Christmas is a time of hope for the future and reflection on the year past.
2022 has been a year of many challenges but there has been many positive events to celebrate in Horsham.
Above all the sense of community that saw so many help others, including as volunteers in the Covid booster programmes which helped put us in a better place as the year progressed.
Major steps forward locally included our first new secondary school in many years with students delighted by the new Bohunt school building and the new Woodgate Primary School at Pease Pottage.
I also announced plans for a mental health hub for young people. I am pleased that great progress is being made on the hub and I look forward to it being fully open in the New Year.
It has been a challenging year globally. Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine was and remains horrific. From the Ministry of Defence I engaged with our Ukrainian friends and know how grateful they are for British practical support and diplomatic leadership and how touched they have been by the support provided to refugees, including in Sussex.
The horrors inflicted on our continent remind us how fortunate we are to live in a country where, whatever the political vicissitudes, there is so much stability that binds us together.
The Platinum Jubilee was an extraordinary moment to thank a Sovereign for 70 years devotion to duty. Her Majesty’s funeral, viewed by over half the world, bound the country together in gratitude for her service.
In 2022 we have had much to get used to: a lot of political change with Rishi Sunak now serving as Prime Minister and, a new experience for most of us, a King as Head of State. We can look forward in 2023 to the Commonwealth and the world coming together for His Majesty's Coronation.
The forces unleashed by Covid and Putin’s War continue to cast a long shadow: including the post Pandemic impact on health and waiting lists and inflation and energy prices intensifying wage disputes. There will be plenty of tough challenges in the year ahead and I don't want to pretend that their resolution will be easy. However we end the year with a clear way forward and determination to rise to those challenges, I have no doubt we will succeed.