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* If you are unable to watch the above video (eg if you work for a Government Department!) you can read a transcript here.
I hope to see a revival of market towns as the drivers of an attractive and livable countryside. Market towns’ proximity to rural communities make them the perfect economic and social hubs for large hinterlands, and offer local services and solutions for dispersed rural populations. Goverment and regional funding needs to be re-focussed on creating sustainable market towns and moved away from the current pre-occupation with larger urban areas. Many market towns have suffered from decades of under-funding for basic infrastructure improvements because budgets are focussed on larger urban areas. To create a sustainable pattern of settlements in rural areas, these budget priorities need to be changed, and life needs to be brought back to our market towns.
I would like to see a rural community which made space for Travellers and Gypsies to live alongside them, and a more open and integrated dialogue between Travellers and Gypsies and settle communities. A place where every traveller child has a safe place to grow up, access to clean water, sanitation and a life free from discrimination and prejudice.
People want public transport in rural areas but, especially in the deeper areas, a new model is required. There’s nothing to suggest that communities can be served more viably by a style of bus service provision now - or in the near future - that is essentially the same as the one that has failed in these areas in the past. Investment in comfortable, reliable demand responsive forms of transport seems a better way forward, more capable of meeting the need.
Transport shapes and creates ambience in rural areas. What you see everywhere now is too much traffic dashing around at inappropriately fast speed. The countryside can be industrious and vital without having to double as a racing track or an inconvenient obstacle in the way of fast, private commuter journeys to and from urban areas. Areas to think about to change this: road user priorities; appropriate speed limits; road layout and width; severer penalties.
People are starting to look ahead at how road pricing might impact on rural areas (see, for example, CRC). Many see it as the great, unconscionable threat of our times but surely there are opportunities as well. The rural community has a good few years to look at shaping rural road pricing schemes to help ensure that they’ll be fair to and meet the needs of rural people. The least constructive approach would be to carp and wait for central government to drop last-minute, half-baked scheme rules on rural areas which are going to satisfy nobody and infuriate everyone.
I was born in rural North Norfolk 72 years ago and despite the war years enjoyed a wonderful, free childhood. Based on my lifelong experiences I would like to make the following comments in no particular order of importance.
1) Maintain and encourage agriculture in such a way that it is productive of healthy food and is environmentally friendly.
2) Taking my first comment into account give strong support to improving the habitats to our indigenous fauna and flora. Neglect of that which is now common may result in it becoming endangered.
3) Make it possible for the native country folk to live and work in the area in which they were born.
4) Support tourism and leisure activities in such a way that they are not harmful to the aims of any of my other comments.
5) Encourage green energy programmes and don’t tolerate NIMBYism.
6) Currently Central Government refuses to assist coastal District and Borough Councils from being able to execise controls over personal water craft(PWC) owners (jetskiers). When I was a District Councillor for North Norfolk I worked for 8 years to try to introduce such measures. Because of my insistence a working party was formed of which I was chairman. The efforts of this working party were nobly supported by the Council’s Legal Department and the Coastal Issues Forum of which I was also Chairman for 4 years. However, despite our efforts, none of the suggestions for bylaws, regulations etc that we submitted to Central Government were ever accepted.
The result of this, of course, is that a small percentage of jetskiers feel that they can “ play peacock” and “exhibit” their skills on bathing beaches, in waters near bird reserves and so on with a total disregard for people’s or wildlife’s need for a lack of disturbance. I know that this issue caused great concern for the Warden at Blakeney Point National Trust Reserve that is home to one of the UK’s most important Tern nesting areas. Funnily enough, in today’s Eastern Daily Press there is a report that the District Council only yesterday debated on how they were going to deal with the latest problems concerning this issue that has been brought to their attention by the frustrated public.
Simon, if Rural Britain: a 2020 vision, could resolve that little problem, preferably before 2020, many people from many walks of life would be most grateful.
I congratulate you on your efforts so far. May there be strength to the collective arm!
