24/01/2018

Despite a heavy cold Neil is determined to do something about the situation with the contamination of the Am. He plans a public meeting for the community to come together and discuss the impact on Ambridge. He suggests to Susan that it might be time for him to give up the pigs, he's not sure he'll last another winter of it, but Susan won't hear of it. Especially when she's working so hard on her kefir project, she's already been advising Helen and Tom on what packaging they should use.

Lilian's drinks evening gets off to a rocky start and an even rockier ending for Justin and Brian. The party was intended to patch things up between Latif and Alistair but the opposite seems to be happening. As Latif holes himself up in the corner talking to Justin; Alistair, Shula, Anisha and Rex feel completely ignored. At last Lilian takes Latif aside, if he disapproves of her that's fine but he simply shouldn't let his personal feelings cloud his business judgement after all Anisha is the best vet Lilian has ever met. By the end of the evening Latif is locked in conversation with Alistair and Lilian can breathe a sigh of relief.

The same can't be said for Brian who never wanted to go to the party in the first place. Justin confronts him about the Environment Agency's investigation into the contamination of the Am. Justin's not convinced Brian is seeing the seriousness of the situation as Brian puts it, 'I'm a farmer, I can't afford to lose sleep over every stone in my patch' but that's not the way Justin sees things. He's heard it's TCE and that the Environment Agency have traced it to Home Farm. Suffice to say Brian's temper gets the better of him and he tells Justin exactly what he thinks of his opinion.