CPRE Norfolk’s meeting with Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North

CPRE Norfolk’s vice-chair, Sandra Walmsley met with Chloe Smith, MP for Norwich North on Friday 18th November.

Here is Sandra’s account of their meeting.

I met Chloe Smith at her constituency office at her request, following us asking her to become a “Hedgerow Hero.”

We had an interesting and constructive discussion. She was interested to hear of the benefits of hedges in urban areas. She had not realised their importance in reducing air pollution, reducing flood risk and reducing temperatures. We talked about their importance as wildlife corridors too.

I did impress upon her the strong opposition of environmental groups to the Norwich Western Link road.

Chloe asked about the other work which CPRE Norfolk undertakes and we talked about renewables and the national Renewables Done Well project. I explained we were supporting the local initiative for an offshore ring main and we agreed on the need for a more collaborative approach to renewables across the county.

We talked about ways in which the Local Enterprise Partnership could take on board environmental issues around renewables and also encourage training in retrofit and building a “Green development” agenda in the county. Chloe proposed to put me in touch with the LEP to discuss this further.

We agreed that despite differences on several issues, dialogue is important. It was an interesting and generally positive conversation.