Make your vote count in the rural Oscars

By Simon Heffer

Those of us who live in the countryside know that rural businesses play an essential role in its daily existence. They do more than simply provide a focal point for some communities, create jobs or give people the services and products they require. They are also about the continuity of the countryside as an institution, and about the preservation of its way of life.

All these qualities will be taken into account when I and the other judges of the 2006 Countryside Alliance Best Rural Retailer awards meet in January to consider the nominations. We have seen many rural retailers fall to the march of the supermarkets but, equally, many have survived because they provide those things that supermarkets can't. Personal service, the highest quality local produce, and the ability to find that little something out of the ordinary are perhaps at the heart of what the competition is about. More to the point, it is about the people who provide all of those things.

The four categories speak for themselves: Best Local Food Retailer, Best Village Shop/Post Office, Best Diversification, and the Daily Telegraph Best Traditional Business. In the first category, we hope to receive nominations for shops that support local farmers and growers, and who as a result sell the sort of meat, vegetables, poultry or other foods that many who shop only in supermarkets might feel no longer exist. Also, being in the heart of their own communities, such shops are the original convenience stores.

This is perhaps even more true of general stores and post offices, which in so many ways provide a lifeline to their communities. Many rural post offices now only exist because of the entrepreneurialism of sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses, and their efforts deserve recognition.

A government that has based its view of the world entirely on urban concerns forgets too easily about the support network that rural businesses provide. Such businesses are taken for granted by people outside their communities. This is the opportunity for those who value their contribution, to nominate them and make the case for their wider recognition.

Rural business is not just about retailing. That is why The Daily Telegraph is delighted to sponsor the new Best Traditional Business award, to highlight the work and contribution of those who specialise in the old country crafts, and who help preserve the rural way of life. So if you know of a farrier, thatcher, or any other exemplary practitioner of a traditional craft who runs an excellent business, please nominate them. These awards are intended to be the Oscars of the countryside - and the more nominees we have, the more we shall be able to trumpet the achievements of one of the most important sections of British society.