The MP spoke in his introduction about how he has lived locally with his family for the past 20 years and discussed the type of issues that he spends his time on that derive primarily from the small parishes, villages and towns that make up this unique constituency. He discussed the landscape which is intrinsically linked to the farming community and our roads which statistically are some of the most dangerous in the Southeast of England largely due to the infrastructure that was not built to support such a variety of road users and the increase of traffic. He also spoke of the many challenges that our high street businesses are currently facing and how important it is that we all support them in our towns and villages. He was joined by parish and district councillor Brett Burkhart.
The MP moved on to his role in Westminster as a legislature in the House of Commons and mentioned the new Planning and Infrastructure Framework bill and the work that is going on around the devolution agenda, key to his role is holding the government to account on policies that will affect his constituents.
There was time for the audience to ask the MP questions, mainly on planning and devolution, unitary authorities and the impact this will have on the community and what responsibility a Sussex Mayor would be accountable for.
Following the Milland Annual Parish Assembly event Andrew Griffith said: “Thank you to everyone for their time last night, it was wonderful to have such a great turnout and range of questions- I am always surprised at how engaged people are and the depth of interest there is on so many subjects. It is important to me that I am able to visit or the rural communities and speak directly to my constituents and I hope that I will be invited back in the future!’’