Rural residents feel cut off by poor roads and slow broadband

COUNTRY dwellers are made to feel “off the radar” and “left behind”, with impassable roads, no public transport and poor broadband speeds, a report has found. A sense of remoteness, being “forgotten” and “last in the pecking order” has increased dramatically in the past decade, according to research by the Prince’s Countryside Fund and Scotland’s Rural College.

The sense of being cut off and ignored has been caused partly by internet access “too slow even for online banking” and a road network so poor it is “not fit to support the rural economy”.

In the past 10 years, roads have deteriorated so drastically that “bad weather can trap families for days”, it warned. Combined with a sharp fall in rural public transport, this means it is almost impossible to get around without

‘Many respondents to the survey told us they did not feel as though the public valued rural communities’

owning a car, the report said. For those without a car this fuels isolation and leads to a rise in mental health problems, it warned.

Claire Saunders, director of the Prince’s Countryside Fund, told The Daily Telegraph: “Changes are interconnected – the combination of a lack of affordable housing, a deterioration of the state of the roads and a reliance on private transport, and a lack of reliable access to digital and broadband impact on the experience of people living in rural areas.”

Volunteers are under “huge pressure” and are “taking responsibility for sustaining the community” in the ab- sence of public services, the report said. In some cases this has meant residents gritting roads themselves and keeping public lavatories open.

“Many respondents to the survey told us that they did not feel as though the public valued rural communities, or understood the challenges faced by living in these areas,” Ms Saunders told The Telegraph. “Respondents also felt as though a lack of joined-up thinking on rural issues is because rural areas are ‘invisible’ or ‘off the radar’, their location leading to their specific needs being overlooked.”

The research is based on more than 3,000 responses to a public survey that revealed 500 projects designed to combat the sense of rejection and loneliness in remote villages. “It is encouraging to hear how communities are taking action to address the challenges they face,” Ms Saunders added.