I was pleased to be joined by Hampshire County Council Leader Keith Mans to meet trustees and fundraisers at Bursledon Brickworks brickmaking museum in Swanwick to hear about the £1.8m New Foundations Project to create an ongoing income stream for the museum with refurbishment of sheds to incorporate small business units.

The brickworks is the largest Victorian steam-driven brickworks in the country and its survival is nationally as well as locally important.

It was good to meet trustees Paul West and Andrew Fry along with Jacqui Winter who is working on the fundraising and project co-ordination Carolyne Haynes. This is a huge project which I am happy to support.

Many Councillors from across South-East Hampshire received a briefing at Fareham Borough Council today about the planned South-East Hampshire Rapid Transit project. This is being led by the highway authorities of Hampshire County Council and Portsmouth City Council

Work is in hand to bid for government Transforming Cities funding to extend the Bus Rapid Transit system known as Eclipse which runs between Fareham and Gosport to link with the Star service that runs between Portsmoth and Waterlooville. Many enhancements are proposed which will involve improvements across Fareham, Gosport, Havant and Portsmouth.

It was interesting to witness up close the laying of the high voltage cables onto the seabed for the IFA2 interconnector at Solent Airport, Daedalus being constructed by National Grid with the ability to supply 1 gigawatt of power to the grid as required.

The Cable Enterprise is laying the last 40 miles of cable from Fareham to France which should complete during November with the switch-on of the system next year.

Thank you IFA2 Project Director David Luetchford for the trip out in to the Solent with Solace boat Green Water providing the security for the project.