On Friday, I was in Pulborough to cut the ribbon and open the new warehouse extension of Hepworth’s Brewery with founder, Andy Hepworth and his project team. They are leading the way to show how ‘lower carbon’ beer can be produced. It’s a great example of how technology and innovation are solving the climate crisis – from locally-sourced hops and barley, the use of solar power to running the world’s first ‘beer-source’ heat pump. The next stage of the brewery’s project is to produce enough energy from the brewery waste to power the site and progress their journey to net-zero emissions.
On Saturday, I attended another ribbon-cutting ceremony at Parham where I was delighted to open the Southdown Gliding Club’s new classroom extension. This is one of the oldest gliding facilities in the UK and punches above its weight nationally. The new classroom - funded partly with grants from the National Lottery and Sport England - will boost their ability to train up new instructors and members alike. I congratulate all involved.
At a difficult time for aviation, it is wonderful to see new generations being introduced to the sport. As a supporter of this industry - which provides thousands of much valued jobs here in West Sussex – I was one of those MPs concerned to hear rumours of the public health bodies advocating an ‘amber plus’ list being introduced for certain countries just at the time when we need fewer rules and to rebuild confidence. This could mean that travellers who had already left on their holidays thinking their destination country was an approved one (only requiring a negative Covid test on their return), might instead be hit with the dreaded mandatory hotel quarantine regardless of vaccination status. After speaking with Ministers to express my concern on Sunday and Monday, at the time of writing I believe that this proposal has been killed off. The cautious approach to unlocking, so long as it remains a series of positive steps, seems to have worked but with so few in hospital we can afford to let people get back to work and on with their lives.
