Sustainable Wharfedale - employment
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Wharfedale industries include agriculture, tourism, service industries including building / gardening, care homes, light manufacturing industry.
Many commute to jobs in Leeds and Bradford, and many people who work in Ilkley Burley etc are either the children of affluent parents or who commute in from Bradford Keighley etc and are doing unskilled or semi- skilled work.Traditionally we have been exporters of skills and importers of cheap labour and it is hard to see how the trend can be reversed without conscious planning particularly in housing.
Some positive changes could be:
- Increased tourism due to UK population holidaying more in this country, rather than abroad. More hotels and B&Bs will open. This will only place further environmental stress on an already groaning area.unless provision for increased tourism is managed sustainably. Visitors will arrive by public transport and there will be good bus links to local tourist spots.
More jobs improving the area, dog wardens, cleanup, lifeguards giving help and advice on water safety.
- Agriculture will be more organic and require more workers on the land.
- Increased homeworking reducing the need to commute, provide telecommuting centres thus reducing social isolation of teleworkers
- Some new industries involved in local waste recycling and renewable energy generation.
- As we move to a less resource intensive economy, more jobs will be service-based, e.g. repair of household appliances. Equivalent value placed on manual skilled labour, horticulture, construction etc as for professional jobs.
-A LETS scheme or time bank may be operating to facilitate exchange of skills. Build on existing initiatives like freecycle and U3A.