A terrible road accident took place just outside Ongar last month, in which a young woman, Purity Njagi, died. Investigations into the cause of the accident are ongoing and I will be looking carefully at any recommendations for improving the safety of this busy route to ensure appropriate actions are taken in a timely way.
I am aware a number of local people offered care and assistance to those involved in the accident and I would very much like to thank them for their kindness during this traumatic event.
Now that the Parliamentary summer and Conference Recesses are over, my involvement in Parliamentary debates and questions continues, especially in connection with my role as Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. However, Fridays are constituency days when I am out and about in Brentwood and Ongar visiting local people, businesses and organisations.
This month I have caught up with some of the farmers who farm the land around Ongar and the villages, to hear about their concerns for the future, what they want from the new Government, and how they are trying to diversify to ensure their businesses can continue to flourish.
Rural crime, including theft of machinery, hare coursing and fly tipping continue to impact on farmers’ business costs, while fast food litter being thrown from vehicles using country lanes is an ongoing blot of the landscape.
To my surprise, I found one of the larger UK producers of live insects for exotic animals to eat operates from a barn in the constituency, so I spent half an hour being fascinated by increasingly large locusts, crickets and cockroaches being bred to keep pet reptiles fed. This, and other rural businesses, employ hundreds of local people so it was good to see how a creative use of farm buildings and land can keep our farmers functioning.
