At the end of April the Countryside Alliance launched an invitation to rural communities to take part in The National Conversation, the major national listening exercise set up by the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion that will inform its recommendations to the government.

Having since had the opportunity to review the format and content of the survey, it’s apparent that many of the questions are hyper-local. They ask respondents to reflect on the communities in which they personally live: what about them they like and dislike, how satisfied they are with local services, and how the area has changed over time. As such it would not make sense for the Alliance to submit an institutional response, but we can offer some guidance on how our members and supporters can, in individual responses, best express matters that will be important to rural areas.

Among the local questions that form the bulk of the first half of the survey, perhaps the best opportunity comes from a question about the respondent’s involvement in community activities. Are you involved in rural pursuits – whether traditional, such as shooting or hunting, or more unconventional activities? What does your participation mean to you, and what contribution does it make to your community and your sense of it? Were a hostile government to restrict those activities, what would be the impact on cohesion within your community?

Later, the survey shifts to a wider vantage with questions about unity and division across the country. It asks what most unites and most divides both the United Kingdom and your local community. As Claire Coutinho MP wrote last week in The Critic, we hear a great deal from the political establishment about the importance of respecting minority cultural practices when they originate from abroad, but when it comes to pursuits such as trail hunting that are practised overwhelmingly by a traditional rural minority, that impetus to be considerate in the face of difference often vanishes. The national community cannot be cohesive while the preferences of fashionable urban majorities are allowed to legislate those of others out of existence.

Following some demographic questions the survey asks respondents whether there is anything else they would like to say; it concludes with an invitation to share their vision for their community and the country, and how they would like to see it develop in the future. Our vision is for a country where rural communities are respected, afforded meaningful opportunities to shape their future and, where cultural practices are concerned, are at the very least left alone.

We would again encourage you to respond to the survey and consider raising these points, as well as any others that are important to you. Rural community voices matter and must not be drowned out. Within The National Conversation, they should be heard.