These past few weeks have been a busy but a rewarding few weeks for me as Member of Parliament for Brecon and Radnorshire.
It was fantastic to see the Radnor Arms prevailing in their bid to the Department for Levelling Up’s Community Ownership Fund. We know that pubs are at the heart of rural communities like New Radnor’s and they are key for fostering a sense of community. This sense of community was clear to me during my visit and inspired me to make the case to anybody who would listen, including the Secretary of State David TC Davies. I look forward to seeing the progress this funding will unlock.
A bumper day of Westminster visits on Friday 7th July! We welcomed Llangattock Primary School and later a group of constituents on our coach. A superb day jam-packed with tours, Q&As and lunchtime chat, it was safe to say Brecon and Radnorshire was on tour. Watch this space!
In more sobering news, I am disappointed by the news of Welsh Water’s Environmental Assessment Rating being reduced to just two stars, with a rise in serious pollution incidents and drop in transparency. Coming at just the right time, therefore, is the adoption by Herefordshire of my Cross-border Taskforce proposal, which I was really pleased to see as the sort of radical action needed to tackle the issue.
As many of you may know, I have led a campaign against current proposals to build wind farms and pylons, 36 wind turbines and 220 metres tall stretching down 60 miles from the Radnor Forest down to Carmarthenshire. Further reinforcing the short-sightedness of Bute Energy’s proposals were two meetings I had this month. One with Renewables UK, who are developing alternatives including tidal power, which has already reduced in cost. And the other with Ørsted, who are closing in on proposals to build 25MW of capacity in the Celtic Seas Project. With this sort of capacity on the horizon, the message is clear, do not permanently scar our beautiful landscapes.
I will continue to press onwards on these issues, to serve Brecon and Radnorshire.
