Elections 2022: Vote for the countryside on 5 May

Voters across the UK will head to the polls tomorrow (Thursday 5 May 2022) to select their local representatives.

Every council seat in Scotland, Wales, London and many parts of England is up for grabs, including the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The Countryside Alliance is urging voters to return councillors who can understand and will defend rural interests.

Councils have lately come under increasing pressure to pass 'virtue'-signalling motions that attack and seek to curtail meat eating, livestock farming and country sports. While the people driving these initiatives comprise only a small minority, they are single-minded and they are loud. Not all councillors have the mettle to resist their badgering; some see them as part of the core vote.

At this time the interests of the whole country, rural and urban, can best be served by a renewed focus on the core interests that matter to us all: security, local services and the cost of living. Harassing farmers and land managers with town hall condemnations at a shouty minority's behest should fall well below the bottom of councillors' to-do lists.

On 5 May, we urge you to vote for candidates who share your values and priorities, and above all who appreciate the realities of the countryside.