Rural Roar – Giving Rural Communities a Voice

Buckland Parish Council has received an invitation to consider joining Rural Roar, a growing national coalition campaigning for a fairer planning system for our villages, countryside and rural communities.

Rural Roar was founded in Effingham, Surrey, by Paula Moss, Vice-Chair of Effingham Parish Council and a parish councillor for over 15 years. Effingham Parish Council is the founding council of the coalition and advises the list of supporters is growing. What follows is the message that came from Paula Moss …..

Why Rural Roar was formed

Rural Roar recognises the need for new homes, particularly affordable homes for local people. But the combination of the grey belt policy and the revised Standard Method risks fundamentally changing our countryside and villages without proper consideration of the cumulative consequences.

Grey belt is especially troubling because it can facilitate development on Green Belt land through individual planning applications, outside the strategic process of preparing a Local Plan. Meanwhile, councils face housing requirements that take insufficient account of the physical, environmental and infrastructure constraints of predominantly rural areas.

We believe these policies have not been adequately rural proofed — assessed for their particular and potentially disproportionate consequences for rural England.

Rural Roar’s Five Asks of Government

• Suspend the application of grey belt policy outside the Local Plan process, pending a full examination of its consequences for rural communities.
• Commission a formal, independent Rural Proofing Assessment of the National Planning Policy Framework, particularly the grey belt provisions and the revised Standard Method for calculating housing requirements.
• Restore local democratic control over planning, ensuring that the location and scale of development are determined through properly evidenced Local Plans, with meaningful participation by parish and town councils.
• Review the distribution of housing requirements to ensure that environmental constraints, Green Belt coverage, infrastructure capacity and the particular circumstances of rural authorities are properly recognised.
• Protect the sustainability and identity of rural communities, ensuring that national planning policy accounts for village character, local infrastructure, countryside protection and the cumulative impacts of development.

Taking Rural Roar’s Case to Westminster

Individual communities fighting separate planning battles are too easily overlooked. But a national coalition of parish and town councils, residents’ associations, Green Belt action groups, borough and district councillors, and supportive MPs presents a much more formidable challenge.

Rural Roar intends to build that coalition from the green ground up

Rural Roar’s strategy is to bring together evidence from communities across England, demonstrate the common consequences of these policies, and use the government’s established rural-proofing framework to demand a proper examination of their impact.

Rural Roar intends to take this case to Westminster through parliamentary engagement, direct representations to ministers, a national petition and, where appropriate, consideration of the legal obligations underpinning national planning policy.

Ten parish councils are already supporting Rural Roar, with others considering joining. Residents’ and action groups in Claygate and Esher have also joined our coalition. Rural Roar is now extending its campaign to communities across Surrey and beyond.

Will Buckland Parish Council express support for Rural Roar?

The invitation issued by Rural Roar has been circulated to Buckland’s parish councillors and Roar the agenda for the next meeting, scheduled for Monday 9th November, will include a proposal to consider Rural Roar’s Invitation.

Rural Roar has advised no financial commitment is required and provide an assurance that there is no requirement to surrender council’s independence or take a position on individual planning applications. What Buckland Parish Council will consider is Rural Roar’s request for your parish council to express support for Rural Roar’s broad objectives, and, over time to share any experiences and evidence that could help demonstrate the scale of concern across rural England.

You can find out more about Rural Roar by following this link to the campaign website.

If, having read this article you would like to express your support for Rural Roar you might like to consider adding your signature to a Parliamentary petition Rural Roar has opened.

Rural communities have a great deal in common, but until now we have rarely spoken with one collective voice. Rural Roar intends to change that.

If you would like to share your thoughts with your parish council please message our Clerk

Last updated 27th October 2026