New rural body to have ‘hotline to the government’

The Yorkshire Food Farming and Rural Network is one of 14 similar networks for English regions announced by Defra with the promise: “Rural business leaders will have a hotline to the heart of Government.”

Defra was vague about how the networks had been recruited but the Yorkshire Post can reveal that the local one will be a coalition of the Yorkshire Food & Farming Forum, set up by Defra on the recommendation of the Curry Commission on sustainable farming, in 2001, and the Yorkshire & Humber Rural Affairs Forum, set up by Defra the following year, “to represent the views and concerns of people living and working in the countryside”.

Both organisations ran out of funding in March 2011, as a result of the clear-out of quangos which the coalition Government ordered when it came to power.

However, they kept themselves going in readiness for another opportunity – and last summer, they got a message that Defra was looking for interested parties to be part of a new advisory service. The Yorkshire Agricultural Society helped both bodies to work together on a joint application to Defra and they are now the Yorkshire Food Farming and Rural Network in waiting – pending further instructions from Defra.

Harrogate area farmer Steve Willis, chairman of the Food & Farming Forum, commented: “The meaning of the Big Society is that you can carry on as long as you require no resources. We had already decided we were going to do that. But it is nice that Defra has said it will listen to us.”