Rural White Paper - some perspectives

[The Land Is Ours]

Rural White Paper:  Many aspects of it are to be welcomed (& well 
overdue  ..for instance: 50% council rebate on second homes to end, 
receipts from this for affordable housing, £192m on rural public transport, 
& £270m to help post-offices diversify into one-stop shops).

Article below refers to new planning-law reform in RWPaper to enable 
farmers to diversify their businesses. Question is: diversification to 
what? (Marion Shoard on Newsnight, Tuesday night, asserted that tourism is 
an increasingly more prominent  land-use in the countryside, yet 
contradicted herself when she mentioned how development in farm out-housing 
was a change for the worse [e.g. more traffic  ..like tourism], saying that 
this was already happening and now the white paper relaxes planning laws in 
the countryside).

It is suggested that an important part of the rationale for this move to 
lose this veto on developments on what is officially called 'the best and 
most versatile land' is that this is no longer the most relevant criterion 
for land protection. In modern perspective, factors such as biodiversity, 
landscape, outweigh agricultural productivity.
Oliver Tickell > : "From that perspective this is a positive move. However 
what appears to be lacking is the balancing commitment to better protection 
of rural land generally, or land of wildlife & landscape importance"

There doesn't appear to be anything within the paper that deals with the 
practical nuts & bolts
of policies to advance family farming & protection of rural 
landscapes.  And the very general encouragement of 'diversification' albeit 
giving more encouragement to on-the-farm value-adding processing which is 
good, but with no specific policy underpinning will mean that light 
industry will surely further exacerbate traffic & development on Greenfield 
(& rural out-housing).  However, money (£7m) to set up more local 
decision-making to improve community representation on town & parish 
councils can keep this in check, and so, must be welcomed.

Mark  TLIO

****************

Monday, 27 November, 2000, 14:48 GMT
Rural development veto to go
By BBC local government correspondent Rory Maclean

The government is being accused of an attempt to weaken the protection from
development that is given to the UK's best agricultural land.

Under plans contained in the Rural White Paper due to be published on
Tuesday, the Ministry of Agriculture will lose the veto it has on
developments on what is officially called 'best and most versatile land'.

This land is the most fertile and has the capacity to be the most
productive.

The veto has been in place since World War II because of the perceived need
to ensure that the countryside was capable of providing enough food for the
population.



Many farmers are struggling because of the BSE crisis

Instead, the ultimate decision over the fate of this land, which makes up
over one-third of the UK's 9m hectares of farmland, will fall under the
control of local authorities and the planning system.

The idea is that the relaxation of development policy on this land will
allow farmers to diversify.

Many farmers are facing problems making a living following the BSE crisis
and in the face of cheap foreign food imports.

The ability to develop alternative job-creating businesses on farms is seen
by the government as important to stimulate the rural economy.

Some, like Mark Todd, a Labour member of the Agriculture Select Committee,
see farmers being able to develop industries like potato packing on land
that previously they would have had great trouble developing.

"I'm looking for ways in which we can sustain rural jobs and a vibrant rural
economy and support keen entrepreneurial skills in our rural life."



The recent floods have added to rural problems


However, the Council for the Protection of Rural England (CPRE) is worried
that the MAFF veto should be scrapped and not replaced with anything else.

CPRE Assistant Director Tony Burton says by removing the veto, the
presumption that this land should not be used is weakened.

Housing developers might then seek to use this type of land on a more
regular basis.

The CPRE believes this idea contradicts the whole thrust of the Urban White
Paper, which was published last week.

That Urban white paper seeks to ensure that most new housing is built on
re-used land in urban centres.



The urban white paper encouraged development


Tony Burton said: "We have here two white papers being produced within days
of each other.

"One saying use the cities, use the dereliction and decay, harness the
development and use it to revitalise towns and cities, and on the other hand
the rural white paper risks weakening protection of farmland from
development.

"There's a fundamental contradiction in policy here."

The CPRE also points out that the government's own Performance and
Innovation Unit report, Rural Economies, said the special protection of best
and most versatile land should not be abolished before the introduction of a
national policy recognising the land's environmental value.

The National Farmers Union will not comment in advance of the Rural White
Paper's publication.

But it privately believes that the number of farmers who will be able to
take advantage of this measure will be limited.
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The TLIO Networking Office



The Land Is Ours
... A Landrights movement for All

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and the decision making processes affecting them, for everyone - 
irrespecitive of race, age, or gender.

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