July 2010
Links and references to articles by the leading UK news providers covering subjects that are of interest to those living and working in rural England and Wales.
Village clubs together to reconnect red phone box
The residents of Northlew in Devon, have clubbed together to reconnect a traditional red telephone box which now charges just 1p per minute for calls. Until last year the village was among 1.8 million UK residents who could not get broadband because they were too far from the exchange but one inhabitant set up his own company, Northlew Community Broadband (NCB), to become a service provider for the whole village.
Daily Telegraph - 30 July 2010 - 6
Rising flood risk could make parts of UK uninsurable
Climate change will increase the risk of flooding in Britain which could lead to dramatic rises in insurance premiums for properties and businesses and make some of the country uninsurable, according to the Associations of British Insurers.
The Guardian - 29 July 2010 - 22
'Extinct' butterfly returns to forest
A threatened orange and black woodland butterfly has returned to its heartland in rural East Sussex and Kent thanks to a pioneering conservation project by the Forestry Commission, Butterfly Conservation and the RSPB.
Daily Telegraph - 28 July 2010 - 32
Broadband adverts must list average not top speed
Ofcom acts after report finds users get only half expected speed on average.
Daily Telegraph - 28 July 2010 - 9
Even pigs can feel that life's a bore
Pigs can feel optimistic and pessimistic according to how they are being treated, scientists from Newcastle University's School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development have discovered.
Daily Telegraph - 28 July 2010 - 2
Free solar panels and lower bills
Thousands of homes are being offered the chance to rent their roofs to Isis Solar, a solar power company, in exchange for cheaper electricity bills but homeowners must agree to keep the panels for at least 25 years and allow access for maintenance.
The Times - 28 July 2010 - 16
Hill farmers paid to go green
More than 2,000 hill farmers are receiving subsidies for managing their land in a more environmentally friendly way.
Daily Telegraph - 28 July 2010 - 32
Tax relief threat for owners of holiday homes
Plans to tighten the rules on furnished holiday lettings will make it more difficult for owners to qualify for generous tax relief. The Treasury proposes to raise the minimum period that a holiday home must be let and available for letting each year, limiting the time that investors can relax in their own properties.
The Times - 28 July 2010 - 36
Gamekeepers rewarded
The CLA presented 13 awards at the CLA Game Fair to the longest-serving gamekeepers. CLA President William Worsley said: "In areas where wildlife is abundant, where habitat is healthy and diverse and where nature truly is in balance, the one consistent factor is a good gamekeeper.
Daily Telegraph - 27 July 2010 - 30
Britain's forests are threatened by fungus
Hundreds of acres of trees are being felled in an attempt to contain an airborne fungal infection that could devastate Britain's forests. So far, the fungus has attacked only Japanese larches and other conifers.
Daily Telegraph - 26 July 2010 - 3
Government warned against cutting the building of affordable housing
More than half a million people could be added to housing waiting lists - and 283,000 construction industry jobs lost or not created - if the Government cuts the affordable housebuilding budget by 40 percent, according to the National Housing Federation.
Daily Telegraph Business - 26 July 2010 - 2
The country life
The CLA Game Fair drew crowds of 137,000 over the weekend.
Daily Telegraph - 26 July 2010 - 2
UK 'needs energy independence'
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is due to unveil the annual energy statement tomorrow which will say that Britain has to go back to being more "energy independent" and rely less on imported gas and oil.
Daily Telegraph - 26 July 2010 - 2
Farmers' grants fail to halt drastic drop in wildlife
Farmers are claiming millions of pounds a year in taxpayers' money to protect wildlife while allowing farmland bird populations to slump to a new low, according to the British Trust for Ornithology.
Sunday Times - 25 July 2010 - 12
Silage in and methane out: cow power
Severn Trent's digester turns maize into electricity for its sewage plants.
Sunday Times - 25 July 2010 - 9
40 quanogs to go
More than 40 quangos are to be scrapped including the Agricultural Wages Board and more than 17 other farming bodies.
The Times - 23 July 2010 - 15
Field sports bonanza
The CLA Game Fair, the world's biggest field sports event begins on Warwickshire today.
Daily Telegraph - 23 July 2010 - 34
Russian rules frustrate pork producers
EU meat exporters suspect Moscow is applying arbitary health standards to curb imports.
Financial Times - 23 July 2010 - 7
'Relax planning laws'
CLA President William Worsley said planning rules need to be changed so second homes could be built on established farms for businesses to be set up.
