Member meeting with MP Lizzi Collinge

In March, CLA North Communications Manager Henk Geertsema attended a CLA members meeting with Morecambe and Lunesdale MP Lizzi Collinge to discuss rural issues. The meeting was kindly hosted by member John Welbank at his Ireby Green Farm café at Cowan Bridge.

Key topics included concerns regarding last year’s Autumn Budget as well as the significant impact the abrupt closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive has had on farm finances, trust in Defra and long term business plans.

The robust discussion also featured the planning system as being bureaucratic, costly and under-resourced.

Lizzi undertook to raise planning-related issues with local councils, but also further afield with her Westminster colleagues. Lizzi was sympathetic to the rural agenda, and noted that she was born on a farm in Cumbria.