Richmond Town Hall hosts regular coffee mornings for various local charities. I went along this morning to introduce myself to residents and hear about their concerns.
The main topics raised with me today were healthcare and immigration. With a more elderly group of residents, they were especially interested to hear about my support for strong ongoing healthcare provision in the area. Concerns about the pace and scale of immigration also featured with most people feeling things had gotten out of hand over the past few years and realising that we needed to reform our relationship with Europe in order to fix this.
The charity today was Foxglove Covert, the first nature reserve in Richmondshire and the first on Ministry of Defence land. I spoke with Ruth Farrow (Chair) and Major (Retd) Tony Crease about the success of the reserve and its place in the community.