PARWICH.ORG

Although this post has some overlap with the previous instalment, it is worth looking at the factors that impact on us as rural communities separately.  What do you want raising with the candidates for the upcoming elections:

Community

Here are some of the issues previously raised on PARWICH.ORG: When the Peak Park described Parwich as a ‘dormitory village’, understandably this provoked a strong response and in the Village Action Groups village survey indicated that most people see preserving the balance of our community as very important.  A large proportion of the local workforce (above the Park average) are self employed, working in or from the parishes, and very few people (significantly lower than the Park average) work in tourism or related jobs.

There seems to be strong feelings for

• The need to encourage young families to remain in the area, if need be through more affordable housing.
• The need to promote and encourage businesses local, especially the existing focus on non-tourist related businesses.
• The need to support and promote local infrastructure (shops, transport, broadband, PARWICH.ORG) to sustain people working in or from our parishes.

Still to come the Environment and any issues not already covered.

There are some 80 candidates standing for the East Midlands in the European Parliament elections, five for each of the parties below.  Votes are cast for the party rather than individual candidates.  There will be five seats for the East Midlands, and according to their share of the vote parties will be allocated a proportional number of seats.  The parties will then decide themselves which of their candidates take up their seat(s).

• British National Party
• Christian Party
• Conservative Party
• English Democrats Party
• Jury Team
• Liberal Democrats
• No 2EU: Yes to Democracy
• Pro Democracy: Libertas.eu
• Socialist Labour Party
• The Green Party
• The Labour Party
• United Kingdom First
• United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)

In relation to the County Council elections it is easy to contact all the candidates, but with 80 for the European elections it is not clear who we should invite to comment on the issues raised here.  Also do we want to offer a platform to some of the more extremist parties such as the BNP?  Let us know your thoughts on who we should contact, and which parties you want to comment.