COLUMN - Political View with Edward Argar MP
I want to start this week with some tentatively positive news for Melton - the announcement that Melton's much-loved theatre has been made an Asset of Community Value (ACV) by Melton Borough Council, a move that I welcome and for which I thank MBC and The Melton Musical Theatre Company who applied for it.
The ACV designation, which Loughborough College Group still have six weeks to appeal against, though I hope they will choose not to, means that if within six weeks a community group informs MBC formally that they intend to put in a bid for the site, they have six months to pull together and put forward that bid, during which period while the College Group can market the site it cannot proceed with selling the site to a commercial bidder.
The process is not simple, and there will be a lot of work involved in getting a viable bid together, but I want to pay tribute to the campaigners who have secured this ACV designation, and to MBC for being willing to grant it, as it potentially provides much needed time and space for a strong community bid to be further worked up, and the time needed to get the detail right.
I have previously been clear in my support for the proposals being worked up by the Discovery Trust and Access All Areas CIC, which would see the college campus used for much needed SEND provision locally and, in parallel, would help save Melton's Theatre, and I hope that Leicestershire County Council, who I met with recently on this and other matters, will do the right thing by Melton and SEND students, and do what they can to help support this.
There is still a long way to go, and hurdles to clear on the way, but I believe this is cautiously positive news for Melton and the much loved community asset that is Melton's theatre.
Another local issue that I wanted to touch on, which remains central to life in our local community, is the importance of farming and of supporting our local farmers and rural communities.
I recently met with Sarah Proctor, from Melton's local branch of the National Farmers Union (NFU) at their office in the town, to discuss the continued challenges facing local farmers.
The impact of recent very wet weather; volatility of the costs they face in energy, feed, fertiliser etc; the need for farmers to receive a fair price for their products, and the impact of foreign competition; rural crime; food security; as well as the impact of government regulations and taxation decisions, among many other issues.
Our farmers and rural communities are central to our way of life locally, and it was a pleasure and very useful to me as the local MP to have the opportunity to catch up with Sarah on all these issues, and for her to be able to discuss directly with me what matters to her local NFU members.
My door is always open to the local NFU and to local farmers, and I look forward to further meetings with Sarah, and with local farmers, building on those I have had since becoming Melton's MP in 2024, to continue standing up for our farmers and our rural communities.