Steve Brine visited West Sussex on Friday 13th November to catch up with the South Downs National Park team at their Midhurst HQ.
The Winchester MP, whose constituency lies at the west of the national park, had a full agenda with Chair Margaret Paren and CEO Trevor Beattie which included rural broadband and their upcoming broadband summit with Minister Ed Vaizey.
They also discussed the upcoming works at Junction 9 of the M3 which, although not inside the park, sits adjacent to it and the continuing situation with the Cart & Horses junction. In addition the new Itchen Valley bus shelters, which have caused a great deal of comment in recent weeks, were raised by Cllr Paren.
Steve said: "This was a very useful meeting, and it was great to come to Midhurst so I could see their HQ at the South Downs Centre for myself. There were a number of issues we spoke about, not least rural broadband which I know is a huge concern across my area.
"I wanted to understand how the park authority can help some of the rural areas I represent who continue to be frustrated by slow speeds. I think we need to use the authority's weight to our argument and to push for new technologies to be deployed in this area above others."
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