Rural women's needs 'ignored'

The YWCA charity says young women are being overlooked in the current countryside debate.

The report - Beyond the Bus Shelter: Young Women's Choices and Challenges in Rural Areas - shows women living in the countryside are among the most deprived in England and Wales.

The report was conducted by a team from the Department of Social Policy at Hull University, and involved interviewing 64 people in three areas - Cumbria, Wiltshire and Powys.

Improvements needed

The report says: "Sparse populations and limited, expensive public transport often confine social life to the local bus shelter or phone box, leading to frustration, boredom and apathy.

"These particularly affected women are too old for youth clubs but too young for the pub or those with children."

The charity is calling for action from local and national policy makers to improve the situation.

As a result of the research findings, the YWCA is calling for a substantial improvement in rural service provision - especially in public transport, social housing and health and social welfare.

Party conference

In Cumbria, the research team looked at the area surrounding Penrith and Carlisle and the remote yet industrialised areas on the west coast around Whitehaven.

In Wiltshire they looked at the area around Calne, a pocket of deprivation within the seemingly affluent south of England.

The Welsh market towns of Newtown, Welshpool and Llandrindod Wells and their rural hinterlands were examined.

The issue will be discussed at a fringe meeting of the Labour Party on Monday, 30 September.