Sir, – As the organiser of the recent rural summit I agree that the ravages of austerity driven by the Government is treating young families extremely harshly, so no mystery that they are voting with their feet to leave our local communities.

The £550 to buy a school bus pass for their post-16 teenagers is simply a tax on living in the countryside. It rightly generates anger amongst parents when they realise the school buses are running past half full anyhow.

Now parents of children aged eight-11 living two to three miles from their school will have to arrange to their transport, or pay £380 for a bus pass. It will not be long before youngsters aged 11-16 will need to do the same. You can see it coming in the second Era of Austerity post the election.

North Yorkshire is a rural county so travelling long distances comes with the territory and these essential costs of school transport should be ring-fenced as a specific grant from central government. It is not fair they should be left to those young families who already have to bear the higher costs of living in the country.

I do wonder whether Westminster politicians or civil servants have any understanding whatsoever of the key issues of rurality and its heavy impact on our local communities. Or are they glossed over by our MPs keen to tow the party line?

Surely if they had understood these issues, then the independent review of children’s services we should have been given might have concluded that leaving them at the Friarage was safest, and would have avoided many young mothers travelling 23-60 miles to have a baby.

Three months after cutting these services from 24/7 to 12 hours a day, the local NHS has cut them by a further 25 per cent, taking out the weekend hours that lead to over ten per cent of the admissions to the assessment unit, and claiming the cutback was minimal. Another nail in the coffin marked Best Interests of Young Families.

With children’s centres and youth clubs closing, austerity for young families in North Yorkshire is now Provide Nothing – Charge for Everything.

Cllr JOHN BLACKIE

Prospective Independent Parliamentary Candidate Richmond

Dryden House, Hawes.