commission for rural communities meeting

Will Morris, Richard Lee and I attended a meeting at Tredington today with Dr Stuart Burgess and his entourage, including Lesley Archer GRCC Director. Dr Burgess did certainly listen to all our experiences and concerns but offered little tangible advice or promise of future action. He is due to meet the Prime Minister soon to convey the rural communities' concerns. Below is the prior publicity hand out:#Dr Burgess is the government's Rural Advocate and the Chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities. As Rural Advocate, he listens to and conveys the case for rural people at the highest level of government, to make sure that their needs, circumstances and aspirations are recognised and understood. He inputs views and experiences from the perspective of rural communities and raises policy issues and possible solutions. His visit to Gloucestershire on 11 and 12 October, is focusing on the medium to long term impact of the recent floods on rural communities. He will be hearing first hand from communities, farmers and local businesses about how they are now coping with the aftermath of the floods, and about the support they are receiving and require. The visit forms part of a series of advocacy work by Dr Burgess and the CRC on the recent flooding events.#One novel suggestion at the meeting was that the Government ought impose a small decimal point percentage tax on all Home Insurance Policies and the income thereby generated used to assist Insurance Companies in the event of a crisis such as the one recently experienced. In that way, at renewal time, insurance cover could be maintained without financial penalties on property subjected to flooding on an infrequent basis.