Tim Farron, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Hill Farming and Liberal Democrat MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale has criticised the Government after a report issued today called the animal health facility at Pirbright "shabby and dilapidated". DEFRA, who were responsible for the facility, were heavily criticised by the report, along with several other organisations.
Local MP Tim Farron has today warned the Government that they may have seriously under estimated the amount of blue tongue vaccine. Mr Farron has obtained information through a parliamentary question to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs that an order has been placed for 22 million doses of the BTV8 vaccine which must be administered twice to cattle in order to be effective. This is unlikely to be sufficient to vaccinate the vast number of farm animals in Britain against the disease, which is likely to become more prevalent as summer approaches.
"Community Spirit" - a new community group for the "north" part of West End Ward, covering Ancrum, Pentland and the Cleghorn area launches tonight (Thursday 13th March) at the Mitchell Street Centre (6pm for 6.15pm). All local residents are invited.
A special meeting of Folkestone Town Council on Wednesday at University Centre, Folkestone unanimously condemned the recent cut to Folkestone Fire Services and pledged to collate figures to lobby for the reinstatement of the cut services.
Liberal Democrat European justice and human rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford MEP has spoken up again about Mehdi Kazemi, who unsuccessfully applied for asylum in the United Kingdom, following the execution of his partner by Iranian authorities. He fled to the Netherlands, but Dutch authorities say under EU rules he must be returned to the UK. She said, "Almost a decade ago, EU leaders gave a pledge that they would have a common asylum system which fully respected the UN Refugee Convention 'thus ensuring that nobody is sent back to persecution'. They have broken every one of those promises.
New figures have revealed an alarming increase in the number of local families losing their homes because of difficulties over mortgage payments.
