BEING an MP for a couple of decades is rather like being part of one of Wagner’s operas: there are certain leitmotifs that appear and reappear at different stages of their evolution.

The last few weeks, two of these leitmotifs have appeared for the last time and both of these final re-appearances are, from my point of view, are a cause for some rejoicing.

The first is the completion of the work on the bridge at Charminster.

For those readers of this column who are not residents of Charminster and who do not hold in their memories each thrilling instalment of this long running saga, I should briefly recapitulate.

The bridge carries the road over a stream; the arches of the bridge used to be too small; the effect at times of very heavy rain was that the stream flooded the adjoining houses and the ancient church; but it took many years to bring English Heritage and the Environment Agency into agreement that the bridge it could have its arches changed – despite the fact that you’d have to perform considerable physical contortions to get your eyes into a position from which you could spot the difference between the old bridge and the new bridge.

Well, after months of reconstruction, the new bridge has finally emerged and it looks startlingly like the old bridge. With any luck, the only thing that people will really notice (or perhaps I should say, the only thing people really won’t notice) is the flooding (which I hope won’t happen anymore).

This theme of not noticing something brings me neatly to the second saga that has come to an end in the past few weeks.

The people of Tolpuddle and the surrounding villages will not be noticing vast wind turbines looming above them – because, after years of controversy, the application for these turbines has been withdrawn.

We now have about thirteen gigawatts of onshore wind turbines under way in the UK, making a considerable contribution of low carbon energy – but any further onshore wind farms will now require planning permission from the local authorities, and Tolpuddle wasn’t and isn’t somewhere that any planning authority was or is at all likely to think appropriate as a site for these very large industrial objects.