LAST week contained a number of long-awaited diary commitments that represent the culmination of many months of hard work.

I was delighted to attend the official opening of the new fermenter at Porton Biopharma Ltd. I have no doubt that the state-of-the art equipment unveiled last week will help this excellent business, developing and manufacturing life changing medication inside the wire, continue to go from strength-to-strength, building on its world-leading expertise.

I also dropped in at the topping out ceremony for the new veterans centre in Wilton. The new hub will offer independent and supported living settings for former servicemen and women and will enable them to access advice, education and employment so they can realise their full potential in civilian life.

I have been involved from the inception and have been delighted to see the innovative model achieve wide recognition and secure two separate tranches of Libor fines funding.

I very much hope my next visit to the site will be to see the apartments decorated and welcoming their first residents.

Serve On, the superb emergency response charity headquartered at Salisbury Fire Station, officially received the keys to their new kit van this week. This will help them transport equipment and volunteers all over the country to enhance their work supporting and bolstering our emergency services at times of exceptional pressure, such as extreme weather events.

Last but not least in my list of moments in time representing vast effort behind the scenes, it was a privilege to enjoy Salisbury Area Young Musicians’ 30th Anniversary concert. The standard never fails to impress and I have no doubt it was a proud and emotional evening for parents who have put in hours of work listening, encouraging and ferrying their talented offspring to countless lessons and rehearsals.

This Friday, I will be office bound – seeing around 20 constituents, all with different issues on their minds. Some want to talk politics, some are bringing casework or raising problems they have encountered, others want to discuss nascent business and charitable ventures and events in the planning stage. The variety of topics that crop up during a day of meetings constantly amazes me and, perhaps, in a year or so, I will have the good fortune to be invited to see some of their ideas come to fruition!