A Countryside for All : The Future of Rural Britain

The rural fuse has been lit. The countryside is tinder-dry. Post offices and banks shops and schools are closing. Farmers are going out of business. Houses are becoming unaffordable as prices soar ad poverty grows. Pollution and over-exploitation are destroying landscapes. Many rural communities are on the verge of collapse. Some fear the foot- and - mouth crisis will prove to be the last straw. This book offers disturbing evidence of the background to the crisis.

A Countryside For All is a rallying cry for action pointing ways towards a presciption for the future. This volume tackles many of the issues in a variety of new and original ways. Possibly the most controversial and radical call is for the creation of a Department for the Countryside with a Secretary of State for the Countryside- who would be responsible for setting a coherent set of policies to reverse the decline of rural Britain.

This timely book outlines the main problems facing the countryside and starts to bring together a balanced range of proposals. Thought-provoking filled with common sense often controversial but always fascinating it points the way forward for the countryside and for town and country as a whole.