The vital
importance of thriving villages cannot be underestimated. Not only should our
villages and market towns look picturesque but they should also be able to
provide services to their residents. They should not fall to the level of
pretty ‘window dressing’ for the tourist trade. However important tourism is to
these local economies, it would be a travesty and a scandal if people struggled
to work and live there!
The Post
Office, in particular, provides a place for people to pay their bills, collect
benefits, get their car taxed and buy stamps locally. Sadly, the number of
branches has dwindled from about 25,000 in the mid-1960s to around 11,500
today, according to figures from the Post Office. Although so much can be done
online nowadays, this doesn’t replace the community spirit that local
businesses can provide and you can’t get the emergency pint of milk and a loaf
of bread online!
I am
delighted to have helped a local businessman buy secure a Post Office licence
in a small West Yorkshire village. The successful acquisition has rescued the
village Post Office from closure – more about this success story very soon!
Older
people, more often than not, have to rely on other dwindling local services,
and our vanishing rural bus routes too. They are, quite literally, a life-line
for our elderly population. Anyone of a certain age will remember with fondness
days gone by when one could count on being able to buy groceries, sort out
finances, pick up parcels, send letters to friends and relatives overseas or
even buy a local paper without having to drive to a soulless shopping centre miles
away.
I am judge
and juror on the West Yorkshire Business Jury (www.businessjury.co.uk) which
periodically asks a dozen local businessmen and women a topical question. One
of our most recent verdicts was that the high street needs to adapt or die. One
juror, Frances Bennett of geotechnical services company Ashton Bennett,
applauded Mary Portas' review for the government which recommended the ideas of
the Transition Town movement. The movement champions community-owned bakeries,
food-growing projects and even community-owned energy. Let’s apply that
brilliant ethos to our villages as well!
