Train ticket winners from Newquay visit Parliament in London

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the First Great Western press release:

MP^▸ (Member of Parliament, or Mile Post (a method of measuring the railway in miles and chains from a starting point - usually London), depending on context) for St Austell & Newquay, Stephen Gilbert, has hosted a family from Cornwall at the House of Commons after they won train tickets to London in a school raffle.

The Morris family of Newquay won the train tickets donated to St Columb Minor Academy by Stephen in the summer to help raise funds for solar panels. Stephen visited St Columb Minor back in July to hand the tickets over in person and meet pupils at the school.

St Columb Minor Academy has now reached their target of raising ^14,000. The measure will help reduce energy bills, cut carbon emissions and teach pupils about energy and climate change.

The train tickets provided free travel for the Morris family courtesy of First Great Western who gave the tickets earlier this year to Stephen to put towards a good cause of his choice.

Stephen Gilbert MP commented: "It was great fun showing the Morris family around Parliament. My tour guide skills are a little rusty but I gave it a good go and I really hope they enjoyed their visit. St Columb Minor Academy deserves huge congratulations for raising the massive sum of ^14,000 for their solar panels project and it^s great that the tickets have helped towards that goal. I^m also grateful to First Great Western for providing the tickets and helping to make a real contribution to the community.^

Winner of the Tickets, Sonya Morris said: ^We were so pleased to win the tickets in the school summer raffle and thoroughly enjoyed being escorted by Stephen around the buildings steeped in so much history. We ended our tour with a drink and chat on the terrace overlooking the Thames and would like to thank Stephen for taking time out of his day to be such an entertaining host.^

First Great Western General Manager West, David Crome said: ^First Great Western is not only committed to supporting the communities it serves, but to do so with the minimum of impact on our environment. St Columb Minor Academy has done an incredibly good job in raising this amount of money. What better way to help them achieve that than by offering to take the Morris' to London, keeping people moving in these increasingly congested times."