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Use it or Lose it!

Thursday, 13 March 2008

Use Your Post Office - Or Lose It!

The imminent announcement by the Post Office to name the branches that it intends to closed down is a Wake Up call to both users and the Government. Many of the threatened post offices are situated in rural locations, and they provide the only shop and postal services for miles around.

With the need to minimise carbon emissions being thrust upon us daily by the Government, as well as the escalating cost of road fuel that continually increases the cost of living by more than the official inflation figures, it is imperative that all post offices remain operational. Not only do post offices provide postal services, but they are often associated with shops that provide groceries, bread, newspapers and banking services. The two activities together keep businesses viable; the closure of one element will result in the disappearance of the other. Prices may be higher than in supermarkets, but this has to be offset by the cost of getting to the supermarkets, as well as the time it takes to get there and back home again. Even home delivery by supermarkets has a charge! A local post office will provide provisions and jobs, and be a vital and central part of community life - particularly in rural communities.

This week, it was revealed that Essex County Council is endeavouring to take over some of the post offices that are likely to be closed down. That local authority clearly understands the importance of keeping as many post offices open as possible. Perhaps Cornwall County Council should do the same.

Our local MPs have done much to highlight the necessity of keeping post offices open, as without post offices communities, especially those in the countryside, will decline or merely become dormitories for the larger towns and cities. I was much impressed by a report that I received from Oxfordshire about David Cameron’s (Leader of the Opposition and the Conservative Party) visit to five post offices in his West Oxfordshire constituency on Friday, March 7^th. Those that David Cameron spoke to on that day stressed the importance of retaining post offices as the only way that village and community shops could stay viable. One of the Oxfordshire post offices visited, Wootton near Woodstock, was staffed by volunteers as a community shop that had only re-opened in November 2007. Customers and shop staff explained the difficulties that villagers would face in getting to the post office in the nearby town, especially as there was a very limited bus service between the village and the town - and up to 20% of villagers did not own a car. Perhaps the most revealing fact was that Wootton’s post office was providing a much needed community service that was well supported.

Here in Cornwall, it is vital that post offices are kept open - even on a part-time basis. In order to ensure that our communities remain vibrant, we must do two things:

(1) ensure that your MP keeps fighting for the continued existence of all post offices - so contact your MP now; and

(2) use you post office - for both postal services and the purchase of other commodities, as well as for banking services.

So Use It rather than Lose it!

Ted Venn

13^th March 2008

The State of Our Countryside in 2026

Tuesday, 26 February 2008

THE STATE OF OUR COUNTRYSIDE IN 2026

Bill Bryson, President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), today (Tuesday, February 26th) sparks a national debate on the publication of a provocative paper and online forum on England’s countryside: Towards a vision for the countryside.

Commenting on the launch of the online forum Mr Bryson said:

‘Last year I was challenged to lead a debate with our members on the future of the countryside in 2026, CPRE’s centenary year. ‘But we want a wider, national debate. After all, if we can explore and understand what people want from our countryside in 20 years time, then we will be in a much better position to plan the steps to get there. ‘We’ll campaign on the results and seek to influence Government. But this isn’t an issue that should be left to politicians. It should be debated by everyone, from farmers to business people, planners to village shop owners. We believe we can all take action to protect the countryside, enhance it, and promote its importance, that’s why we’ve outlined one possible, positive vision, and set up a debates page for all views on the future of our countryside.’

CPRE’s contribution to the debate comes with the publication of Towards a vision for the countryside, and the online debate forum. This includes identification of five key countryside issues that describe possible futures for people and places in 2026:

The Key Issues are:

Lifestyle and leisure England’s countryside has blossomed into its Natural Health Service. Farm and country visits are part of the school curriculum and many more people, from a broad demography, are using and visiting the countryside.

Life in our cities, towns and villages Thanks to good planning, three quarters of new homes created will be contained within urban areas – but built on existing brownfield land. Some will be built on countryside. Smaller towns and villages will grow as a result of the revival in locally produced food and the interest in the countryside for leisure. This will also help to create more local jobs.

Climate change and the countryside Farmers have helped to reduce CO₂ emissions by moving away from crops that require large amounts of synthetic, oil derived fertilisers. To adapt to the changing climate, new areas of coastal wetland will be created. Increased rainfall will be absorbed through better land management and technologies. Biodiverse and tranquil reservoirs will store enough water to take us through droughts.

Food and farming Farmers will earn part of their income from maintaining the countryside. They’ll also generate an income from countryside visits as people take more holidays there. The wildflowers, birds, insects and mammals that had so dwindled over the previous 70 years have returned in a rush of sights, sounds and smells. Farmers will play their part in supplying our energy needs diversifying into bio-energy crops, growing rapeseed oil and fast growing trees for wood burning.

Planning A new focus of the planning system will be on increased use of the ‘countryside next door’, within a few minutes walk of where people live. Development will be completed sensitively, retaining countryside character while encouraging access and recreation. We will have a greener Green Belt.

Shaun Spiers, Chief Executive of CPRE, said:

‘We all have different views about the kind of landscape we want to pass on to the next generation. We are not predicting the future, but exploring how things might look in 2026. ‘While we continue to defend countryside from inappropriate development we also want to come up with positive solutions. We want to show how necessary development can be accommodated without eating up too much countryside, and how the countryside’s value – as an amenity, in supplying food, in helping us mitigate and adapt to climate change – can be enhanced. ‘We have set out one exciting possible vision. Be we can’t provide all the answers. We need a national debate that will, we hope, lead to a shared understanding of the sort of countryside we want to see and how to get it.’

Join the online debate forum at: www.cpre.org.uk

Eco-Towns: 10 Tests

Saturday, 23 February 2008

CPRE's 10 Tests for Eco Towns

CPRE will be assessing short listed schemes against a series of tests along the following lines:

(1) The public and affected communities should be fully consulted on schemes, including the principle of whether or not to have an eco-town in their area;

(2) Schemes should be tested through regional spatial strategies and local development framework reviews. These should ensure that decisions on eco-towns take full account of evidence on environmental effects, housing need and alternatives for meeting these;

(3) Decisions on eco-towns should be accompanied by evidence that demonstrates a new settlement to be the most sustainable option for accommodating housing growth compared with other options, such as redeveloping an existing urban brownfield site or an urban extension;

(4) Schemes should demonstrate efficient use of land, with densities capable of supporting public transport and a high priority given to recycling brownfield land and buildings;

(5) Schemes should be genuinely carbon neutral, taking into account potential emissions from transport (domestic, public and commercial) and buildings (in construction and use);

(6) Schemes should foster a strong sense of place and community, achieve a strong commitment to living standards, with high quality public spaces, architecture and street layouts that give priority to pedestrians and non-motorised transport, including substantial car free areas;

(7) Schemes should be subject to an independent landscape character appraisal, be sympathetic to their setting and clearly enhance the local landscape (including both buildings and the natural heritage), and consider the designation of new Green Belt where appropriate;

(8) Schemes should include measures designed to conserve water and other natural resources, minimise soil, air, noise and light pollution and achieve zero-waste;

(9) Schemes should be complete communities with homes (with at least 50% affordable), schools, workplaces, shops, recreation, community and health facilities and open space within walking distance and foster active, sustainable lifestyles and civic participation;

(10) Schemes should be well connected to surroundings with high quality public transport providing good access to nearby settlements and local supply networks, with sourcing of local produce, such as food, fuel and building materials.

Do remember that the Government’s proposals for planning reform will make it easier to build on the countryside without members of the public having a proper say.

Ted Venn

23^rd February 2008

Amended: 24th July 2008

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