07/07/09 - Conservatives launch 'Rural Action'

The Conservative Party have launched an agenda for rural communities – Rural Action – together with new analysis revealing that almost 400 rural schools have closed since Labour came to power.

Rural Action has four key aims:

- Respect rural people
- Power to rural communities
- Protect rural services
- Revive the rural economy

Under the plans, rural communities would be given the power to resist school closures, and could choose to start new village schools.  Villages would be given the right to build their own affordable homes.  The Rural Action policy paper also sets out how a Conservative Government would scrap top-down housing targets and allow councils to oppose development planned for green belt land.

To help improve access to public services, Conservatives will pilot new rural transport solutions.  To revive the rural economy, Conservatives will cut tax rates for small businesses to encourage growth and protect jobs, allow councils to offer rural business rate discounts and simplify the planning system to improve accountability.

Paul Bristow, Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Middlesbrough South & East Cleveland said:

"Rural Teesside has suffered a decade of disrespect by Labour.  Local services have been withdrawn, rural communities have been denied a voice, and power has been taken away from local people.

"We need a new approach to reverse the trend of centralisation and end the thoughtless dictat from Whitehall, so that rural communities and the rural way of life are respected.  We will return power and decision-making to individuals and communities, so that people have a genuine say over the matters that affect them locally. And we will unlock the potential of the rural economy to deliver jobs from sustainable businesses of the future.''

For more information about the Rural Conservative Action Plan, please go to: http://www.conservativeruralaction.com/