Schools close as families are priced out of rural areas

lemonjelly

The other problem with building in rural areas is the fact that it is mainly greenbelt - notoriously difficult to get permission.

As well as this - and I speak from experience - villages will fight tooth & nail to ensure any building project is prevented from going ahead, as it will adversely affect their idyllic way of life. When I worked in a rural area I used to get tons of letters from villagers complasining about new projects which would be burnt if we moved strangers in to their village.

inspector_monkfish

lemonjelly wrote: »

The other problem with building in rural areas is the fact that it is mainly greenbelt - notoriously difficult to get permission.

As well as this - and I speak from experience - villages will fight tooth & nail to ensure any building project is prevented from going ahead, as it will adversely affect their idyllic way of life. When I worked in a rural area I used to get tons of letters from villagers complasining about new projects which would be burnt if we moved strangers in to their village.

yeah, but that is 'rural' wolverhampton

i've seen them - with their 3 heads and Old Gold Goodyear footy shirts.....:eek:

lemonjelly

inspector_monkfish wrote: »

yeah, but that is 'rural' wolverhampton

i've seen them - with their 3 heads and Old Gold Goodyear footy shirts.....:eek:

WHERE IS THAT ABUSE BUTTON!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

On a serious note, just outside (north & to the east) of wolverhampton it is very rural, & it was from these areas.

I thought the league of gentlemen was a factual programme when I went out into those communities:eek::eek::eek:

purch

notoriously difficult to get permission

:rotfl:

This is a true story showing how the planning process works in Exmoor National Park

Couple move into a house in the mid 1970's. The property is Thatched, and had been for over 100 years.

In the mid 1990's they apply for PP to build an extension.

After the usual 18 months of deliberation, ENP gives permission, but tells them they cannot have it thatched like the rest of the house, because when the house was originally built it had a slate roof, so under the rules it had to be slate.

OK, said the couple, then can we have PP to remove the current Thatched roof and replace it with slate, like it was when originally built.

ENP refused on the grounds that it had been thatched for so long, so now they have a thatched house with a slate roofed extension, which looks ludicrous.

Rosie75

I live in rural north Oxfordshire and there are lots of families in my village and the adjacent ones. But they are all very well-off and send their children to private schools, despite (by all accounts) the state schools in this area being perfectly good. Despite the belief of many parents who educate their children privately (I have seen this voiced on this very forum) that they are generously doing everyone else a favour by not burdening the state education system with their children, it seems likely that, in fact, they are contributing to the closure of rural schools.

Sapphire

boyse7en wrote: »

My Dad helped out on all sorts of village events when I was young (Carnival, Twinning, PTA, Historical Society, Earl of Rone (a folk music/historical weekend) and he was in his early forties.
He is still helping out on some of them (not that he particularly wants to), and he is in his late seventies now, but there are no young/middle aged people who are willing or able to take over the organisational responsibilities.

Doesn't the fact that long-established rural communities have died or are dying and that far less people are working the land now than they used to have something to do with this? Before mechanization, there used to be real need for large communities of people to work together in many parts of Britain. There were many young people working the land, as well as older ones. Now you just need a few workers to a farm, plus a lot of machinery. The fact that railways were done away with also had a huge effect on local life, affecting communications between villages, towns and cities.

What is there left for a large number of people (especially young people) to actually realistically do in the countryside, however beautiful it is? A small number of people in remote areas (e.g. Herefordshire) can work the land, or get involved in environmental work, but there is not much more than this...

chopperharris

I went to view an ex school for buying and turning into a house.One of those ye olde village stone built schools.Its also in the wettest part of the uk.

The village has less than 12 houses , the council kept a part and created a football pitch for the local community off the sale of the original plot.

Now lets take the maths into consideration here , half the houses occupants will be female , and without sounding sexist just wont play footie.

Given that the majority of the people there will be old , the older guys wont use it.

Given that the fathers will be working and thus commuting they wont have the time for it.

Given that it is unlit that rules out using it for more than 50 percent of the year.

Given that it has no defined edging/markings , or enough room outside it without hitting the border fence if your running , its unsafe to play on imo and a compensation payout just waiting to happen.

