The Countryside Alliance has produced a user-friendly guide on how to contact MPs with the aim of getting more people to write, email, and meet their local MP to raise issues that matter to them.

The guide, which is available to download free from the Countryside Alliance website, also contains suggestions about what issues people should raise with their local MP from challenges faced by local hunts and shoots, to local bank branch closures and problems accessing high speed broadband.

The guide has been published during the most important parliament for the countryside in a generation with the Agriculture Bill about to be published, and new policies being developed for fisheries and the environment post Brexit. There are also on-going challenges to hunting, shooting, and fishing, and the rural way of life.

Countryside Alliance Political Relations Manager, James Somerville-Meikle, said: “You do not have to be ‘political’ to contact your MP. If rural crime, lack of broadband, or the actions of animal rights groups have an impact on you and your community then your MP should hear about it. The Countryside Alliance is working hard to highlight rural issues in parliament but it is vital that people contact their MPs about the issues that matter to them as this is the best way to get the message across. We hope that this new guide will make it easier than ever for people to engage with their representatives in Westminster to ensure that the voice of rural communities is heard.”