They say a week is a long time in politics . Last week certainly felt like it.

I have spent a lot of time sorting out Conservative Group matters. As the Leader of the group I have to appoint some to office, nominate others for committees and recommend others for outside bodies. I have also set up a shadow cabinet to keep the minority Labour administration on its toes. A lengthy process but one that happily my deputy did lots of work on. I think everyone will now be able to get involved with everything that interests them.

I had an interesting teams meeting with the Ministry of Justice over the planned expansion of Highpoint prison, ahead of a public meeting later in the week. I was able to get the MoJ to think about the construction from the view point of local residents. The public meeting went ahead and local people had a great opportunity to express their concerns. In fairness to the MoJ they have listened and adapted their plans, all the way along the planning process, to accommodate the locals. There was one fly in the ointment, the MoJ owe the Highpoint Estate Residents Association £5k. It was explained that the delay, over a year, was because of the treasury. Just not good enough. I provided some “encouragement” shall we say.

I also attended an afternoon of planning development training. Planning is complex and is a quasi judicial process that needs a full understanding of what can be achieved.

Later in the week I attended the West Suffolk Conservative Association executive meeting. It was my honour to address them and also to be elected to be part of the sifting panel to help choose a new candidate to be our MP. Cross fingers for a great candidate.