The Hunts Post has launched its biggest and most ambitious campaign yet, to help protect community spirit and services in Huntingdonshire.

The weekly newspaper, based in west Cambridgeshire, started up the HUSH – Help Us Save Huntingdonshire – campaign in April and has already gathered huge support from villagers and politicians alike.

The Post’s campaign aims keep services like corner shops, grocers, high street banks, post offices and pubs open for generations to come.

The paper wants to stop the district joining others throughout the UK that have become part of “ghost town Britain”.

Local people are being invited to take part in the debate to help decide the future of rural life.

They can send in their views to the paper and suggest ways to keep their villages thriving.

And already the paper has been inundated with letters and opinions.

Hunts Post editor Paul Richardson has lived locally for 12 years and is a keen supporter of village life.

He said: “People know you, you know them and you take a genuine interest in people’s well-being.

“You can genuinely feel relaxed if you live in a village. It’s a retreat, a place to re-charge yourself for the stresses and strains of life.”

Cat Bell is a reporter who has lived in Somersham for seven years and loves the village way of life after working in two local shops before landing her job with the Post.

She said: “I really miss being at the centre of village life. Even now when I walk down the street I know that I’ll be greeted with a cheery wave.

“I would hate to think that this feeling is gradually disappearing with our villages.”

Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon has thrown his weight behind the paper’s campaign by fighting to preserve rural pharmacies and over 2,250 people have signed petitions to save their village chemist shop. Robert Sturdy, MEP for the Eastern Region, has also backed the HUSH campaign.

Back to the campaigns index

Do you have a story about the regional press? Ring 0116 227 3122/3121, or
e-mail [email protected]