ANNE MARIE TREVELYAN: Hoping people can celebrate festive time with loved ones

This is my last column of 2020, and what a year it has been. I continue to receive large amounts of correspondence about covid, quite understandably, and you can find the latest updates, including my thoughts on local measures on my website and in my regular email newsletters.
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I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight a few things that have progressed recently which may have slipped under the radar.

This month the Government launched a consultation on banning the live export of animals for fattening and slaughter, as promised in our manifesto in last year’s election, which is possible now we have left the EU.

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The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is also consulting on proposals to generally improve animal welfare in transport. Please do take part in this consultation. Plans have also been published on the future of farming, and the government’s plans to support farmers to become more sustainable as well as improve their profitability and reward the work they do to sustain and benefit the environment.

A new Farming Investment Fund, which will support innovation and productivity, will open for applications next year and offer grants for equipment, technology and infrastructure for the future

Earlier this month, the new £25m state of the art hospital for Berwick was approved.

The project will create 295 full-time equivalent jobs per year during the construction and operational phases and generate more than £17m to the local economy during the build. Most importantly, the plans have been shaped by the community and will provide Berwick with a modern, purpose-built and fully accessible hospital.

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For those who are not subscribed to updates from the Highways Agency for the dualling of the A1, you may be interested to know the scheme has been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration, and their first meeting to consider the scheme is next week.

Finally, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas. This year has been so difficult for so many of us, and Christmas will not be the same, but I hope you are able to celebrate with loved ones as we look forward to a more hopeful 2021.

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