Decision-makers `losing sight of rural communities'.

(From The Dominion Post)

Rural communities are missing out on vital services, Federated Farmers says.

DESPITE the current nostalgia for heartland New Zealand, the distance between rural and urban New Zealand appears to be increasing.

There is a growing gap in understanding between rural communities and the rest of New Zealand, Federated Farmers president Charlie Perdersen says.

One in four New Zealanders lives either in the country or in a small rural town, but Mr Pedersen doesn't think the other three-quarters of New Zealanders realise how different it is living in a rural community.

"There is a huge gap between what it is to be …