I hope everyone managed to enjoy a good break over Christmas and I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year.

Before Christmas, I met up with Crumlin councillor Carl Thomas to look at issues that could be exacerbating the severity of flooding around North Road and Station Road.

We looked at the drainage on the road and discussed the work that has been done by Network Rail on, and around, their railway track, which may have had an effect on the landscape.

My first visit in the New Year was to Pandy Park, where I met Angie and Colin of Crosskeys RFC to talk about the unique damage done by flooding during Storm Bert in November.

During the storm, the River Ebbw completely flooded the pitch and caused extensive damage to the clubhouse, where furniture and electrical appliances are being replaced or repaired at a great cost to the club.

I know other residents and businesses in Crosskeys, and others in Islwyn, were hit badly by these extreme weather events. I do not believe our communities should accept these flood risks as they are without understanding without is being done to protect them from another catastrophe moving forwards.

That is why I have called a meeting of four organisations – Caerphilly County Borough Council, Network Rail, Welsh Water and Natural Resources Wales – with responsibility for different aspects of flood resilience, to discuss local risks and protective measures in Crosskeys and Crumlin.

I will be inviting the local councillors to this meeting and hope that by bringing these authorities together we can identify priorities that make a lasting impact to our communities’ preparedness for floods.

This week I met with representatives from the Post Office to discuss the imminent closure of the branch in Bassaleg, which is closing at the end of the month.

I asked them to keep residents abreast of any developments and urged them to restore a local service as soon as possible so residents do not have to travel to a more distant alternative.

As one of four Freedom of Religious Belief officers, I attended a conference in New Delhi titled Dare to Overcome in which we learned important lessons about the freedom of religious expression in India, the most populous country in the world.

In Parliament, I attended an event with representatives from Duolingo, the most popular language learning platform in the world which has more than 100 million active users across the world.

We spoke about the target of reaching one million Welsh speakers by the year 2050 and the importance of keeping their Welsh language materials accessible and up to date if we are going to achieve it.

I look forward to continuing my work as Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee, having already held inquiries into the management of Parc prison, preparedness for Storm Bert and Darragh, and launched longer inquiries looking at attracting inward investment and Wales’ industrial legacy.

In the summer, I will present my bill to ban the import of fur products to Britain. I hope it will close a loophole that has lasted for more than twenty years and set a positive example to the rest of the world.