Letter to Times from Countryside Alliance

Times

September 29, 2003

Rural development

From Mr Simon Hart

Sir, Mrs Jean Locker (letter, September 20; see also letter, September 26) seems oblivious to the fact that the agriculture sector is in its worse depression since the 1930s, and farmers and farm workers are leaving the land in their thousands. It is little wonder that agricultural buildings, which are anyway often designed to fit outdated systems, are becoming redundant. Only 15 per cent of businesses are now involved in agriculture, compared with 25 per cent in 1980. It is vital that the Government promotes a sustainable rural economy and rural people are retained in their local communities. Farm diversification and the development of sustainable new businesses in redundant agricultural buildings are an important element in achieving this goal.

Those who object to any development “in their backyards” may find that the unpopulated landscape of derelict agricultural buildings and unmanaged farmland that results is not quite the rural idyll they envisaged.

Yours, etc,
SIMON HART
(Chief Executive Designate),
Countryside Alliance,
367 Kennington Road, SE11 4PT.
September 27.

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