Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois spent a Friday evening recently meeting with young people from across the Hockley and Hawkwell areas, at the Hockley Methodist Church Youth Club.
Mark visited the youth club and met members of their “Friday group” with whom he chatted and played table tennis for a while before then sitting down to dinner with the “Friday Plus group” of secondary school age young people. During a lively question and answer session over dinner, Mark answered questions on a whole variety of subjects ranging from the EU Referendum (and why Mark favours Brexit) to housing development in the area and education. Most of the young people present currently attend Greensward Academy, which Mark is due to officially re-open in the near future, following a £14 million refurbishment.
Speaking about his visit to the youth club, Mark said:
“The Reverend Phil Warrey and Hockley Methodist Church provide a valuable service to the community in running their youth club for both the Friday and Friday Plus groups and it was a pleasure to sit down with the latter and to have an enjoyable question and answer session over a good meal of Shepherd’s Pie. I was impressed by the quality of the questions and these young people clearly had a lot of positive things to say for themselves. I look forward to remaining in touch with the group in the future.”