Daily Telegraph - 22 July 2010 - 34
An Act against nature, animals and gardeners
Roger Scruton says apply the Walt Disney method of killing a squirrel, or be labelled a criminal.
The Times - 22 July 2010 - 22
Hungry otters take koi from garden ponds
Otters are taking koi carp from garden ponds because fish stocks in their natural hunting grounds are running out.
Daily Telegraph - 22 July 2010 - 5
Queue at the cow wash
A Swedish company has brought a "car wash for cattle" to Britain caliming that the brushing motion increases blood circulation and improves milk yield.
Daily Telegraph - 22 July 2010 - 15
Why weren't we warned of road?
A couple claim the former owners of a £1.66 million country home failed to tell them about plans for a new farm road that has destroyed their privacy.
Daily Telegraph - 22 July 2010 - 11
Audit body attacks Revenues' backlog
Millions of taxpayers do not realise that they overpaid or underpaid substantial amounts of tax several years ago because of a Revenue & Customs backlog which the National audit Office says remains " a very significant challenge" to reduce.
Financial Times - 21 July 2010 - 2
Food Agency will miss quango cull
The Food Standards Agency is to survive the Government's quango cull, Andrew Lansley the health secretary announced yesterday.
Financial Times - 21 July 2010 - 2
Water everywhere, except in reservoirs
A hosepipe ban is still in place in the Lake District despite a flood warning in the area.
Daily Telegraph - 21 July 2010 - 7
Big Society? It's all about liberating the locals
Cumbrians know how to improve life in their villages, why not let them get on with it? writes Rory Stewart MP.
The Times - 20 July 2010 - 22
Britain lagging on green energy
The Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has said the only way Britain will meet legally-binding targets to cut greenhouse gases by 80 per cent over the next 40 years is to invest in low carbon technologies like offshore wind, electric cars and solar panels.
Daily Telegraph - 20 July 2010 - 6
Buyers could have to pay the price for choosing a home that wastes energy
Homebuyers may have to pay thousands of pounds in extra tax if the property they are buying has insufficient insulation, an old boiler or draughty windows according to the Government. New owners would be able to reclaim the money if they upgraded the poorly insulated homes within weeks of purchase.
The Times - 20 July 2010 - 11
Cuckoo in danger of being lost to Britain
The cuckoo is in danger of disappearing from Britain after the population dropped by a fifth in one year according to the RSPB. The grey partridge, lapwing and starling have also decreased significantly between 2008 and 2009.
Daily Telegraph - 20 July 2010 - 5
The green kiwi fruit, straight from Kent
The first commercial crop of kiwi fruit is being planted in England, to be available in supermarkets in 2012.
Daily Telegraph - 20 July 2010 - 7
Why are our streets a tip?
Rubbish has always provided archaeologists with rich pickings, but today's take-away, disposable society provides so much more raw material. It's no wonder it costs millions to pick it all up, says Country Life Editor at Large, Clive Aslet.
Daily Telegraph - 20 July 2010 - 17
Winter pushes up straw price
Farmers are predicting record prices for straw after the harsh winter. The cold weather at the beginning of the year meant there was less straw harvested from winter wheat or barley. The shortage means straw bales are selling for high prices.
Daily Telegraph - 20 July 2010 - 30
- 19 July 2010
Cameron launches his Big Society
Local communities will be given the power and money to run bus services, set up broadband internet services and take over neighbourhood recycling schemes, under a mass transfer of power from the state to the people, David Cameron will announce today. Areas chosen to trial the new approach include rural Eden Valley, in Penrith, Cumbria.
Daily Telegraph - 19 July 2010 - 1
Cuts will 'hit' conservation
The Wildlife and Countryside Link has warned of an "austerity countryside", where the loss of public money for conservation projects will cause many important areas to be degraded.
Daily Telegraph - 19 July 2010 - 28
Farming blamed as kestrel numbers dive by third
Kestrels, once one of the most common birds of prey in Britain, are in dramatic decline, according to a survey by the British Trust for Ornithology.
Daily Telegraph - 19 July 2010 - 3
New Ministers turn their attention to cutting old and superfluous quangos
Ministers are being urged to axe redundant quangos as part of the Government's multi-million pound drive to cut Whitehall costs. Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Caroline Spelman is quoted.
The Times - 19 July 2010 - 3
Boom time for spare bedroom entrepreneurs
Britain's worst recession since the second world war has sparked an unexpected entrepreneurial boom with more than 1,000 businesses being created every day, according to official figures.
Sunday Times - 18 July 2010 - 9
CLA Game Fair supplement
Eight page CLA Game Fair pull-out.
