Returning from the Conservative Party Conference - Selaine Saxby

I have just come back from Conservative Party Conference, which as always provided me with a great opportunity to engage with businesses and charities to discuss issues affecting the people of North Devon.

A year on from the launch of the Conservative Friends of the Ocean I was happy to chair their ‘Ocean Question Time’ panel and question Secretary of State for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Therese Coffey, and hear how much work she is doing to protect our oceans at home and abroad.

Closer to home I also spoke on two CEN panels, the first regarding the use of woody biomass. It was good to hear the general consensus that timber should be used in manufacturing and construction rather than burnt for energy generation. Whilst this has been helpful in reducing coal use I will continue speaking to Government about the economics of supporting this form of energy generation over more renewable option.

I also joined Farming Minister, Mark Spencer MP, on a panel about regenerative farming and how we can support farmers going green. The farmers on the panel echoed what I have heard from farmers in North Devon about how greener methods lead to healthier bottom lines. I took the opportunity to directly lobby the Minister to help North Devon’s farmers by supporting them with more slurry infrastructure grants.

Animal Welfare campaigners are always one of my favourite stops and it was good to speak with the Campaign for Cats and the Guide Dogs Association. The Guide Dogs Association are calling on the Government to further its consultation on pavement parking. Pavement parking can force blind people, and other vulnerable pedestrians who can no longer use the pavement into the road. The Guide Dog Association want public spaces to be accessible to all, no matter your form of transport.

Health was another key theme at conference, I met with a range of charities such as Alzheimer’s Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and many more. North Devon’s remoteness makes diagnosing and treating a range of illnesses all the more difficult, but a running theme in all my conversations was that the earlier you can be diagnosed the better. So, I would call on everyone with concerns about their health to speak to some one as soon as possible.

I spoke at a British Dental Association roundtable where I raised the ongoing issues with dentistry in rural and coastal areas like North Devon. If you would like to sign my petition please visit https://www.change.org/DentistsinNorthDevon or contact my office at selaine.saxby.mp@parliament.uk. I also had a meeting about bringing supplementary dental services to North Devon which I am following up on and hope will solve some issues in the short term.

Radiotherapy and access to it have been on my radar for a long time so I took the opportunity to discuss it further with Cancer Research. As one of the most effective tools in the fight against cancer I am keen that everyone in North Devon who needs it has access to it, and I am meeting with Health Minister, Will Quince MP, once I am back in Westminster to discuss what more can be done.

I also spoke on two panels with Energy Minister, Andrew Bowie MP, about our energy future and how we need to back projects such as the Celtic Sea. Recent announcements such as speeding up connections to the National Grid have been positive, and it is good to see the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the party taking our green future so seriously. As the Minister said, at times it felt like an energy conference.

Unfortunately, there were too many meetings to share but some other highlights included meeting with the Openreach top team about broadband provision in North Devon, the MCS Foundation to discuss new homes and energy generation, and with Google, whose AI programme wrote me a little poem about potholes, which I also raised with the Roads Minister directly whilst in Manchester.