O’loan Wants Better Deal for Countryside

Ballymena SDLP councillor and North Antrim candidate Declan O’Loan intends to seek a better deal for rural communities and everyone living in the countryside in a new Assembly.

 He wants to deliver real progress for farmers and others in the countryside in the shape of sustainable farms and sustainable rural communities. He says the new Assembly should develop a cross cutting Rural White Paper Focusing on economic regeneration, social inclusion and working to strengthen the fabric of our rural society.  

He said, “We have got to protect the rural infrastructure of schools, post offices and public transport so that we don’t turn the whole countryside into a commuter belt. The reduction of services can actually cripple a rural community, so decisions can’t be taken simply on a short-term cost-cutting basis. They must also take into account the full long-term social cost. But we have also got to ensure that young people can live in their own area, and that means local employment and a supply of affordable housing. Planning laws must encourage the best development of housing, agri-business and local small business rather than simply trying to drive them all into towns and villages.”

Society as a whole needs to decide how it wants its food produced and what value it places on farming families and their lifestyle.

Farming families are under pressure, and it is going to get worse. Globalisation, the Nitrates Directive, Cross Compliance and Single Farm payment regulations and the recurring threat of bird flu are all pushing many farms close to the limit of viability.  We need farms and farming families, not just agri-businesses trying desperately to compete with low-cost produces around the world.

The SDLP will put forward strategies which it is hoped would be incorporated in a Rural White Paper.

• Agricultural policies need to be developed on an all-Ireland basis from animal health to marketing.
• Farmers need a fairer deal from the EU and a lot less red tape from DARD
• Farmers need to be supported, not penalised, in meeting the requirements of the Nitrates Directive and other EU targets which are coming down the line.
• Diversification of farm business must be encouraged through sensible planning regulations and financial support for alternative crops such as bio-mass.
• The PPS14 moratorium on housing development in the countryside must be abolished immediately
• Post offices should be developed as rural service hubs providing access to public services information, tourist information and the internet.
• Rural public transport must be enhanced in order to combat social exclusion
• Rural roads must be properly funded and maintained.

I strongly support these initiatives of the SDLP. They are crucially important throughout North Antrim.”