Future Rural Britain will have:

1) Mixed communities made up of people of all ages, with community facilities such as halls, pubs, shops, schools, and churches which are well supported and are centres of village life.

2) A landscape which is cared for by farmers and landowners who are not absent, but value the land for how it looks and what it can be used for.

3) A farming industry which is highly valued by Government and encouraged and funded accordingly.

4) Businesses and industries located in the rural areas which are staffed by people who live locally, supported by local government planning departments who take a realistic view of the rural areas.

Anne Harrison

Village Pub!!

Heart and soul of village life

Local shop for local produce

Easily available for locals and elderly to shop

Opening hours that suit the local community

Local Post Office

Helping the elderly and local residents who can not get to nearby towns without transport

A place to meet friendly faces and members of the community

A face behind the bar to welcome and become friends with

Community groups have somewhere to hold meetings and provide help in the village. A focal point for all to use.

Steve Bull

Ashbourne Town Council

Ambition - sustainable communities at all levels

Isolated farming communities

Hamlets

Villages

Market Towns

County Towns / cities

Infrastructure appropriate to allow access to services with reasonable distance

think of schools – universities

prime retail needs for everyday shopping – specialist retailers

work opportunities, leisure, culture and recreation

public / community transport

housing and food supplies

power supplies

Rural poverty – one man’s ‘country cottage’ can be another man’s ‘rural squalor’

Encourage community cohesion – in small communities one building and its people make a huge contribution as a focus, be it pub, shop or school

Can see each aspect reflected on a different scale along the continuum of settlement sites.

Debbie

Sleaford

Rural Improvements for 2020 –

Housing – must impose a better ratio of affordable housing. Resist the temptation to increase villages to small towns but increase the sustainability, think of it as durability.

The community is important and must be encouraged to participate in creating their own future with, for example, community-led diversification projects creating employment, creating wealth and increasing tourism / shopping and thus through a ‘ripple’ effect increase the viability of the village. The pub is an essential hub of the village /small town and work must be put in to ensure this threatened part of the community thrives. Again – diversification. We have already seen the Post Offices in pubs – this could be expanded. Public transport links must be improved allowing similar access to town and city attractions to that achieved by suburban dwellers. This cost money, but this must be found via various partnerships between different producers – think ASDA bus! New and improved energy production devices could also ‘fuel’ the rural revolution with the likes of tidal power, biomass etc fanning the flames.

No more EA invasion of farmland as water storage facility

Increased coastal protection where necessary