Exciting times ahead!

I love meeting people with a passion for Staffordshire and who, like me, believe that small is beautiful! Today I met such a person - Emily Whitehead who is the inspiration behind an amazing website, Simply Staffordshire. Emily wants to get Simply Staffordshire members involved in the Uttoxeter Food and Drink Festival (and, I hope, the Stone Festival in October) so we met up at the Racecourse this morning to discuss various ideas with her.

Most of her members are small producers and businesses who have been handpicked by her to ensure high standards. As she spoke, I could almost hear echos of Brian Blundell in my ears! Like Brian, she believes that it will be the small local businesses that will do most for the local economy. She, too, believes that we should be proud of our food and drink heritage.

Emily clearly has some very useful PR and marketing skills and I have no doubt that Simply Staffordshire is going to become a business to watch. It's going to be good working with her.