It was a pleasure to welcome the Mayor of Merville-Franceville, Olivier Paz, to Solent Airport, Daedalus to join Fareham Borough Council Mayor Pamela Bryant in performing the topping-out in the valve room of IFA2 which expects to be exchanging electricity with France later this tear. The £0.7bn project is progressing rapidly. The other end of the interconnector is at Merville.

It was good to meet D’artagnan the Harris Hawk with his keeper whose job is to keep away the pigeons.

Suella Braverman MP and I met Robert Jenrick in Westminster with Hampshire County Council Leader Keith Mans to discuss the funding of the new motorway junction on the M27 to serve the new Welborne Garden Community. Very positive progress was made now that Welborne has planning permission. The planning consent contains a clause such that not a brick can be laid until all of the funding is in place for the new junction 10.

We also discussed the issues of nitrate pollution and its mitigation preventing any new planning permissions for homes in South Hampshire as well as the crazy housing figures being imposed on the area by government.

It was an honour to help open the new cafe and reception area at Milestones Museum at Basingstoke for Hampshire Cultural Trust last week. These fantastic facilities welcome around 100,000 visitors annually and are well worth a day out. New toilets paid for by Hampshire County Council