Many rural communities have a local church. The church always has the potential and in many cases acts as a catalyst for community action and community cohesion. Unlike suburban communities, characteristically atomised and fragmented into networks of common interest, the Church in rural communities remains an integral part of the whole of the community, where life is less compartmentalised. Research has recently revealed the extent of the Church’s contribution to rural life ranging from tourism to work with migrant workers, through to support structures and programmes for children and the elderly, the vulnerable and the isolated. At a national level the Arthur Rank Centre is a hub of information and rural expertise used by Governmant and the Church nationally when addressing issues affecting rural communities across the country. The Church is actively involved in economic, environmental and social issues, engaging with the increasing influence of globalisation. Small rural congregations often have an influence and role within the life of their community which belies their small congregations: they box above their weight. I believe it is sometimes difficult for people coming from a suburban environment to fully appreciate the many formal and informal ways in which this happens day by day in rural communities.
Unless HMG get their act together there will be no rural areas left . They need to properly address issues such as allowing farmers to manage their land so that they can have a sensible income and therefore to manage their land properly in the interest of us all. Villages must be able to serve their communities and by so doing help country residents to be sustainable. So far HMG have only paid lip service to there issues much of which has not worked such as the Sustainable Communities Act, now in law, yet so many post offices, pubs and village shops have closed. Also to curb the countryside access right which is curtailing land owners ability to manage their land to which the public really do not need to access. There is plenty of countryside for the leisure activities in which people wish to take part.
In giving these comments it is my way of saying how I want to see Britain’s rural areas to be by 2020.
My vision for 2020 is a country where broadband (real broadband of up to a gig) is available for all who want it. This is the only way forward, rural people having the same access to ICT as the urban people. The carbon footprint would be reduced as people can continue to live and work in the countryside. Without communication this is not possible and youngsters leave to work in the cities.
The incumbent (BT) is wringing revenue out of an obsolete copper network and instead of re-investing it pays fatcats and dividends. The govt needs to wake up and force it to deliver what it promises, instead of believing that this country has broadband. It doesn’t. The cities may have it but market towns and villages are lagging far behind as they are not economic. We need to light the fibre, everywhere, no matter what it costs. Broadband (min 100meg) is a utiility, and should be available for all.
Trees and forests are the very lifeblood of our planet. They stabilise the soil, generate oxygen, store carbon, transform our landscapes and provide one of the richest habitats for flora and fauna. They offer us respite, inspire our imagination, creativity and culture, and provide many opportunities for recreation. It is crucial that we value and look after them. If our woods disappear, people and wildlife will suffer.
The UK is one of the least wooded parts of Europe. Ancient woodland covers only 2% of our land. Ancient woodland is “our rainforest”, home to more threatened species than any other UK wildlife habitat - and it is irreplaceable. Yet almost half of what little remained in the 1930s has been lost or damaged. Only precious fragments are left and much is under threat from development, intensive land use and our changing climate.
We all need to redouble our efforts to achieve a vision for the UK as a land rich in native woodland and wildlife which future generations will enjoy as never before. Our vision is to protect what we have, restore what has been spoilt and create new woods for the future, to make our countryside more friendly for people and wildlife. Within the next 50 years and preferably much sooner our aspirations are for:
A doubling of native woodland cover in the UK (currently 1, 000, 000 ha)
Everyone to be within 4km of an accessible large woodland
All ancient woods planted with non-native conifers (220,000 ha across the UK) to be under active restoration
Absolute protection of ancient woodland
People, especially children, to better understand and value trees and woods
A rural Britain that has rediscovered the importance of the locality. The ability to build a community on shared values, rather than a rural community that measures its ’specialness’ on the quality of the building stone, or £1s per square foot. A balance of work and not just life but really living that taps into the power of collective activity.
I would like to see methodologies that help build common cause in a positive way
Common Bonds
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Collective Actions Communicate Assets
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Service Provision / Childrens’ Services / Economic Activity
Rural communities that are internally strong and externally engaged and active. In tandem we need vibrant urban communities to equal this vision.
I would like to see a rural community which made space for Travellers and Gypsies to live alongside them, and a more open and integrated dialogue between Travellers and Gypsies and settle communities. A place where every traveller child has a safe place to grow up, access to clean water, sanitation and a life free from discrimination and prejudice.
