Scotland: National Rural NetworkWhich of the Rural Development Council's Step Changes would you rank as the most important and why? Please select no more than ten.
As well as answering any of these questions you can also add general comments to the Speak Up for Rural Scotland consultation page.
Join the Network Now!
Comments
Step Change Priorities
I agree with Teresa that 13 is a very important step change and encompasses many of the others suggested. In fact, 13, 19, and 23 would encompass pretty much everything. The way the CAP reform talks are going at EU level, looks to be in favour of providing financial recognition for sustainable food production which will protect the environment.
This is what EU citizens have recently voted for. Taxpayers in Scotland won't be paying to go for walks etc unless part of a commercial enterprise. Enjoyment of the countryside will continue, but those who look after our countryside will have the opportunity to be compensated financially for their contribution. In hard financial terms the crafted landscape, created by farmers and landowners that we enjoy, never has been free.
Pre CAP Reform, farmers were subsidised on production, purely so that we could have affordable food. This provided a standard of living for the farmers which meant that they didn't have to put unsustainable production pressures on every square centimetere of their land, create bigger farms and machinery to take advantage of the economy of scale to produce high volume in order to cope with the downward price pressures imposed by supermarkets which now control 90% of the buyer market.
This trade distortion which has proved so damaging, looks set to change. Farmers have been given a clear backing by EU citizens to deliver affordable, sustainable food whilst protecting the environment. In order to achieve that, all players in the food chain will have to work to create a fairer and more sustainable food chain, this will ensure protection and management of the environment and one or two supermarkets have seen the writing on the wall and have stepped up their environmental credentials.
Priorities
I think Step Change 10 about financial support for agriculture being linked to active working of the land is very important. I also think Step Change 13 is interesting. It's the one about people working in partnership at a landscape level. The only thing I find worrying in it is the bit about looking to charge visitors for the upkeep of the landscape. What does this mean? Charging people to go for a walk? That doesn't seem right to me. Maybe you could ask for donations or something for the upkeep of paths and facilities, but I don't think you could make it compulsory.
Step 5 about local food is also important, as is the one about the simplifying the tendering process for small businesses. local authorities should be trying to use more local produce eg. in school meals etc. If someone was growing veg along the road from a school, I don't think it's currently very easy for the veg to be sold to the school and that would seem to be a good idea in a rural area.
Other priorities I think are important are the ones about affordable housing. There are lots of people living with their parents in their 20s because they can't afford to buy a house and there is hardly anything to rent. I also think broadband is a priority. I'd like to see the Road Equivalent Tarriff rolled out further.