Philippa became the agent and group secretary at Wormbridge in 1999 and has done so much over the years to support the farming community in the south-west of Herefordshire.
From encouraging members to grow their businesses, to providing much needed reassurance in times of difficulty, Philippa has been there through it all and she will be much missed.
However, this is not goodbye, as Philippa will stay on within the newly formed South Herefordshire Agency to share her knowledge and experience with staff. We are grateful for her continued support.
The NFU Mutual agencies of Wormbridge and Ross-on-Wye have now merged, and I know Matthew Price and Malcolm Watkins from the Ross office are keen to meet and catch up with members across the district at the branch AGMs in November.
Offices in both locations will remain open should you wish to pop in and chat to the team before then.
I also want to take this opportunity to introduce you to Emma Eayrs, who is joining us as the new group secretary in the South Herefordshire Agency.
Emma has worked within the Ross-on-Wye Agency for over a decade and has a proven track record of always going over and above for her clients. I have enjoyed working with Emma in recent months, she will be a fantastic asset to the team and I know she is excited to embrace this new challenge.
Rural crime
There has been a significant increase in hare coursing and theft in recent weeks, and I am grateful to everyone who was able to attend our meeting with the deputy police and crime commissioner at the start of October.
What was clear was that our local rural crime team is working incredibly hard with all the resources at its disposal. However, due to historic under reporting of hare coursing in Herefordshire, police data does not accurately reflect the issues we are experiencing on the ground. Unfortunately, this data is used to make decisions on resources.
The police have asked that if you have hare coursers on your land, or are aware of people trespassing who could likely be armed, that you call 999 and quote OPERATION SNARE to the call handler.
Inspector Billy Keyes has personally trained more than 70 members of frontline police staff on how to respond to hare coursing incidents and, by reporting the crime in this manner, it means they can be deployed to the area.
When you are only made aware afterwards that trespassers have been on your land, the police have asked that it is reported using the online webpage. We can upload camera images and locations, and this ensures that each report is given its own incident number
However, the police stressed how grateful they were of the intel being fed to them by farmers and the difference it is making to their response.
Thanks to our intel fed to John Meek, he was able to build a larger investigation into a serious, organised crime and last month they were able to recover more than £1million worth of goods from a site near Staunton, Gloucestershire. Additional staff are now being enlisted to help recover and return the stolen property.
The police have also improved their own communications with colleagues in neighbouring forces to improve our cross-border response.
At a national level, will we continue to raise the issue of the demand created for hare coursing by online betting. After our meeting in September, Ellie Chowns MP has written to the government on this matter and we await their response.