Local MP Tim Farron met with representatives of Sarah Nelson Grasmere Gingerbread today, to discuss their aim to trademark 'Grasmere Gingerbread,' removing the right of other Grasmere Gingerbread producers to make use of that name.
Local MP Tim Farron today met with Jim Begg, Director General of Dairy UK, to press the cause for dairy farmers in Cumbria and nationwide. Tim had a constructive meeting in which he took the side of local dairy farmers who are facing huge increased costs as a result of the Government's Nitrate Vulnerable Zones policy and rising animal feed and fuel prices. He also followed up on his parliamentary motion earlier in the week noting the reduction of the number of dairy farms in the UK and the role played in this by the supermarkets.
Local MP Tim Farron today questioned the Housing Minister Caroline Flint over the crippling lack of affordable housing available for rural areas. In constituencies such as Mr Farron's, where average house prices are around ten times the average wage - an eye-watering £210,000, first-time buyers find it almost impossible to get on the housing ladder.
Tim Farron MP, the Liberal Democrat Countryside Spokesman, today spoke out against the paltry rise in the DEFRA budget of just 1.4% (after inflation). This small increase has come in spite of the Government committing several hundred million pounds to flood defences and renewable energy sources.
Local MP Tim Farron has expressed his anger the refusal of the Speaker of the House of Commons to allow a vote on the Liberal Democrat amendment calling for an in-out referendum on the EU. The Liberal Democrat amendment would have given MPs the opportunity to debate whether the people should be allowed to vote on Britain's membership.
Tim Farron has sought to use the new Sustainable Communities Act in his bid to save post offices. He has called on the government to halt plans to close thousands of post office branches until the long-awaited Sustainable Communities Act comes into effect this autumn. The Act, which passed into law late last year, would require the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to write to all local authorities requesting a 'sustainability statement' that would identify the most crucial local services.
