Richard has championed the case of Sergeant Alexander Blackman, the former Royal Marine imprisoned for shooting and killing a wounded Taliban fighter in 2011. The case has been controversial - Sergeant Blackman was filmed in the act - but campaigners maintain that the senior non-commissioned officer was operating under intolerable pressure in impossible conditions, without adequate support.

Dorset's Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has made it clear that provision of healthcare in Dorset is, "unsustainable in terms of staffing, facilities and finances." Problems include the rural location and long distances to travel, more complex deliveries of more babies, small hospitals with overstretched staff and care organised according to NHS boundaries, rather than need.

Richard has long campaigned for the improvement of rail services to Weymouth, which suffer from fewer, slower and shorter trains due to a reduction in electrification beyond Bournemouth. Current plans under review by South West trains include a new, fast service to London Waterloo, via Dorchester West, Yeovil Junction and Salisbury, with no other stops. South West trains believes that with some infrastructure work this plan would be feasible.

11th September, 2015. "The Secretary of State does not consider that the Applicant has made a sufficiently robust case for granting development consent." With these words, the Department for Energy and Climate change rejected the Navitus Bay proposal to build a giant windfarm, the size of Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch combined, just nine miles off Swanage.

 The long and hard fought campaign to retain our search and rescue (SAR) helicopter on Portland failed despite the valiant efforts of many constituents and others.

SWANAGE Community hospital is safe. So says Ron Shields, the chief executive of Dorset Healthcare University Trust, whose responsibilies include the three community hospitals in South Dorset. The other two being Weymouth and Portland.He told Richard that he wanted to fully utilize all the community hospitals and integrate them into his healthcare programme.This is wonderful news for all Swanage residents and of course for the Friends of the hospital, so ably led by Jan Turnbull.