Don’t forget the rural poor

10:46am Wednesday 26th March 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

IT'S comparatively easy to understand what unemployment means in urban areas because there is plenty of visual evidence of deprivation in the form of dilapidated housing and empty industrial and commercial buildings.

The rolling hills and greenery of East Lancashire, can however, effectively mask poverty every bit as bad as in towns.

Signs of wealth like big houses and expensively converted barns are obvious but those without work in village settings are almost invisible.

Cuts to public transport and post offices have made employment even more difficult.

That's why it's important that farmers and entrepreneurs get proper encouragement and support to develop their business ideas and boost the local economy.

It may be that different funding sources will replace the good work done over nine years by Lancashire Rural Futures which now faces closure because it failed to get £125,000 funding from the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

If that is the case then there must be proper promotion of alternative ways for entrepreneurs to get the help they need.

What mustn't happen is that our villages become retreats for the rich with no economic heartbeat of their own.