From salmon to family farms via local pharmacies, Edward Morello MP rounds off 2025 with hard-won progress for West Dorset communities
Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful and restful Christmas and New Year. Before we got to the end of 2025 there was a flurry of good news. After months of campaigning and pressure, the Environment Agency and Natural England gave the go-ahead to a pilot salmon recovery project on the River Frome. The Frome, Piddle & West Dorset Fisheries Association has been fighting hard to reverse the decline of salmon numbers in our precious chalk streams, and I hope this pilot project will prove that targeted intervention can help prevent the catastrophic loss. I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard, and continues to do so, to ensure this project didn’t die.
Right before Christmas the Government announced a surprise partial U-turn on the disastrous Family Farm Tax. The raising of the inheritance tax threshold to £5m per couple will come as a huge relief to farmers and family business owners across West Dorset. It was a policy that caused unnecessary worry and distress, and I would like to pay tribute to the NFU and our farmers, who never gave up on the hope that the Government could be forced to back-down – especially those who repeatedly drove their tractors up to London!
Finally, on the very last day of the year, I received the fantastic news that Allied Pharmacy had agreed to take over and re-open the pharmacy in Lyme Regis, bringing to an end the long-running Jhoots saga and meaning residents will once again have a local service.
The resilience and strength shown by the staff – who have gone months without pay – was a sight to behold. And the support they were given by the community was a tribute to everything that makes West Dorset the best place in the UK to live.
This new year has certainly started interestingly, with US action in Venezuela and threats against the territory of Greenland, part of Denmark, a NATO ally. I suspect there will be plenty to keep me busy on the Foreign Affairs Committee. However, my focus remains on West Dorset, and I can’t wait to see what we can achieve in 2026!