Given that the school was closed because there wasnt enough children in the area then theres not any schoolkids to use it neither.

So basically there is a new pitch doing nothing , the greensman is paid from council tax and will be the only person to bloody use it if you include cutting the thing.

No doubt the community demanded it , everyone local will be higher in council tax for a pitch they now cant round up enough players for 5 a side game on.

You have to wonder what kind of madness goes on in the council and these villages.

lostinrates

Sapphire wrote: »

Doesn't the fact that long-established rural communities have died or are dying and that far less people are working the land now than they used to have something to do with this? Before mechanization, there used to be real need for large communities of people to work together in many parts of Britain. There were many young people working the land, as well as older ones. Now you just need a few workers to a farm, plus a lot of machinery. The fact that railways were done away with also had a huge effect on local life, affecting communications between villages, towns and cities.

What is there left for a large number of people (especially young people) to actually realistically do in the countryside, however beautiful it is? A small number of people in remote areas (e.g. Herefordshire) can work the land, or get involved in environmental work, but there is not much more than this...

Do you mean for work? There is a lot of tourism around here, and, thanks I think in part to the 'incomers'' and weekenders, a large number of independant shops and art galleries. We also seem to have a large number of alternative therapists. In the southwest there are a lot of private/public schools. A few towns here locally have a sort of hint of the university town, such is the power of the spend of the term time: but as well as shops and restaurants for parents (and tourists) and teens, this means employment for teachers, house parents, school staff.

The countryside is also not bereft of industry, although it does cause problems.
http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/westerngazette/news/Residents-breathe-easier-Cary-factory-tackles-odour-problems/article-323889-detail/article.html
that was on the news a bit.

SingleSue

I suppose in a way that I am lucky that I live in a village which whilst it has retained it's oldy worldy charm, it is also, thanks to the encroaching borders of the nearest town (you all know which one, we have a large thread on it!), able to sustain its school.

But, we also have the weird planning rules, the normal village thing of not wanting any development (we are currently fighting the proposal to build lots of houses here) and the waryness in accepting new people living here.

I like the feeling of being in a village with the green fields close by, the pub, 2 churches but no supermarket, a chip shop that can only open a few days a week, no fuel station and a bus service which makes it eek to not have a car...oh and it has only taken me 11 years to be accepted by the other villagers!

ruggedtoast

As much as my knee jerk anti capitalist communist leanings want me to be angry about this topic I think its worth looking at a bit more dispassionately.

Firstly - its the people who live in the country and own property who are presumably responsible for pricing eachother out of buying. No ones forcing them to sell their mortgage free country cottage to Bill the London Banker for £750,000 when they could sell it to cousin Dave for £250,000.

Secondly, the nature of the countryside, as in all developed countries - has totally changed. Previously people wanted to escape rural drudgery for a better life in the towns. Now its the reverse.

There is just not enough industry left in the countryside proper to support a local economy. Any agricultural jobs that remain are very low wage, the rest have vanished due to automation and agribusiness. I dont like this but as I shop in a supermarket I'd be a hypocrite for going against it.

The alternative is either going back to the past, with millions of men and women labouring at local low skilled jobs, or stepping into the future with people in totally wired and networked home-offices that no longer need to be in the towns. Neither is really practical from where we are.

Of course the other alternative is what the NHF want, vast rural subsidies for local people to live in places where there is little work so that they can compete with very wealthy people who can and will pay millions for pretty views. The tax burden of which will fall on people who live in towns.

Unfortunately if you build the social housing that the NHF wants the country villages will become towns and the problem will just be shifted elsewhere.

The main industry of the countryside now is essentially leisure. Thats not going to change anytime soon.

I would love to wake up each morning, throw open the window of my detached cottage and look at open fields before seinding my kids off to the local free government school, witrh 2 teachers and 12 children, and then cycling off to the village to sell stamps in the post office - but unfortunately there are about 60 million other people on this crowded island who want that too.

I am much more bothered about the affordability crisis afflicting the priced out working poor in our urban centres. People whos plight isnt that different from the pre-industrial agricultural labourers.