I hope when reading this you will have had a Happy Christmas with family and friends and I wish you all a Happy New Year.

The challenges ahead for this country are very serious indeed and no less than in East Grinstead and the surrounding areas.

The economy finds itself between a rock and a hard place and I remain very anxious about unemployment.

This year will see some tremendous challenges for us connected with planning matters and the need to develop a sustainable future for new housing in and around our town and across the whole of Mid Sussex and the wider county.

The worries that all of us have about the infrastructure; roads, transport and health services etc, are never properly considered by Central Government when they allocate these vast numbers of houses to areas like ours, which are already instructed to accommodate them. There is a case for new housing; indeed many people come to my surgeries to tell me of the difficulty that their children are having finding any where to live locally, but these developments must be sustainable and supported by the necessary infrastructure.

Whatever the difficulties are that lie ahead of us, we are lucky to have our being in such a marvellous place and I send all your readers my warmest best wishes for a Happy New Year.