We really have the best of both worlds in Hertford and Stortford. While we are close to urban cities like London and Cambridge, we enjoy huge green spaces, rich biodiversity and good-quality air.
As an environmentalist, I am determined to not only protect our local environment but to improve it too. My priorities for this include:
- Making sure our local community is taking the necessary strides to reach our national net-zero target by 2050.
- Ensuring that where development needs to take place, it is done in a way that adds to our environment rather than subtracts from this. My priority is to protect our existing communities and give local people a strong voice against any potential for overdevelopment in our area.
- Seeing the planting of more trees while I am in office.
We also have many rural communities in the constituency. Areas such as the Hadhams, Eastwick, Gilston, Hunsdon, Stanstead Abbotts and Widford have thriving farmland. These rural communities must continue to thrive and so my priorities for these areas include:
- Further rolling out quality broadband in these communities.
- Clamping down on the rural crime that blights these areas.
- Supporting the businesses that operate here.
My achievements in this area so far include:
- Working with Thames Water to conduct a review of and remove silt from our sewage system in Bishop’s Stortford. This means that the chances of future flooding have significantly reduced, mitigating disruption for local residents who have been blighted by persistent flooding for the past eight years.
- Putting the protection of chalk streams, such as the River Stort and the River Lea, on the Government’s radar, protecting rare wildlife and biodiversity found here.
- Lobbied the Home Secretary to launch a review into the Game Act (1831) to clamp down on illegal hare coursing on farmers’ land in Hertford and Stortford.