There was more flooding misery this week and it was good to see Wiltshire Council responding actively with a new flood resilience scheme to help villages tackle the rising waters and also new drainage by-laws that will give them more powers to tackle problems of water flow and ditch clearance. The Prime Minister also announced new grants of up to £5,000 per property this week to pay for future flood protection work and £10m support for waterlogged farmers who are unable to plant crops or move livestock. He has made a commitment to do whatever it takes to help people clear up.

Beyond the clean-up, many questions remain about the long-term spending needed on vital but unglamorous assets like water pipes and sewers and while the Government continues to increase investment, the private water companies are in the firing line too.

I held a meeting with Thames Water this week to see what progress had been made in diagnosing the flow problems in the Bedwyns and was pleased to hear the analysis was ready and the company was ready to invest if needed.

I also got the good news that the long-awaited connector tunnel across Swindon is finally being built which means from 2016 that abstraction from the River Kennet will be greatly reduced. This might not seem like a problem at the moment but this valuable and vulnerable chalk stream needs all the help it can get.

Planning issues have also dominated a large part of my day and while I try to stay out of local planning matters which are entirely devolved to the council, when there are really obvious problems emerging I will get involved.

In the case of the housing developments proposed around Devizes, these clearly contravene the local plans set out in the Core Strategy for Wiltshire which is being reviewed by the planning inspectorate and I am concerned about developers mounting a sustained attack while the plan is in draft form. I will ask for these applications to be called in by the Secretary of State for review and I am also considering asking for the same treatment for one of the solar farm developments that I heard about in a packed meeting in Seend.

Although many of us broadly support the proposals individually, the clustering of them in a small area appears to run counter to guidance from both the energy and planning ministers so national policy does, I think, need to be tested.