It’s time to take a stand against rural decline

RURAL dwellers in many parts of the State are getting a raw deal.

As investment in infrastructure and business benefits larger urban areas, rural parts experience on a daily basis the effects of both economic and population decline.

While many people living in the countryside may be happy with their lot — after all, we choose, in many cases, to stay where we are — investment policy falls far short of constituting equality. Welcome to the great divide — the result of a deliberate policy to centralise our population into compact, easily accessible urban centres where services can be provided en masse and at less cost to an anonymous populace.