A farmer’s point of view…
With both boys now at school, my wife Gem has more available time to help with farm business and although working with your wife may have its moments, it will be great to spend more time with her and allow her to really engage with the business. I have a long list of projects for her to tackle and she assures me she is looking forward to it. I have obviously given her the chat that I am the boss and she will be coming in at the coal face…. Wish me luck….!
Gem has also become involved with the local parish plan group which is engaging the local community to put together a body of work that represents the parish residents’ vision for how our community should look in the future. Sounds easy doesn’t it? But of course, everyone has an opinion on what his or her community should look like. The main issue of the plan itself seems to be getting it out to the larger portion of the neighbourhood as a whole and not just the few who are happy or have the time to shout their opinions from the roof tops.
The issues facing our area are as varied as any parish, but can also be quite area specific. As a farmer running a business in this community I thought I might share with you some of my thoughts. These are of course my thoughts and you may or may not agree! I hope that if you live in my own parish of Burrator or any other parish that might be undergoing a similar exercise, this may help you to engage in that conversation about the future of our local communities.
Here in the southwest corner of Dartmoor, we are very blessed with wonderful scenery, areas to enjoy and places to visit - a playground for locals and thousands of visitors alike. Personally I would like to see more opportunities for visitors to financially help this area whilst they are visiting, with more ways to spend their pounds, in turn giving more money to help the local economy. One example, which sticks out locally, is Burrator reservoir. This area is a real honey pot for visitors, with thousands of people walking, cycling and running around it every year. The only opportunity for people to help the local economy here is via one small ice-cream van! Perhaps this area could be sensitively developed to create more local jobs, with small businesses working on and around the lake? The visitors are already coming and their numbers will undoubtedly only increase, so why not work to manage them by offering more, to help give back to the local economy?
There are of course wider issues that affect a rural community, such as access to good broadband speeds, planning, lack of business space, house prices and housing stock, lack of local opportunities for the younger generation – many of whom leave the area as a result. In what ways can we improve these situations or help to stop young people from leaving? For our area, wealth is often the only access for incomers or those wishing to stay and as such we are at risk of becoming a retirement village with a NIMBY attitude. Is this what we want for our own and our children’s future?
There are also issues specific to running a farm here on Dartmoor. The landscape we all love, and that visitors come to in droves, is due to the hard work of local farmers and the animals they keep. Farmers are put under tremendous pressure from people, dogs, traffic, parking, damaged crops, erosion, fly tipping, green laning, and a great deal more - all of which has to be dealt with on top of our daily businesses of running farms (much of which, to a certain extent, we have learnt to live with). But projects like this parish plan although small fry in the greater scheme of things, may just help focus our minds on these issues and how they could be dealt with more effectively. We must also remember that we do not live in a museum, but in a community which lives and breathes and must be allowed to evolve and change with the ebb and flow of local needs and where necessary develop opportunities as well as tackle those small issues which if left, could easily get a lot worse.
So when your questionnaire arrives, for whichever parish you belong to, please don’t just throw it away. Have your say!
Mat Cole
Greenwell Farm