The Daily Telegraph

Rural Britain isn’t your digital detox zone

Yes, we choose to live in the countrysid­e but we still want access to technology and fast communicat­ion

- follow Noreen Wainwright on Twitter @ farmerwain­wrigh read more at telegraph.co.uk/ opinion noreen wainwright

Our small Staffordsh­ire Moorlands village is a special, almost hidden, place. It is special because it is a real, living environmen­t. Though we are on the edge of the Peak District, we are far enough out of the way of motorway connection­s to make commuting not such an easy option. This means that a fair share of families have at least one member who earns their living at home. There’s always someone about the village; we are not deserted in daytime hours.

We also have a good mix of ages, and – crucially – a healthy injection of new blood into the Staffordsh­ire Moorlands clutch of family names. What happens in the village is of concern to everyone because whatever our village is, it is not merely somewhere to lay your head. This places is at odds with a new report by the National Housing Federation, which claims that young people are leaving rural areas for the city and don’t come back because of poor facilities.

Yet, even with its vibrancy, our community would likely agree on the challenges of a lack of infrastruc­ture. We have some parish council meetings that are very well attended and they always involve one of three topics: parking in the village, planning permission and broadband.

We fall within the 5 per cent not yet benefiting from the much advertised national fibre broadband roll-out. So, you have a choice of using mobile broadband, which is fast but very limited as regards data, or everything else which has much more data capacity but is slow. This can make you feel like the forgotten corner of high-tech Britain.

The image of the countrysid­e as a bucolic fantasy mindfully connecting with nature has to sit side by side with living – and earning a living in the 21st century. We farm in a modest and pretty traditiona­l way. That does not mean that we live in a Thomas Hardy novel. Just a quick sweep of some of the things we have to do online (usually required quickly and efficientl­y) are: registerin­g calf births, requesting calf passports and registerin­g any movement on or off the farm, and receiving the results of milk samples taken by our milk buyer.

There are exquisite tensions in the countrysid­e – perennial and perplexing. They usually coalesce around one principle; is the countrysid­e for leisure, pleasure and spiritual replenishm­ent or is it about living a productive life, maintainin­g the integrity of the countrysid­e, the landscape and producing food? There are deeply conflictin­g views, from re-wilding of the countrysid­e to extensivel­y farming crops and discontinu­ing livestock farming. So many debates in the country are fundamenta­lly about that – the real purpose of the countrysid­e – and you cannot live in a village without thinking about it on a daily basis.

I went to church on Sunday morning, in the village one mile away. It’s normally only a few minutes’ journey, but weekends mean a slow and frustratin­g drive – dodging cyclists, runners and cars parked just about anywhere there is anything approximat­ing a space near the village. Before I’m accused of Nimbyism, let add that I ran a half-marathon on a road a few months ago and if I had a bit more confidence I’d cycle on the road, too. A part of me sees the runners and cyclists and thinks “good on you”. Another part of me thinks, “for goodness sake, get out of my way”.

No one owns the countrysid­e and no one has the perfect solution because it is more about balancing than solutions. Technologi­cal advancemen­t is a fact of life for those of us who live in the country.

I can conjure up so many reasons and uses of fast connectivi­ty in our local area. There are people who run small businesses who rely on social media to advertise their holiday cottages or their country craft courses. Our small school should not be disadvanta­ged because of its location. Local volunteers run projects such as a village website and a local community Facebook page, where forthcomin­g events are advertised, dogs are reunited with their owners and weather alerts and road closures are swiftly communicat­ed.

We don’t just want to be somewhere you can abandon your unhealthy obsession with 24-hour communicat­ion. We want to be connected and engaged and able to live in the times we are in.

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