THE autumn bank holiday weekend is usually a wash out, but not this year! By the time you read this I expect that this August, and the whole summer will be declared the hottest and driest for decades.

When we were farming we ran a small camp site, and there was nothing better than seeing visitors come back from the beach, with kids playing ball games whilst the barbecue was cooking. My farming friends had an early harvest this year, with only a few showers to stop the combines, and yields reasonable on average. However the grass is all parched, with one farmer using 10 ton per day of his winter silage stocks. With the recent rain the grass will grow, and farmers will take late cuts to replenish stocks, but its too late for a lot for the broccoli crops and other field scale vegetables which rely on summer showers to establish.

Last spring the tourism industry was forecasting a poor summer, with the cost of living crisis delaying bookings. However the good summer has saved the day, with occupancy rates the best for a long time. This is great for those businesses who are having to contend with increased staff costs due to the rise in the minimum wage, and additional National Insurance imposed by the Labour government.

However I am writing this on Friday, August 29, after an unexpected deluge has flooded Looe and Polperro and other parts of SE Cornwall overnight. I went to have a look myself, and helped liaise with managers re the scale of the issue, and where extra resources needed to go. I was greeted by teams of locals helping with the clear up, which had caused flooding in a few businesses and homes. Cormac and Biffa staff were doing their best to help return to normality, impeded in Polperro by the narrow streets, but the tiny road brush had arrived before I left.

However locals were saying they had not received the automated messages from the Environment Agency until after the storm waters had risen. These sudden heavy deluges are very difficult to predict; I believe we will get more unpredictable weather events due to the impact of Climate Change. As a Liberal Democrat I strongly believe the science behind it, unlike a lot of Reform Councillors and supporters, and will help ensure our infrastructure and communities are more resilient. Driving around SE Cornwall I have seen roundabouts painted with red lines to depict St George’s Cross on the English flag, supposedly in support of the far right. It is ironic to hear that Extinction Rebellion supporters are “modifying” these red lines to depict their logo in some areas.

I was at Cornwall Council in 2019 when the Liberal Democrat administration had cross party support to declare a Climate Emergency, and witnessed my predecessor councillor Edwina Hannaford’s work in developing strategies and policies to make Cornwall more resilient in future, so that we are all prepared as best we can be.