On Friday, I was delighted to host my latest ‘roundtable’ meeting of Sussex farmers – my third in 18 months - to discuss the issues facing their sector and how the Government can support the countryside. We held the discussion outdoors at Orfold Farm near Wisborough Green, and spoke about wide-ranging issues which included better labelling of locally-produced food, new rules to make schools, hospitals and prisons ‘Buy British’, and changes to farm support payments to help farmers’ cash flow. We also discussed the ways in which the Government can help tackle the scourge of flytipping.
My constituency is the most rural in West Sussex, and my postbag regularly highlights valuable contribution to the country that is made by the rural economy. At the South of England show a couple of weeks ago it was especially encouraging to see such public enthusiasm for buying local. The large turnout at the roundtable showed the level of interest in how we secure supplies of British food and protect rural parts of Sussex. I am grateful to local farmers, the Mitchell family, for kindly hosting this meeting.
We depend upon our doctors, dentists, hospital and care services to be there for us when we need them – as they were magnificently during the Covid pandemic. Readers have recently been telling me that they are worried about access to doctors and dentists and that they want the availability of services like these to be taken into account before any big new housing developments are permitted – something that I fully support and have raised with Ministers.
In July, I and other MPs are meeting with the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust which runs the hospitals in Brighton, Chichester, Shoreham and Worthing. We also regularly meet with those responsible for the other NHS services in Sussex and with the South East Coast Ambulance service.
To help me represent the most accurate picture of the experience of local residents in those meetings, this week I launched my biggest ever survey of constituents. The more responses the better and it can be found at andrewgriffithmp.com/NHS or on my website.
