A REGULAR series of formal consultations with local farmers and farmers' leaders in West Devon and Torridge has been launched by the local Conservative Party.
Geoffrey Cox, QC, Conservative parliamentary spokesman for West Devon and Torridge, announced the launch last Tuesday.
He said: 'The Conservative Farmers' Forum will provide an opportunity for consultation, debate and policy development up to and beyond the general election.
'We need an approach to the problems the countryside faces that is based not on diktats and theories conceived by bureaucrats in Brussels or in Whitehall, but on a practical understanding of the realities of farmers' lives. That's what this forum is aimed at achieving.'
Mr Cox said the forum would bring together respected non-party political figures from various related fields and those with a lifetime's experience in farming to debate and discuss the way forward for farming and the countryside.
The first meeting took place at Clinton Hall, Merton last Friday.