Challenge for rural communitites
EMPOWERING local communities like those in Nidderdale by giving them a greater say in how they are run is the key to bringing David Cameron's "Big Society" to country areas, according to a new report.
The Rural Challenge – Achieving Sustainable Rural Communities for the 21st Century addresses many of the main issues facing rural communities, including job security, affordable housing, and school and post office closures.
Martin Soley, secretary of the Nidderdale Business Association, agreed the issues needed to be addressed in the dale and hoped the report would clearly state how to access support.
"It must have clarity and be easily accessible – ie simpler to access than the current range of support and grants – but otherwise yes it's a positive step, " he said.
"Any help to small business would be gratefully received be it from talks, seminars, cheap loads, anything they need really."
Mr Soley also welcomed support for village shops and post offices, as well as buses for the elderly and local access to medical services.
"Having a shop or a post office in every village or hamlet will make sure people go there and stay there, then, if you get people coming in, it mushrooms, helping the locality and keeping it sustainable. We must keep up the buses we have got and perhaps increase them on a morning an evening and make sure doctors and dentists are accessible."
The Rural Coalition publication follows last year's prospectus, which warned that wit hout action or policy change, large swathes of the countryside would become "part dormitory, part theme park and part retirement home".
The Rural Coalition was formed two years ago and is made up of several organisations, including Action with Communities in Rural England, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Country Land and Business Association, the Local Government Group, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Town and Country Planning Association, and is supported by the Government's Commission for Rural Communities.
The 56-page report's recommendations include:
l the provision of a full range of financial services through rural post office branches
l a new national policy on renewable energy to steer local plans for small-scale renewable energy developments in the countryside
l a review of the tax regime in relation to work-based home extensions and small-scale premises
l the provision and maintenance of a good supply of appropriate sites and premises for all kinds of businesses in smaller rural communities, including new-build and conversion of farm buildings and farm diversification
l encouraging landowners to provide low-cost land and/or affordable housing through advice and incentives
Skipton and Ripon Conservative MP Julian Smith said: "It looks like a really positive contribution to a debate which I believe is vital."
Liberal Democrat MP Matthew Taylor, who is chairman of the Rural Coalition, said: "We need a fundamental change of approach at both national and local levels to give rural communities a more sustainable future.
"For 50 years or more, policy has undervalued the countryside and failed to meet the needs of rural communities. The result is starkly apparent – rural communities have become increasingly less sustainable and less self-sufficient."
Highlighting the cumulative effect of some of the problems facing rural areas, the report warns that rural services face meltdown as spending is cut, housing threatens to outprice all but the wealthiest, and rural wages continue to lag as much as 20 per cent behind urban averages.
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Monday 21 May 2012
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