THE TELEGRAPH: The hastening decline of community life in the countryside is highlighted today in a new Government report.
Nearly half of all neighbourhoods have lost key amenities such as surgeries, post offices, shops and schools in the past four years, figures from Oxford University show.
The report suggests that towns and villages across England are losing basic services at "their fastest rate ever", prompting claims that Labour is overseeing "the slow death of community life".
The news comes after Stuart Burgess, Gordon Brown's "rural advocate", warned that poorer people in the countryside, who already face housing shortages and have little chance of a good education, "form a forgotten city of disadvantage".
The report, published quietly on the Department of Communities and Local Government website last month, reveals which parts of the country have lost out because of their distance from services such as doctors' surgeries and post offices.
It found that 45 per cent of the neighbourhoods in England - 14,493 out of 32,439 - have become more "geographically deprived" since the last such study was conducted in 2004. Communities Declining at 'Fastest Rate Ever' >>> By Christopher Hope, Home Affairs Correspondent | April 14, 2008
TELEGRAPH LEADER:
Our Countryside in Peril >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)
