On 11th May Saturday evening, I had the opportunity to meet people from Brent Knoll and the surrounding area at an event in the village's Parish Hall. After saying a few words on the current political landscape and offering some thoughts on the energy challenges that face our corner of the country, it was great to then talk about a number of issues affecting people locally as well as some issues from farther afield.
The European Union, the economy and the case for intervention in Syria were all raised over an hour of discussion and it was interesting to get the opinions of the people there. Certainly, there was a consensus over the need to change our relationship with Europe and to get an even tighter grip of public spending.
More local issues raised were a strong protest against proposed wind farms in the area, the need for more affordable housing and problems with the village's junction with the A38. The latter two are both issues that I will be taking up with local stakeholders and I know our local Conservative District councillors are already well engaged with.
My opposition to wind farms is well known and I will continue to work with the protest groups across the Wells Constituency to stop these monstrosities appearing in our countryside. But I don't simply want to be protesting against a problem - I'd far rather be promoting a solution instead. For me, there would be no need for us to host wind farms in Somerset if only the Government would invest more in the development of tidal technologies that we could use in the Severn Estuary and the Bristol Channel. Building a wall from Cardiff to Weston has never been the answer but there are many companies in the South West who are working to develop tidal flow, tidal reef and lagoon technologies that could harness the power of our tides and they could be exportable to almost every country in the world. Our pursuit of renewable energy sources must be relentless as our long term energy security depends on it, but wind turbines are not the answer for us when we have such a powerful and untapped resource just off our coastline.
My thanks to the local Conservatives for organising such an excellent event and to everyone - friend or foe - who joined in.
Sally Wingate, local resident added:
"We spent a most enjoyable evening in the Parish Hall on Saturday 11th May, to meet and listen to James Heappey, the Conservative candidate for our Wells Constituency.
He brought his delightful wife, Kate, with him and he has a young son of 11 months.
The evening wasn’t the usual “run of the mill” political meeting, James spoke extremely well and was obviously well aware of the issues which effect Somerset and it’s inhabitants. He is obviously a very intelligent man and has certainly seen life in the raw, having had two tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq.
He answered our questions on numerous subjects in understandable language and kept to the question asked. He never lost my attention for a moment. He is already working very hard, meeting as many people as possible, in fact, he was a real breath of fresh air.
We also enjoyed an excellent buffet supper, if you didn’t go, you missed a treat."