Residents of Long Stratton had the ear of all their elected representatives from Parish to Parliament last week at a public meeting of the parish council held at the High School.

The meeting aimed to find out what residents would like to see in the Long Stratton of the future. South Norfolk Council is currently consulting on where it should build new homes and businesses needed to fund the long-awaited A140 bypass, as well as the infrastructure to support the village as it grows.

Views at the meeting were varied. One particularly interesting suggestion was for a Long Stratton Business Park along similar lines to Hethel Engineering Centre. 

It was a very useful meeting and we all went away with food for thought.  Thank you to everyone who gave up their Friday evening to come along. 

Norfolk is best for food!
I am one of the first to sing the praises of the wonderful food produced in Norfolk so I was delighted that the Norfolk Food Festival made such a big hit when it visited Parliament last week, with Ministers and MPs crowding into Westminster to taste Norfolk’s finest products.

Exhibitors included Swannington Farm to Fork, who produce some of the best sausages you will ever taste, the wonderful handmade cheeses from Ferndale Farmhouse in Little Barningham, and the excellent Bray’s Cottage Pork Pies, all of which could be washed down with tasty Woodforde’s Norfolk Ales.

There were plenty of ideas for Christmas gifts too, from Lady Jay’s Preserves and Marmalades to The English Whisky Company near East Harling, who will produce bespoke presentation bottles of England’s first single malt whisky as well as offering guided tours of their distillery, and Norfolk Cordial, whose marvellous products such as Strawberry and Lime cordial and Red Gooseberry and Wild Elderflower can be used for desserts, baking, sorbets and ice creams. 

There is no shortage of fine local food producers in Norfolk and we should do all we can to support them.

No to Pylons
Parish representatives and other residents from across the Waveney Valley attended Wortwell Community Centre last week to meet with National Grid about the possibility of pylons in the Waveney Valley. 

Electricity will need to be brought ashore from the wind farms which are planned off the coast of East Anglia.  National Grid says it has not yet made any decisions as to where and how this will happen but the company’s representatives were left in no doubt at a packed meeting that the option of electricity pylons along the Waveney Valley is a non-starter. 

Waveney Valley is being promoted as a tourist destination, even getting some help from taxpayers to do so, and it would be crazy to ruin this beautiful part of the world with electricity pylons. 

Making sure National Grid understands this at such an early stage is very sensible. I will be keeping a close watch on this.