THIS week in his latest column for the Guardian, Warrington South MP Faisal Rashid reflects on a couple of busy weeks in Westminster and Warrington.

Autumn is a season of contrasts in nature but also in the life of an MP.

No sooner had Parliament recommenced sitting than it was in recess again for the party conferences.

After a couple of busy weeks where the Government’s Great Repeal Bill had its first reading, I took part in the debates on NHS pay and tuition fees and participated in ministerial questions about the plight of the Rohingya people in Myanmar and I have had the opportunity to get out and about in Warrington where there’s a lot happening.

With the final consultation sessions on the council’s preferred development option (PDO) for the proposed local plan taking place early in the month and the announcement of the preferred route for the Warrington Western Link being made a couple of weeks later, I have been gathering responses from residents on both issues in order to write further to the council on your behalf.

The final deadline for comments on the PDO is September 29.

There will be further opportunities to feed in to the proposed local plan itself next year when it is produced.

I was also pleased to be able to present cheques to my chosen mayoral charities to share out the just under £70,000 of funds raised last year.

I am very grateful to everyone who donated and helped raise money for these amazing local good causes.

I am proud to have become a patron of CARE UK and was pleased to be able to open their new premises in the Cockhedge Centre.

They are doing wonderful work to support refugees abroad and people in needy circumstances closer to home.

I’ve been out and about in the community meeting residents and attending events, but have also written on your behalf about the urgent need for leasehold reform to protect people from unfair charges, and again about the tolling of the Mersey Gateway.

I have invited Jesse Norman MP, part of the ministerial team in the Department for Transport, to come to Warrington to take a look for himself at our traffic congestion in the hope that the penny will finally drop that Warrington has – literally – been sold down the river by the Government’s broken promise of free passage across the Mersey.

This is something I will keep raising at every opportunity because the impact of tolling on our already congested town centre is not acceptable.