Sunday Telegraph Life - 18 July 2010 - 13
Support for clean energy to be cut
The Government will today reveal cuts to programmes that help businesses reduce their carbon footprint.
Financial Times - 16 July 2010 - 2
Crown Estate returns £211m surplus
The Crown Estate is to return a £211 million surplus to the Treasury raised from the soverign's hereditary property holdings, which include swathes of land ranging from Regent Street in London to the UK coastline and seabed.
Financial Times - 15 July 2010 - 4
EU ministers call for 30% cut in greenhouse gas emissions
Europe's targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions should be drastically toughened, three of the EU's most powerful member states will say today in a surprise development likely to leave businesses fuming.
Financial Times - 15 July 2010 - 1
From 'notspots' to hotspots
Today, the broadband map of Britain will begin to be redrawn. Jeremy Hunt and Caroline Spelman will join “digital champion” Martha Lane Fox, communications minister Ed Vaizey and scores of industry giants to set about the challenging task of delivering what Mr Hunt has promised will be “the best broadband network in Europe by 2015”.
Daily Telegraph - 15 July 2010 - 27
Green investment plan is shelved
Plans to use money from the sale of Government assets to provide the riskiest of equity investment in green energy projects such as offshore wind and carbon capture have been shelved by the Government.
Financial Times - 15 July 2010 - 3
Joint strategy on broadband urged
Jeremy Hunt is due to address a conference today organised by Broadband Delivery UK. The culture secretary will say that telecoms and utilities industries should work together to ensure broadband reaches rural communities and other remote areas.
Financial Times - 15 July 2010 - 4
More jobs...but only for army of underemployed in part-time Britain
Employment in the agricultural industry has gone up by 5.2 percent in the year to March.
The Times - 15 July 2010 - 7
No country show for old men
There's no need to arrive in a tractor, these days foodies flock to sample the finest farmers produce at agricultural shows.
The Time Table - 15 July 2010 - 6
Red kites killed by rat poison from farms
It is believed that red kite chicks are being poisoned as adult birds are feeding them with dead rats that have been poisoned on farmland on the Black Isle in Scotland.
Daily Telegraph - 15 July 2010 - 32
Shops, farms and coast all add up
The Crown Estate controls one of the UK's largest and most interesting portfolios of land, compromising among others forests in the West Country and farm and parkland in Windsor. It also owns more than half of the UK's coastline out to a 12 mile limit and the rights to renewable energy as far as the continental shelf. There remains a presumption in favour of the Crown across the UK unless land can be proved to belong to someone else.
Financial Times - 15 July 2010 - 4
Soy feed 'destroys forest'
British farmers are destroying the rainforests by feeding cattle soy meal that is harvested from deforested areas, according to Friends of the Earth.
Daily Telegraph - 15 July 2010 - 32
Court halts badger cull in campaign against bovine TB
The controversial order to cull badgers in Wales was quashed by the Court of Appeal yesterday.
Daily Telegraph - 14 July 2010 - 10
Badger cull rejected
Badgers have been given a stay of execution in Wales after the Court of Appeal ruled that the terms of a culling order were too wide.
The Times - 14 July 2010 - 14
Country for the rich
The countryside will become an enclave of the wealthy without local shops and services because of a shortage of affordable homes, builders have warned.
Daily Telegraph - 14 July 2010 - 30
Roadside trees face axe after court case
Councils could be forced to chop down trees and shrubs after a pedestrian successfully sued her local authority by claiming overgrown bushes had contributed to her road accident.
Daily Telegraph - 14 July 2010 - 2
Welcome to Costa del Eastbourne
Climate change will make British weather the envy of the world, according to science writer Marek Kohn.
Daily Telegraph - 14 July 2010 - 9
Flood barriers may be put up for sale to cut budget deficit
Britain's flood defence network, including the Thames Barrier and defences on the Ouse and Severn rivers, could be sold to the private sector in the biggest shake-up of the industry in decades.
The Times - 13 July 2010 - 33
Reasons to keep Europe's CAP
Letter to the Editor from MEP George Lyon who writes that rather than seeing the CAP as simply evil, it is better to look upon it as a necessary evil and welcome the European parliament's effort to take another substantial step forward in reforming the CAP to make it greener, fairer and more sustainable.
The Guardian - 13 July 2010 - 27
US farmers cash in on Chinese demand
More agricultural exports are bound for Asia than ever before.
Financial Times - 13 July 2010 - 8
Wait for farmer's ombudsman
Farmers wanting a supermarket ombudsman to help small producers at risk of going out of business will have to wait until 2011 as the Government will not outline a draft Bill until this Autumn.
