The following letter is in response to this Mark Wooding letter and the NFU report on road fatalities. 

Dear Editor,

Some of the letters in this month’s addition of Southwest Farmer greatly interested me and prompted these replies.

1) CPRE on housing:

Living in Cornwall I can see first hand exactly what the CPRE report is saying and I couldn’t agree more we need significant change and soon! In Cornwall many of us feel the situation has been seriously compounded by our local authority, Cornwall Council. They have a very pro tourist centric attitude which causes more and more holiday accommodations coming on the market. This has had a very detrimental effect on our infrastructure, spoiled the look and feel of the Duchy and forced many of our local population into poverty, in many cases making them homeless! It should be illegal for an authority to have so many empty properties and yet so many homeless! There are so many issues this authority is responsible for that I am only able to scratch the surface.

2) Combined View on Footpaths:

Yet another issue that requires significant debate and I would like to take this opportunity to put some opinions from the side of the farmers and landowners. I think every rural person fully understands why we need footpaths, bridle ways and byways and we welcome responsible use of them!

One should be aware that some of these so called rights of way should not ever been classified as “public” . Some date back to paths that local farmers permitted postmen to take short cuts to avoid walking miles to the next property, some were used as access to off ground or the local church etc. they were never intended for motorcycles and off road vehicles to rip up.

Particularly since Covid we have experienced a many fold increase in the use of these tracks by walkers, cyclists, motorcyclists and off road vehicles and this has made life, for local rural people, quite intolerable! We also experience a vast amount of rubbish, verbal abuse and down right antisocial behaviour. We are constantly finding bottles both glass and plastic, drinks cans, dog faeces, human faeces and worse in fields we graze stock in! Who, in their right mind, thinks it is a good idea to pick up dog faeces in a plastic bag and then hang it in a tree! To add to the problem most of these visitors to the countryside drive there and park wherever they think they can, blocking gates and passing places.

To be fair most of the problems are caused because there is a complete lack of education. No it is not the teachers fault but the education system does not and cannot provide any insight as to how one should behave in the countryside. So many people put themselves in danger purely because they don’t understand!

It is all very well to bash the local farmer but who is going to pay!! A visitor who walks a footpath doesn’t contribute anything to the local economy purely adds to the cost and walks away and then probably complains his rights were impacted because there was a bramble that scratched his leg! You don’t have rights unless you earn them!

3 and finally) Fatalities on rural roads

Couldn’t agree more there are far too many accidents on rural roads. Again a huge increase and again since Covid. Perhaps the NFU should analyse the data they have as to who was involved in the accidents and where they came from! Locally we have seen a huge increase in the number of vehicles and cyclists who use the local lanes as race tracks. Definitely another lack of education.

Rural life may look idyllic but it is full of dangers to the uninitiated and it is high time that message was put across. People are more than welcome to enjoy the countryside BUT please respect it and don’t destroy it!

Your sincerely

Paul Dyer

Truro