Would you come and live here if we give you fifty grand?

I mean who wouldn't want to live with your family in an idyllic Swiss village - even though it lacks things that might be useful, like a school, for example:

The Swiss town of Albinen, located in the scenic canton of Valais, wants to pay people 25,000 Swiss francs (£18,900) each to move there.

The council will soon be voting on the new initiative, which aims to repopulate a community that has dwindled to just 240 residents, reports The Local.

Under the scheme, each new adult resident will be paid the fee, with an additional 10,000 Swiss francs (£7,600) per child. For a family of four, that’s more than £53,000.

So you've to build or buy a house and commit to living there for ten years but (and I do hope they've thought this through and have half-way decent broadband) if you're in a business where remote working is easy and are fed up with the hustle and bustle of the big city, why wouldn't you?

This offer masks a bigger issue with Europe's countryside and small towns - people are leaving them unless they're close enough to the city for people to be able to commute. And they're leaving because there's no work, no decent amenities and everything is more expensive. Perhaps the coming world of driverless vehicles, drone deliveries and robots will change things and make it appealing to live in a remote village, but right now it isn't and paying people to become residents is the only way to keep the population levels.

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"The village will keep me fit!" - thoughts on the "Big Society"

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I ran into Brian Church this morning while out canvassing in Denholme. Now Brian’s in his 70s, has just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and has every reason to slow down a little, to enjoy his retirement. But Brian was still out delivering the Town Council newsletter!

I first encountered Brian during the campaign to stop a landfill being built on the edge of Denholme – he knew every inch of every footpath around the village and reported all the problems with the developer assiduously. Brian turned up to every campaign meeting, reported to the local forum and provided invaluable input to the inevitable public enquiry.

As well as this campaigning, Brian set up a local environmental group. Not to campaign but to spruce up some of the village’s untidier corners – we got the group a little money and Brian scrounged bits of stone, plants and fencing from local companies. Four or five little projects were competed – a little garden at the entrance to the village, the raised bed round the mechanics institute, the tiny green at the top of Old Lane and loads of bulbs throughout.

Any way, I was chatting to Brian – asking about the Parkinson’s and some other village matters – and he told me a little of the doctor’s advice about walking being good for managing the condition. And Brian came out with this little gem – as good a description of what David Cameron means by the “Big Society” as you’ll find:

“The village will keep me fit”

That really is what it’s about – a place where people get involved because they’ve something to offer and because they want the place where they live to be a pleasant place. And what they get back isn’t money or kudos or medals. What they get back is a good feeling, a sense of community and, in Brian’s case, a reason to carry on doing things for the village.

And for Brian the village is almost a living thing – it is the people, the trees, the old buildings, the new estates, the changes – good and bad and the sense that it’s worth looking after, it’s worth a bit of love. You might, on arriving in Denholme, find an unprepossessing place stuck on the top of the South Pennines. You’ll see big trunk road, some old terraced housing, a Co-op and a big public hall. You might even think the place a little unattractive, certainly not your typical, roses-over-the-door English village.

But look a little further you’ll find something more remarkable – you’ll find people like Brian (and Nora and Barbara and Ann and Steve and Sharon) working hard at making the place more than what you see on your visit. You might bob into the Town Council meeting and see nine unpaid politicians talking about the minutiae of village affairs. You might meet some scouts, or kids from the youth club. It might be the cricket club that gets your attention or the football club or the Denholme Elders (what a great name for a group that is!) who meet to reminisce and share their experience of living in Denholme.

This is the “Big Society” – these are ordinary people freely working to make where they live better, happier, safer and more friendly. It’s not about strategies, governance and policies. It’s not about clever folk in big corner offices. And it’s not about taxes or public spending. It’s about saying; “yes, we do want you to do that, we’re not going to stop you, we might even help a little – after all it’s your village in the end!”

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Why Parish Councils should be encouraged

Wilsden is one of Cullingworth's 'next door villages' and straggles down the valley from the Haworth Road to the Malt Shovel at Harden (which is actually in Wilsden - one of geography's little quirks). Like Cullingworth, Wilsden is a combination of traditional South Pennine mill village terraces and cottages with assorted dormitory estates built over the last 50 years.

Yesterday evening was Wilsden Parish Council - a meeting that brings both exasperation and stultifying boredom. But despite this - and the pettifogging nature of much discussed - I remain convinced of the value we get from Parish Councils.

Last night the Wilsden Parish Council discussed the minutiae of living in the village - the impact of a road closure on the post office, the delivery of the village newsletter (and the worry that there appear to be three of these newsletters) and assorted planning applications for caravans, conservatories and an ugly detatched house. Not matters of great moment but important in their very local, specific way.

So, despite the busibodying, the seemingly endless meetings, the wittering about the tiniest issue and the occasional bout of self-importance, Parish Councils are a good thing - they enhance a place and they do so at very low cost (about a tenner a head in Wilsden). If you don't already have one think about getting one. And thank me when you're sitting through the second hour of a discussion about the Parish web-site!

The View from Cullingworth

Up here in the gentle valleys of the South Pennines folk like to think life travels at a different pace. It's not that we do things differently - it all seems much the same most of the time - but that views are held more firmly, more definitely than down there in the City's bright lights. There are still fights in the pub on Saturday nights but you see the same two lads drinking together on Sunday as if nothing untoward had taken place.

I'm a long term visitor in these parts (not being from 'round here') and have been trying to give a voice to Cullingworth people - and the good residents of the other villages that make up Bingley Rural - since 1995 when I first sneaked onto Bradford Council by just 15 votes. Since returning to live in the village just before Christmas 2004, I got still closer to the locals and have come to share their anger at the way we're treated by public authorities, politicians and those poor deluded fools who think city life is mighty fine.

Representing these villages isn't as simple as some think - "defend the green belt" some cry! But what about the farmer who wants to get better use from old stone buildings? "No more house building cry others"! Without asking where the sons and daughters of Cullingworth people are going to live when thet grow up and want to live somewhere, raise a family and contribute to the continuation of the village as a real place rather than a dormitory. "Close down those noisy, smelly or unsightly businesses" is another call made without thinking of the consequences.

People complain that the pubs are closing but never use them. That young people are badly behaved but campaign against encouraging those youngsters to use the rec. And that people should not be allowed to do something or other because it's against some planning rule or other.

If this first post is about setting the tone, I would like you (assuming vainly that there is a you reading this) appreciate that keeping Cullingworth - and thousands of other great villages across England - is not about rules, banning things, employing enforcement officers, beefing up the strategic planning infrastructure or any of those grandiloquent wonderments so beloved of us politicians. It's about allowing people to rub along together, to row and fight, to sulk in the corner, to cry, to sing, to smile. Allowing people to make the place without interference from bureaucrats, experts and the paraphenalia of modern intrusive government.