大象传媒

Rural councils are warning that council tax will have to rise and there will be cuts in services, because they say the Government has prioritised urban communities in the recent funding agreement. The County Councils' Network which represents 23 county councils and 13 county unitary authorities says ministers are 'cherry picking' by using a formula based on deprivation, which is targeted towards city and town councils. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government told us the overall funding agreement is a real terms increase which will support places with a significant rural population.

This year a charity that collects surplus food and distributes it to charities says that between November and the end of January, it's expecting to rescue enough food to create around 50 million meals. It says this is in part down to the ways it鈥檚 now working with growers to reduce waste.

And carols, in the pub; a tradition that sprung up in Yorkshire in the nineteenth century, where people would go to the village pub and sing carols to the old tunes.
All week we've been looking at the fortunes of rural pubs and to celebrate Christmas, locals in the the small market town of Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire, are reviving village carols from Somerset, Wiltshire and Cornwall.

Presented by Charlotte Smith and produced by Beatrice Fenton.