Mike Treleaven welcomes Andrew George M.P.to Totnes

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 24th Feb 2003

Mike Treleaven, PPC for Totnes, was delighted to welcome Andrew George M.P. the Shadow Cabinet Minister for Rural affairs and spokesperson on fishing and farming issues, to Totnes last Friday.

In a packed day Andrew visited a dairy farm at Diptford where he spoke to local farmers and NFU representatives, visited Brixham to talk to leaders of the fishing industry and rounded the day off in Brixham by meeting with local party members.

'Fishing and farming are two vital industries in the Totnes Constituency and both are having enormous problems at the moment' said Mike Treleaven. 'Andrew is a highly respected spokesperson in these areas and we had excellent meetings with both sets of representatives. We discussed the effects of both the Common Agricultural and Common Fisheries policies and the changes coming about in both, the upsurge in bovine TB, the continuing slaughter of dolphins as a by catch of pair trawlers in particular, and many other industry issues.'

In the evening Andrew met with local members and took part in a lively discussion on a variety of issues. Thankfully we did not delve too deeply into the technicalities of the fishing industry which has a language all of its own!

Commenting further Mike Treleaven said:

'Visits such as this make a tremendous difference to the Constituency - it demonstrates that we Liberal Democrats are effective in Parliament, are interested in the things that matter to the constituency and have the policies to deal with the relevant issues. It also gives local activists a chance to meet with and question our M.P.s.. Andrew gave us a tremendous day and I am extremely grateful to him for fitting us in his busy schedule.