Rural battering

Published on 09/02/2013 00:00

Ellis Thorpe (Letters, 8 Februar) highlights the lack of joined-up thinking on the subject of 
keeping rural schools open in Aberdeenshire. However, those schools are only part of the greater problem engulfing rural communities all over Britain.

Sadly, the increasing size of the councillors’ wards brought in since the 1970s means that there is no longer a significant presence of politicians elected from an exclusively rural base at even local authority level.

This lack of knowledge and empathy for small communities has changed the whole 
emphasis and priorities of the local authorities, and as a direct result the viability of most rural 
villages has taken a terrible 
battering over the past four 
decades.

The decline in rural schools is a symptom of the general problem facing rural communities. Hastening that decline is not the answer to that larger problem.

Irvine Inglis

Reston

Berwickshire