Covid is the biggest threat facing our towns and high streets for generations.

However, while it poses enormous challenges, it also presents opportunities to adapt and hopefully prosper in the future – if our communities are able to grasp them.

That’s why, over the summer, I have been stepping up my work looking at regeneration in our local towns and villages – through my not for profit social enterprise, The Norfolk Way, and the recent RESTART Festival that we have held in collaboration with the New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, as well as numerous conversations with local councillors, district and county council officials, charities, businesses and local community groups.

I welcomed the invitation from the aboutDereham Partnership to meet again on Friday – to hear about all the great work that they have been doing, despite Covid, and to learn how I may be able to help them going forward.

Rest assured, I am committed to continuing this work in all of our Mid Norfolk towns, along with our villages, and look forward to reporting more soon.