estimated 1.5 million children under the age of five receive free milk every day, while pupils aged five to 11 receive subsidised milk.

Delivered fresh to the classroom, the milk is enjoyed as a group, promoting responsibility, independence, manners and numeracy, and provides important social time in a child’s day. Milk is vital for building healthy bones and teeth and improves a child’s concentration, memory and creativity.

Jon Ashworth stated: “I really enjoyed visiting Kiddisafe and being the Milk Monitor for the day. The Cool Milk Scheme makes it easy for nurseries to provide milk which is essential to a child’s development.”

“As a father myself I know that a mid-morning drink of milk is ideal for children’s concentration and creativity, as well as giving them a boost of energy before lunch.”