Deep Rural Communities - Report

The Wales Rural Observatory has issued a report on “Deep Rural Communities” which was debated last week at the Welsh Assembly. The Report focussed on a number of deeply rural communities including Llanwddyn in Montgomeryshire and sought to identify the reasons why younger people do not stay in or move to rural areas. It cited house and fuel prices, post office and pub closures and poor access to broadband as threatening the future of rural communities in Wales. It identified a number of issues including little affordable housing, more expensive vehicle fuel and higher prices in local shops which all contributed to a higher cost of living. The report said the demand for broadband among deep rural residents was not being met and that many continued to experience variable mobile phone reception. Residents also felt that they received less value for money and lower levels of service provision for their council tax than urban and more densely populated areas. More than 90% of those surveyed in the report said they were satisfied with their local area as a place to live, and 94% rated their quality of life as either "very good" or "fairly quiet". But there were key issues of concern raised by people living in rural areas which affected daily life, not least the demise of the Welsh language and rural ways of life. But will we be seeing Powys County Council responding to the report? PCC's intention to rationalise its schools principally by closing village schools and closing Llanfyllin High School does not auger well for the future of communities such as Llanfihangel-yng-Ngwynfa. Planning can be a vehicle for change but Powys CC seems constrained by national planning policies to offer any innovative approach to rural planning issues.