ONE of the great satisfactions of being a Member of Parliament is working with dedicated residents in delivering local community initiatives. Insightful speeches and comments in Parliament have a place, but the bulk of the work of a constituency-focused MP gets done locally.

There are so many brilliant constituents and local organisations I get to work alongside regularly, but I want to highlight two in this diary piece.

First, the parent group behind the West Reading Education Network, who are aiming to open a secondary free school next September on the former Elvian School site.

I have been working with many of the same team for some years, both on the successful opening of the outstanding-rated All Saints Junior school, and of the course the WREN initiative.

The energy, innovation and sheer capacity for hard work of the WREN parents is really amazing. And with the support of local people, politicians, the government’s Planning Inspectorate and now the courts, they have got to a position where a school on their preferred site is starting to look distinctly possible.

There are, as one would expect, further hurdles to still overcome before we get a full green light on the school and the site. But WREN has always had an unfailing confidence about its future success and local parents and students could not hope for a better team leading this process.

The second group I want to highlight is the Save Pincents Hill team, or Save Calcot Action Group as they are also known. Set up in 2008 this group of residents, led by local Joan Lawrie, worked with local people and councillors Joe Mooney, Tony Linden and Emma Webster, to successfully stop 750 homes and commercial units being built on Pincents Hill.

Having worked closely alongside Joan and others during that mammoth campaign, which concluded in government Ministers rejecting the developer’s appeal to build on the hill, I know how strongly local people felt about preserving Pincents Hill as a green space.

But the developers are back, this time proposing to West Berkshire Council that Pincents Hill take 225 to 300 homes. There is no formal planning application at this stage but we can all anticipate another battle coming.

A questionnaire has been circulated to thousands of homes in the local area to gauge current public opinion. Visit aloksharma.co.uk or savepincentshill.co.uk if you want to complete the questionnaire online. I want to hear your current views.