Local MP Jesse Norman has expressed his delight at the launch of the new UK Infrastructure Bank.

 

I am delighted to write about the wonderful news that Hereford has been awarded £22.4 million from the Stronger Towns Fund. I got a hint of it when I welcomed the Secretary of State for Housing, Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, to open the terrific new Shell Store at Rotherwas a week before the announcement.

I am music-mad, whether singing, listening or (incompetently) playing, but I don't need to tell Gazette readers that one of the greatest joys of Herefordshire is its music.

In February 1825 the poet Thomas Campbell wrote a remarkable open letter, in which he drew attention to the fact that there was no higher education of any description in London, and he called for the creation of a London University.  

He once took the wicket of the legendary Tom Graveney. He was one of this country's top polo players. He designed one of the first electric taxis. He competed at Cowes for fifty years. He was President of the National Playing Fields Association for over six decades, trebling the size of its green fields. He had an exceptional war record.

The presentation of the Budget is one of the great occasions in the parliamentary calendar.

I am thrilled to hear that plans are progressing well to bring the amazing Knife Angel to Hereford Cathedral this summer. The 3.5-ton sculpture is expected to arrive in Hereford on Monday 14th June, and depart on 12th July 2021.

I love wild swimming, and readers in and around Ross-on-Wye will need no reminding that the River Wye is one of the great glories of Herefordshire and the Marches. Yet the river is under serious threat from phosphate pollution.