In 1989, in the Counterblast series published by Chatto and Windus, Ruth Rendell and Colin Ward contributed No 7, Undermining the Central Line, a criticism of centralist policies that closed local amenities and prevented young people being housed where they had grown up. Their case was based upon the closure of the school in Polstead, Suffolk, by the county council, whose policy prevented a modicum of new housing being built. The following year Ruth launched a report published by Suffolk Acre (Action with Communities in Rural England), now part of Community Action Suffolk: Integration of New Comers argued for a joint approach to all villages by various interests, to provide a population sufficient to keep each of them alive. Ruth joined our cause by becoming a vice-president and supporting our object of giving a voice and sufficient power to local communities.
