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Looking back on hectic tenure
William Worsley
Talk to William Worsley for a few minutes and it is never long before Hovingham comes up. Driving into the village, it is easy to see why.
Hovingham is a picture of quintessential North Yorkshire life and a great example of how vibrant a village can be. It is home to a thriving pub, shop and of course to Mr Worsley’s estate.
It has been a tumultuous two years at the Country Land and Business Association. He has seen the negotiations ahead of the Common Agricultural Policy, the formation of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment, the spread of bovine tuberculosis and the recent planning reform controversy.
He has dealt with two governments and visited every county of England. “It has been a really exciting – there have been a lot of challenges to the countryside,” he said.
One area that Mr Worsley will look back on fondly is the struggle to improve rural broadband. The Government is now taking the matter seriously and a pilot of high speed rural access is pencilled in for North Yorkshire.
“We are getting somewhere. We have been quietly tenacious and I really think we are seeing progress. It is frankly incredibly important for rural areas, I spend my life on this thing”, he says, motioning towards his PC.
“If I didn’t have broadband here I would not be able to do my job, its that simple. My children probably wouldn’t want to come home,” he jokes. “In some respects it is almost more important than the telephone.”
The issue of rural planning however is an issue that is only just getting started. The National Planning Policy Framework is one of the more divisive pieces of legislation proposed for the countryside in recent years. Several top rural organisations have come out strongly against it, saying it will mean more developments given the green light in the countryside.
Mr Worsley views it differently. “We broadly support it. We believe it will enable appropriate development in rural areas that will benefit both the countryside and the rural economy.
“It is by no means perfect and needs better rural proofing. We do not believe that the preservation approach will work and we cannot continue to adopt a luddite approach when it comes to planning issues.
“We need to be build houses in villages and we need to help people remain in the countryside. That said the whole debate has been focused on house building. It is also about job opportunities and business opportunities. Villages need to be a living community, not just a dormitory for the local town.”
Mr Worsley sees the prominence of the issue as broadly positive.
“I think it is really great that for the first time in a long time, planning has made it the front page.
“The easy option is not to do anything. Of course we don’t want a repeat of the post-war building which saw huge adjuncts added the villages.
“We have to work together if we are going to get things right.”
With bovine tuberculosis, the CLA, alongside the National Farmers Union, has been at the forefront of the move for a badger cull. On this issue Mr Worsley is quieter and more solemn in tone.
Some of the more colourful rhetoric from animal welfare groups has attempted to portray farmers as bloodthirsty caricatures, desperate to kill badgers.
The reality is very different with most, like Mr Worsley, seeing the cull as regrettable but necessary.
“It is not such an important area in Yorkshire, and thank God.
“However I have travelled all over the country doing this job. To see the pain it brings people, it is just something we cannot neglect. We have to stand up and fight for a proper solution. This includes vaccination, testing and it includes culling.
“Jim Paice has taken this up well, it is not an enviable task given the strength of debate.”
Mr Worsley’s replacement, deputy president Harry Cotterell, will take over for a two year tenure this month and these issues will continue to fill his in-tray for some time to come.
Mr Worsley views his greatest achievement while president to be a modernising programme which he says will empower members to a greater degree. He also sees a clear vision for how the CLA will be focused.
“We are here to champion the countryside. A few jobs in a village can be very significant and important when you’re dealing with quite a small population.”
He sees the countryside as integral to recovery.
“I believe the rural economy is part of the solution and it will only take a small amount of effort to enable it to do so.
“We are talking about high value jobs. If you have enough people employed it can support a shop, a pub a school – it makes a village vibrant.”
Our interview ends on a positive note when we discuss how Yorkshire’s rural economy will fare.
The outgoing president views the region as well-placed to progress. He points to the wide-variety of agricultural land and diversity of rural life available in the region.
Moreover he sees Yorkshire’s potential for success as being present in its own identity.
“We still have a very strong brand in Yorkshire. People all over the world, not just the UK, know about the region and what it stands for. At a time like this, having that kind of image of integrity and honesty is a great basis.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Spritely
Wednesday, November 9, 2011 at 02:44 PMMr Worsley needs to look more critically at the failures of MAFF (now Defra) and the farming industry before calling for a badger cull. By the Government's own admission the best that can be hoped from its reckless backing of an untried and almost certainly inhumane culling system--"free shooting" of badgers at night--is a 12-16 percent reduction of the disease over NINE years. Quite clearly to appease their farming vote they have chosen the wrong target and a costly, possibly disastrous "solution" which leaves untouched the core of the problem--ineffective testing, lax movement controls (far too many farmers ship in dodgy cattle from farms that have a poor history of bTB) and deliberate flouting of TB regulations. 84 per cent of the problem is embedded in farm and cattle management. Slaughtering badgers is NOT the answer, as 10 years of independent taxpayer- funded research proved. Badgers are an easy target for an industry unwilling to treat this serious respiratory disease with the controls and tough measures that it needs. Cattle vaccines are a realistic proposition in the next four years. That's where the major impact will come from. Slaughtering badgers--most of them uninfected--is a distraction that could rebound on farmers, because badgers are unique: unlike all other mammals they have a tight social system which is destroyed by culling--and that increases the percentage of infected animals and WORSENS their small part in disease spread.
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