Scotland: National Rural NetworkOne of the main aims of this new Scotland National Rural Network website is to provide a space for the discussion of rural issues - everything from local food to housing to rural development funding. What are the rural issues that are important to you? What topics would you like to see highlighted on the website? Let us know, and we'll do our best to cover them. But don't forget you can also get involved and send us articles, special reports, start discussion forums and suggest polls on any rural topic whenever you like.
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Crofting Commssion...Website
A rare occasion - I needed to communicate with the Crofting Commission in Inverness. I am not a crofter but live in a Crofting community. I thought I would do it online....! After a great deal of searching for information under 'Contacts' - plenty of telephone numbers but in the end just one email address and that was 'info'.
I was horrified - are we not asking Crofters to diversify and one of the ways to be eco-friendly to our surroundings is to use the internet where-ever possible (oh yes and there is another issue - but we will not go there today!) should the Crofting Commsion not be at the forefront of this move by being very accessible. If we are to retain our youngsters in Rural Communities then then the internet is a vital tool, but so are the government agencies too
Hidden Poverty
I would wonder if there might be scope in rural areas to look at how we would define relative poverty given the poor public transport means that many rely on a car, very often a 4x4 is an essential, higher fuel costs, low pay and seasonal jobs, poorer quality broadband / tv services (if at all), lack of access to services, etc?
Governmental bodies seem to decide on finances based on population numbers which is problematic in sparsely populated rural areas, where there are a lot of self employed people. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) does not recognise settlements under 5,000 people.
Subject areas for discussion
Yes, a fresh new look, looks good.
One common trait of your audience is that most people who live in rural constituencies, wards and parishes have Community Councils which deal with the travails of living in a rural area. Some of CC's have individually set up web sites, some not. Some of these sites are listed by Highland Council, some not; supposedly similar occurs elsewhere.
The Rural Network could provide a Rural Community Council Gateway. I would suppose CC discussion topics were common across rural Scotland so an airing and sharing facility should be useful.
new site
It would be interesting to hear how the internet is impacting on rural Scotland (favourably I hope). I know there is, for example, a north of Scotland based 'etailer' called Wildday.com that sells a lot of camping and outdoor gear and you can buy quality meat from Donald Russell in Aberdeenshire and I'm sure there are other direct sources of produce. Is there anything else happening that we should be excited about? Perhaps you could compile a top 20?!
It strikes me that rural Scotland has everything to gain from e -commerce (eg overcoming distance, reducing marketing costs) and as for social networking sites like bebo and facebook it would be good to know how much individuals and community groups are using them and if they are they making a real difference to their networking.
Could I just add that the new site looks great and I wish you the best of luck with it!
Look out for enterprise feature
Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you like the new site. We're going to be introducting an Enterprise feature in the coming weeks and I'm sure the opportunities offered by e-commerce will come up there.
Larderbytes is an online not-for-profit company that manages numerous local food supply chains from producer to end customer. On the Larderbytes website you can shop online for food local to you.
Discussion topics
Nice new site, very fresh and easy to use. I would like to know why the SRDP is still mired in delays. When we will get broadband that actually works. When will "inclusive dicussion and decision making" mean we actually get round to building something. When will rural areas be managed with regard to those who actually live there full time as opposed to those visiting. When education for young people means they dont have debts of £50,000 after university that they can never hope to repay. When we have a dentist. When farm subsidies are paid to those still farming. When nursery education is available with proper facilities not in a damp ridlled ruin. Finally when something, anything will actually deliver any benefit to those like us with young children in a remote rural area. We have not seen anything for the past ten years that has made the slightest difference to us as a family.
Thanks for first comment!
Thanks for your comment, Michael. You were the first person to get involved in the discussion forum on the new site!
There are lots of important rural service issues raised in your comment and hopefully we will be able to cover some of them in the coming months.