Yorkshire and Lincolnshire: The Good Life?

Len Tingle Political Editor, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire

The official census figures, and the annual electoral roll returns have been tracking a phenomenon for the past few decades that would have shocked virtually every generation in our past history.

Our major urban areas are shrinking!

The migration from the country to the bright lights of city streets is being reversed.

Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Lincoln and Sheffield have all seen their populations shrink by up to a tenth since the Seventies.

Leeds building new office blocks every day ... but families prefer to live elsewhere

Of course, it's not as simple as all that. As usual the bald statistics tell only part of the story.

The move to leafier suburbs and commuting villages is largely a choice available only to the better off.

Even for the managerial and professional classes the means of earning a living reside firmly in the industrial or commercial centres.

So a conscious decision to live in the countryside can only come at a cost of convenience and commuting.

In search of the 'Good life'

A look at the queues on the M1/A1 link from North Yorkshire to Leeds or over the Humber Bridge from Lincolnshire to Hull shows that it's a price hundreds of thousands are willing to pay if it leads to the 'Good life'. But does it?

Every day tens of thousands commute in order to enjoy the 'Good Life' at home ...

The Countryside Agency, the Government body responsible for the economy of rural areas, reports that 92% of communities outside urban areas have no doctor or even a part-time surgery.

Almost three quarters have no post office, village shop or youth clubs.

Only half have a bus route that runs every day of the week and almost one-in-three have no bus service at all.

A third of all countryside communities never see a bus

Are these services really missed by the car-driving commuter? Well, maybe not. But commuters have families. Commuters also retire and grow old.

There is also the issue of people who have lived and worked in villages all their lives.

Local economy turned 'upside down'

Here the commuters are having a disastrous effect. House prices are going through the roof.

Affordable housing is at the top of every parish council priority list in the country.

Millionaire businessman Lord Haskins, increasingly 'Mr Fix-it' on countryside economic matters

The Government is so concerned about what many see as a crisis in the country that it has asked for a report to be drawn up by the Hull-based peer Lord Haskins.

The multi-millionaire former Chairman of Northern Foods has become a 'Mr Fix-it' for the Government and is called in regularly for his advice on dealing with countryside economic crises, from the blight of Foot and Mouth to the problems for the East Coast's fishing fleets.

His report is due next month. But when it comes to turning back this economic tide, he might find that he has as much power as King Canute.

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