A wintery Easter ...and British Summer Time just a week away!

I am looking forward to the longer evenings...and some better weather! Walking the dogs every morning is a very muddy and slippery affair. The day of the storms which saw Teignmouth flooded was quite exceptional. I walked around Newton Abbot to see just how high the river would rise that morning and was staggered. Flood defenses must become more of a priority for the council - things are going to get worse not better. The new hospital in Orleigh Park might remain dry but the water was certainly right at the top of its banks in a number of places close by and the pools of water trapped by clay deposits numerous.

The Senior Council for Devon, on the Assembly of which I sit representing Newton Abbot, is making progress. This month we approved a new constitution and elected a new chairman, executive officers and the board of directors. The next step will be getting the local branches working properly and feeding up to the board, issues which need to be addressed by Devon County Council. Key issues are likely to include transport and health care provision. Our next local branch meeting is at 10.00am 17 April at Kingsteignton Community Hall. Please do come along and find out what we are trying to do and let us have your thoughts and ideas. While we are called the Newton Abbot branch, we also cover Kingsteignton and Bovey Tracey. There are separate branches for Dawlish and for Teignmouth which will also be holding meetings shortly.

Farmers have been top of mind this month. I was invited to attend a meeting of Devon Farms, a group established to promote tourism in our rural communities and provide a source of much needed income to local farmers diversifying into bed and breakfast and self-catering holidays. It was a fabulous celebration of all that this dedicated group have achieved. Gary Streeter MP was there to address us and we were treated to a great food, good company and an opportunity to meet the stock man and his wife with their prize cows on Fowlescombe Farm, just outside Ivybridge, where Richard Barker was kindly hosting the event. Now I understand why farmers are so attached to their animals. But on a more serious note there is great concern at how little support the government is giving to their businesses. The central budget promoting tourism has been slashed by half and it is these sorts of businesses which are paying the price.

I have also now established a farmer's forum and on 17 March we met for the first time at Bulleigh Park Farm, thanks to Angela and Phil Dallyn. A number of issues were raised but the most vociferously discussed were the red tape issues. Farmers know how to farm, let them get on with it! The government do not understand how to deal with infection and have failed to recognise that disease is here to stay - it is naive to think we can keep our borders as barriers in the global market farming has become. We had representatives from the Young Farmers and the NFU who came to hear what was being said. I was impressed and delighted to hear from one young farmer who thought the main reason stopping the young coming into farming was quite simply the price of land. Land coming on the market is being snapped up by those who want and can afford to pay above the agricultural price for land just to have the farm house. Sometimes the land that goes with it gets worked by a local farmer but then usually just for hay and silage rather than something more productive.

We had National Tourism Week this month and I went to visit three of our local tourism entrepreneurs to listen to what they had to say. Cofton Country Holidays in Starcross are an example of just what can be achieved. They have been awarded eight consecutive Gold Awards for Conservation by David Bellamy, in recognition of their commitment to protecting, preserving and maintaining this glorious corner of Devon. They pride themselves in sourcing everything locally. They would like to see some changes in the tax legislation to make it easier to employ part timers who are doing seasonal work like this. My last stop was to visit Nigel Bell at Sampsons Farm. Probably one of the few independent restaurant hotels of its kind, in the constituency, Nigel has a hard time making ends meet. The market has changed and he has found that the summer holiday market has largely moved abroad to guaranteed sunshine. The market he has diversified into - weekend breaks and the corporate market - is much harder to sell. His plea is for the government to recognise that small businesses are just that - small. They need greater flexibility and cannot survive on a one size fits all approach to business as a whole.

I was delighted to be appointed a governor of Knowles Hill School this month and am very much looking forward to working with Gareth Davies and his team. In a very short time he has turned the school and its prospects around. And schools were very much front of mind when I addressed two 4Networking business group meetings this month in Newton Abbot and Exeter. My plea was for business to recognise that there has to be a symbiotic relationship between businesses and the communities they operate it. This government won't help business but communities will. Key here is their relationship with schools. And on the subject of community I raised the issue of Post Offices and posed the question - what can we as successful business people do to support them? If Essex can come up with a plan, we should be lobbying Devon to do the same. I was lobbying Richard Younger Ross to support the Conservative proposal to the House last week to freeze the current closure plan and I urged them to do the same.

Europe has of course been another key issue. I had organised three Referendum street stalls asking members of the public to hold Gordon Brown to account giving them post cards to complete and return asking for a Referendum. Neil Parish our MEP came out to support us and we had an excellent response. But this government is stubborn to a fault. The call for a referendum in parliament went unheeded. And what a dreadful budget. I won't rehearse its ills here, we are already too familiar with them. Suffice it to say Gordon has taken his party to an all time low in the polls in 25 years giving the Conservative Party a 16 point lead. I am now being lobbied quite rightly by small haulage companies - if Gordon puts the extra tax on fuel in the autumn , many of them will go out of business - and that starts a further cascade of business failures.

But I did have some fun on Easter Saturday. The Newton Abbot Court Leet invited me to their annual bread weighing which this year took place at the Ship Inn on Walborough Street. Hot cross buns from a number of local bakeries were weighed and sampled by those assembled and found to be very good eating indeed! Certificates were duly presented and then the remaining goodies auctioned raising over £100 for Rowcroft , the Portrieve's charity for the year. The next event is the beating of the bounds next month - walking shoes will be needed to gain access to those parts of Newton Abbot rarely visited by most of us!