A strong amount of support was shown at a very warm Heathfield Show this year, with Helen Kirby and her team providing their usual hospitality to members at the show.
It was great to meet on our stand with the Police and Crime Commissioner, the new leader of East Sussex County Council, and Defra.
County officeholders landed key asks with all three stakeholders. The show environment provides the perfect opportunity to lobby key local decision makers on issues affecting the sector.
In early June, we were delighted to welcome members to our stand at the South of England Show and support them across the show weekend.
The show provided an important opportunity to engage with MPs who were hosted at a roundtable meeting. Mims Davies MP, Dr Neil Hudson MP, and James MacCleary MP were all present.
A health and safety roundtable meeting was chaired by NFU Vice-president Robyn Munt. This was followed by a busy drinks reception with members where the lifetime achievement award for John Hall was celebrated.
Earlier in May, as part of our wider stakeholder work, we held a successful meeting in Mid Sussex with the Police and Crime Commissioner and Sussex Rural Crime Team.
Following the meeting, there has been some work in the background on livestock worrying and gun licencing which we look forward to updating members on once actions have been finalised.
We are aware of a number of machinery thefts in Sussex over the past month or so whilst we continue to encourage members to stay alert to the issue and to keep equipment secure, we will be working with Sussex Police as we head into the summer.
After what has been a busy month, we look forward to seeing a good number of members at our annual health and safety events in June, as well as county and branch farm walks across the patch.
Please do reach out to [email protected] if you have any questions about upcoming meetings or our stakeholder engagement in the county.