4th July 2010
Last week I was back in our area on Thursday night after a busy few days in Westminster.
On Friday morning I travelled to Donyatt, near Ilminster, where I met many of the farmers who are tenants on the Somerset County Council “estate”.
The farmers are all very worried about the policies of the Conservative Group on Somerset County Council, which has recently decided that it wants to sell-off all of the estate, including those farms in the “core” areas of Donyatt and the Quantocks. This is not only very unsettling for those who farm these lands, but it is a real concern for the future of farming in Somerset.
This is because these small farms have in the past often been let out to tenants who will farm them for a modest period of years, before getting the skills and financial backing to move on to own or run bigger farms of their own.
In other words, the County Farms have been a way of bringing new “blood” into the farming system in our County. If we sell these farms off, we will never reconstitute this estate – and there will be yet another nail in the coffin of both farming and our rural economy.
We had a very good meeting attended by around 30 people, including the Mayor of Ilminster, and we have agreed to explore various different options, and to do all we can to change the minds of the leaders of the County Council.
After this important meeting I travelled back to my office in Yeovil to have a meeting with Post Office Limited to explore the possibilities for getting a post office back into Stoke sub Hamdon – the previous post office there closed a few weeks ago.
The meeting was attended by two representatives of Post Office Limited, by the Chair and Clerk of Stoke sub Hamdon Parish Council, by Charlotte Jones from South Somerset District Council and by Sylvia Seal and John Bailey – the district and county councillors respectively.
We had a long discussion in which we emphasized to Post Office Limited just how important it is to retain post office services in a very large village such as Stoke, with many pensioners and others who are simply not in a position to leap into a car and go elsewhere.
Post Office Limited have now promised to further explore a couple of options, and it is to be hoped that some flexibility and common sense will be used to get the right solution for post office customers in the area.
Later on Friday I had a meeting in my Yeovil office on a difficult housing case, and I was grateful for the presence and support of the energetic Ric Pallister from SSDC, as well as the helpful Peter Sparks and Ann Morrison from Yarlington Homes.
I then held a 3 hour advice centre, with a wide range of local cases. Many of the people who have been to see me have made very kind and supportive comments, which mean a lot through this rather bleak few weeks. One person this week left a card, the contents of which touched me very much – thank you.
In the evening I travelled over to Sherborne for a meeting with Oliver Letwin MP, on an issue that we have a common constituency interest on. We spoke again on the matter at 11am on Sunday, via that wretched modern pestilence, the mobile phone. Sometimes MPs of different parties do work together and get on well, in spite of the public perception that Westminster politics is all about a giant “slanging match”.
Of course, I worked closely with Oliver Letwin on another occasion – the formation of the current Coalition Government. Both of us were on our parties’ respective negotiating teams, so we were locked up in the Cabinet Office in Whitehall together for hours on end!
This week in Westminster I have quite a few meetings, and I hope to return to our area on Thursday night.
On Friday I plan to meet some of the Yeovil area Head Teachers, and I have another two Advice Centres on Friday and Saturday.
All best wishes to all readers,
Ever,
David.