NGO continues its fight to ensure support rural businesses in Wales

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David Pooler, Interim Chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation has written to the First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, to ask what level of support the Welsh Labour Party will offer rural areas in the coming years.

This continued probing by the NGO into the level of importance that the Welsh Labour Party gives to rural areas in Wales, comes off the back of a letter to the ‘Aim to Sustain’ partnership from Julie James, Minister for Climate Change in Wales, who emphasised that: ‘The Welsh Government does not support the shooting of live quarry as a leisure activity’. 

David Pooler, Interim Chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation and a gamekeeper based in North Wales, said:

“We want to ensure that rural Wales is high up on the agenda across all parties in Wales. A lack of support for the shooting sector, which is just one element of rural life, has the potential to have a huge knock-on effect to an abundance of other rural businesses.

“The past few years have been difficult for everyone and this ‘lack of support’ puts even more pressure and worry on businesses, their workers and families already effected by lower incomes and profits.

“We have written to the First Minister to get a feel for their future policies and agenda in Wales. We want to show them just how fantastic the sector is for providing jobs, active land management that brings about a biodiversity net gain and increasing tourism and income for these areas.

“We await a response and look forward to working with the Welsh Labour Party in a proactive way and extend an invitation to any Welsh MP who would like to come out and see what we do.”

The NGO will continue to work with its partners and members in the shooting sector with the Welsh Government to bring about both economic and environmental success across rural areas.

The NGO has asked its members to write to their Welsh MPs to find out their views ad commitment to supporting the rural economy in Wales.
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