Regenerating our rural communities
Simon Randall, a member of the Conservative Co-operative Movement, spoke at a Foundation East seminar in Thetford today (24 February 2010) on the role of co-operatives and community land trusts in regenerating our rural communities.
He outlined some of the challenges faced by our villages – country pub closures estimated at 650 per annum, village shops at 500 per annum and rural schools at one per month. Young people are leaving for our towns, leaving villages with an ageing population.
Affordable housing is a key catalyst for village sustainability but creation of a village hub with facilities such as a GP’s surgery, community hall, café, and shop/post office. He referred to the Blockley shop in rural Gloucestershire owned by the village co-operative’s five hundred shareholders and the Movement’s publication: Nuts and Bolts: How to start a food co-op.
Co-operative ownership of rural facilities will be one of the key opportunities for our villages – such vehicles already own village halls, affordable housing, schools and shops. This could be developed as a model for the future accessing a range of public and charitable funding, perhaps utilising a community land trust as the vehicle for taking transfer of any land.
Simon Randall stressed the importance of a bottoms-up approach to developing rural hubs in partnership with the local authorities (including parish councils), the churches, landowners and residents.
