Greg Smith update: MP speaks out in support of farmers at Bucks County Show

The Mid Bucks MP described the importance of farming for the county and how he's looking to support rural communities with the draft local plan.

The Conservative MP told Bucks Radio why supporting farmers and rural communities is so essential, describing protecting the countryside as "a top priority". 

Speaking about importance of rural character to Buckinghamshire, Greg Smith said: "We're a rural county, this is the countryside and the more you build around villages and turn them into towns and then those towns become cities, you lose the countryside altogether and that is about history and tradition and rural identity as I like to put it.

"People choose to live in a village over a town or a city, some people the city's great, that's what they want. For me and most of my constituents they want village life, they want rural life and what goes with rural life is food production.

"The countryside wouldn't look like it does today with its incredible beauty and rich nature if it wasn't for farmers maintaining that land. Yes to produce foods, be that cereals or meat or dairy but also to maintain that land, the hedgerows, the trees, everything that goes with it that also supports who we are as a place."

He also discussed action he'd like to see to better support farmers, saying:

"There needs to be an intervention that says we as a country value British farmers, we want British food on our plates, and to do that we have to take steps that will support farmers in the short term to get them back to profitability in the long term. And a failure to do that will leave us hungry and poorer as a country."

Ahead of the September 6th deadline for submissions to Bucks Council's Regulation 19 consultation on their draft local plan, Greg Smith also reassured constituents about voicing their concerns:

"I'm getting around as many places as I can, I was in Stoke Mandeville the other night, Twyeford the night before, I'll go to anywhere else that invites me, I make this a top priority.

"Protecting the countryside has always been my top priority. I've been elected twice to Parliament on that platform in my own local literature and what I promise to my constituents and I will keep fighting, the mantra in this job is never give up."

You can listen to our full chat with him below:

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