Is rural britain rotting away?

According to a report from Oxford University our towns and villages are losing what have always been considered basic services at “their fastest rate ever.” Researchers found that 45 per cent of English neighbourhoods – 14,493 out of 32,439 – have become what it calls “geographically deprived” since the last study in 2004. Cutting through the jargon, this means the distance people must travel to use such amenities as doctor’s surgeries, shops, schools and post offices has increased dramatically.

You have to wonder how much more gloom and doom the countryside can take. When reading about these particular findings I immediately thought of the news report in issue six of Countryfile magazine in which we found that 2,489 schools in the UK may face closure as they cannot fill their desks or the news from the British Beer and Pub Association last week that pubs are closing at the rate of 27 per week nationally – that’s nearly four every single day. Add to this the recent claim from Stuart Burgess, the government’s rural advocate that one million people – equivalent to a city the size of Birmingham - are living in poverty in rural areas and surely we’ll be running out of nails to slam into the countryside coffin.

Of course, the opposition has been quick to jump on these figures to claim that Labour is effectively leaving the countryside to fester. Shadow communities secretary Eric Pickles has been particular quick to point the finger; "Under Labour, local neighbourhoods and villages are losing access to essential local services, as shops, pubs and schools close at probably their fastest rate ever. We are witnessing the slow death of community life.”

But is this more than just a political situation? Have we culturally lost sight of our rural roots? After all, we’re currently coming to the end of a Year of Food and Farming which aimed to put right the problem that many of our children didn’t even know what a carrot looked like. Could anyone imagine that situation 50 years ago? And is it too little, too late? The majority of our population has shifted from rural to urban communities and the countryside is seen by many as now just being a playground for those desperate to get a bit of greenspace at the weekend. Our food is free of mud and dirt and packaged in clean and tidy plastic, with the organic movement dismissed by many as being trendy, middle-class types. The rural infrastructure seems to be entropically crumbling and there seems to be very few silver lining to the gathering stormclouds. Depressed much, anyone?

So,is rural Britain rotting away forever and can anything really be done?