Malcolm Moss
MP welcomes
Conservatives’
plans to protect
rural
communities
The
Conservative
Party
this week
launched a new
agenda for
protecting rural
communities. The
Rural Action
agenda consists
of four main
aims:
-
Respecting rural
people: Rural
communities must
be given a voice
to decide their
own future. A
Conservative
Government will
respect the
rural way of
life and only
seek to regulate
where
self-regulation
fails.
-
Power to local
communities:
Years of
centralisation
under Labour
will be
reversed,
restoring the
voice of rural
areas in the
decision making
process.
-
Protecting rural
services: Vital
rural services
will be
safeguarded by
considering
social value
alongside
economic and
environmental
value.
-
Reviving the
rural economy:
Barriers to
business growth
will be reduced
in order to
release the
potential of the
rural economy
and incentivise
rural
development.
The plans come
after 200 rural
schools, 1,400
post offices and
384
police stations
have closed
since Labour
came to power.
Local post
offices
in particular
will benefit
from these
plans. The
Conservatives
have pledged for
years to assess
the performance
of individual
post offices
using a
so-called
viability test.
Post offices
that are
profitable or
near profitable
will not be
closed down by a
Conservative
Government. With
the new rural
agenda, post
offices that
provide an
important
social
service to local
communities will
also be
protected.
Malcolm Moss MP
said:
“Taking into
account the
social value of
post offices is
immensely
important. You
can’t determine
the value of a
post office by
simply looking
at whether it
makes money or
not. Some of
these post
offices offer
great social
value to the
elderly and
other often
isolated people.
Taking away a
central place
for local people
to meet will
create great
social and also
economic costs
in the long
term. I have
always worked
hard to protect
local post
offices in
North East
Cambridgeshire,
and I am pleased
that a
Conservative
Government would
not close down
valuable post
offices.”
