COUNTRY SQUIRE – A VOICE FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

England’s rural towns and villages are wonderful places to live. The thought of living surrounded by beautiful scenery at every turn, and being part of the spirit that exists within small communities, is often what encourages people to stay where they were brought up, or drives others to swap the suburbs for the countryside.

But at the same time as valuing the very special nature of rural life, we need to be realistic about the challenges that these communities face – challenges which have been exacerbated by over a decade of neglect.

For too long, there has been an imbalance – not just ‘north-south’, but ‘rural-urban’. Five rural post offices a week closed under the Labour Government. Over the same period, fuel duty increased 12 times – hitting rural communities twice as hard as urban ones. For too long, little was done to address rural poverty or rural unemployment.

We at Country Squire Magazine are determined to fix that, and stand up for those communities that have found it difficult to have their voices heard until now.

This magazine will give rural business and community leaders a platform to tell us their problems so our politicians can find ways to help – where Government is actually the answer.

This website will give rural communities a clear platform via which they can suggest how policy should be developed so our most remote towns and villages can grow stronger and thrive.

Real people, with real, practical, local knowledge, will have direct access to article publishing which will be seen at the highest levels of UK Government.

For too long rural communities and businesses have been left on their own to try to find solutions to the problems they face. That is unacceptable, and we must make sure that they are not left behind.

There are many things that people in most cities and towns take for granted. If you want to make a phone call when you’re out then your mobile is guaranteed a signal. If your children need to file homework on-line then access to a decent internet connection is at your finger tips. But not if you’re in the countryside with a dead zone of mobile and broadband coverage.

These are just some of the disadvantages that families living in rural communities face.

Businesses in these areas also have their own challenges. They too are living in difficult financial times, but added to this is a lack of business premises, fragmented business networks and infrastructure. Yet if we were to find ways to overcome these challenges, there’s an enormous opportunity for growth.

Rural businesses already contribute £200 billion to the economy, and it’s clear that they have an important role to play in helping to rebuild the nation’s finances, boosting local and regional economies by creating jobs, and providing goods and services such as tourism.