Daily Telegraph - 13 July 2010 - 32
Fears for rural bus services as axe hangs over subsidy
Transport campaigners are warning that rural services will suffer severely reduced bus services while passengers across the country face a 10 percent rise in fares if the Government backs plans to scrap a subsidy in the spending review.
The Times - 12 July 2010 - 12
Guitarist fights badger cull
Brian May, lead guitarist with the band Queen, has vowed to fight "insane" plans for a badger cull in Wales.
Daily Telegraph - 12 July 2010 - 30
A rural reboot
Letter to the Editor about the Prince of Wales' rural charity fund which says that unless small and medium-scale agriculture can be made profitable again, the landscape and rural culture will change in ways that neither the Prince nor anyone else is likely to want.
Sunday Telegraph - 11 July 2010 - 23
Chemical wash to fight bug in chicken meat
Frsh chicken sold in British supermarkets may have to be disinfected with an anti-microbial wash or even irradiated to control an endemic food poisoning bug.
Sunday Times - 11 July 2010 - 4
Firth of Clyde is 'an ecosystem in meltdown'
Researchers have warned that the sea in the Firth of Clyde has been so heavily fished that it risks being emptied of all life.
Sunday Times - 11 July 2010 - 9
Fish stocks eaten to extinction by 2050
Mankind has consumed 95 percent of the large fish in many seas, and some species are on the brink of collapse, according to leading marine scientists.
Sunday Times - 11 July 2010 - 9
Food firms scrap use-by dates to cut waste
Food manufacturers are to remove use-by dates on some products to try to reduce the £10 billion of food dumped in the bin each year.
Sunday Times - 11 July 2010 - 4
Horse manure makes MoD greener
The Ministry of Defence is to use manure from its ceremonial horses to provide heat and light for its buildings as part of Government attempts to cut its carbon footprint.
Sunday Times - 11 July 2010 - 3
Out to pasture
Traditional dairy farms are being sold and adapted to suit distinctly non-traditional "lifestyle farmers".
Sunday Telegraph Life - 11 July 2010 - 3
The end of a Forsyth saga
After 22 years tending to alpacas, chickens and lambs, the thriller writer, Frederick Forsyth, is selling his working farm in Hertfordshire.
Sunday Times Home - 11 July 2010 - 7
BBC to boost digital radio signal
The BBC is to put up 61 new transmitters to boost digital radio signals around the UK, as the Government seeks to persuade listeners the technology can provide an alternative to FM and AM signals.
Financial Times - 9 July 2010 - 4
Health and safety threat to 'pick your own' fruit farms
Health and saftey rules are threatening the tradition of "pick your own" fruit which no longer makes economic sense, farmers have warned.
Daily Telegraph - 9 July 2010 - 12
MoD under fire on £20bn property assets
The Ministry of Defence has failed to make the most efficient use of its £20 billion property estate and should consider selling more land to help reduce costs in the current economic climate, a report by the National Audit Office will say today.
Financial Times - 9 July 2010 - 5
Shame on us, the wasteful Jacuzzi generation
Clive Aslet, Editor at Large for Country Life, writes that hosepipe bans and floods are all part of the same problem: our prodigal attitude to water.
The Times - 9 July 2010 - 24
Britons losing easy access to woodland
Just over 15 percent of people in Britains have access to a wood of reasonable size within walking distance of their homes, according to a new study by the Woodland Trust.
Daily Telegraph - 8 July 2010 - 32
Country walks under threat from council budget cuts
The Ramblers Association has listed 20 spots on their website where funding for footpaths are being cut.
Daily Telegraph - 8 July 2010 - 3
Countryside Policy
Letter to the Editor which says that for Caroline Spelman to make her department responsible for advising the Government on rural issues, rather than the Commission for Rural Communities, is extremely worrying.
Daily Telegraph - 8 July 2010 - 21
English Heritage warns on grant cuts
English Heritage's latest annual Heritage at Risk register warns that cuts in local authority spending could lead to 'catastrophic' damage to some of England's most cherished buildings.
Financial Times - 8 July 2010 - 4
Getting the country connected
A Kent village may be setting a trend for rural areas by organising its own broadband.
Daily Telegraph - 8 July 2010 - 27
High-speed train link to go ahead despite cuts
Plans for a high-speed rail network linking London to the Midlands and the North will go ahead despite spending cuts, with work starting within five years, the Transport Secretary has said.
The Times - 8 July 2010 - 6
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