It was a great honour to compere the Civic Service for Mayor of Monmouth Tom Kirton on Sunday. The service celebrated the achievements of the Town Council in the past year and we thanked Councillors and officers for all their hard work to make Monmouth the best town it can possibly be. Amongst the many excellent projects this year were establishing the Youth Forum and supporting Action on Climate Emergency (ACE) projects as well as two sell-out wellbeing events.

 I am passionate about the environment so I was looking forward to the Conservative’s long-awaited River Wye Action Plan to see how it would reduce pollution on the Wye. After years of inaction, it arrived last week promising £35 million of funding but as the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) put it, the plan is ‘lacklustre’ and little if any of this is actually new funding. Disappointingly, there was no consultation with the excellent and already established Wye Catchment Partnership either.

 Finally, I spent a fantastic morning in Grosmont with the Ramblers Cymru volunteer team putting in a kissing gate on the Three Castles walk to make it more accessible. They are a fantastic group and always need more volunteers to help them keep our footpaths clear. If you're interested, do get  involved.  https://pathstowellbeing.ramblers.org.uk/en/routes