Breadcrumbs
Chief Executive’s report and matters arising
A1. VITAL VILLAGES
The backlog of Vital Villages (VV) applications held up as a result of the popularity of the programme within constrained resources has now been cleared. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs have reported that correspondence from Members of Parliament has dried up. New priorities are being implemented to focus grants on those communities most in need of empowerment. Demand remains high and we are continuing to disappoint communities.
The National Training Strategy for parish councils is proceeding well and we chaired the first network meeting of all the county training partnerships in September. We now have 7 qualified clerks and a further 200 applications to assess (a qualified clerk is one of the 7 tests for Quality Parish status). Also in September we were the main sponsors of the Local Government Association conference which proved an invaluable influencing event. Negotiations are continuing with Defra and the Active Communities Unit over our potential role in a £10m programme to help improved the infrastructure of the rural voluntary sector, specifically tackling social exclusion.
A2. ESSENTIAL SERVICES
At the Rural Affairs Forum for England on 14 July, I announced the publication of the Agency's second annual report on the Rural Service Standards, with Defra announcing an update of the standards to coincide. This idea has come a long way since the early days of the Agency when we concluded that it was in the Government’s interest to be clear what services rural people were entitled to.
In late July Margaret Clark and I attended an inter-Departmental senior officials group, which is deciding how to take forward the main recommendations from the Agency's 2003 rural proofing report (which relate to the forthcoming Spending Review, PSA targets and having rural markers on departmental datasets).
Following some close working with the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (in ODPM), we were pleased when they announced they would target one of their schemes - round two of the Neighbourhood Management Initiative - at some rural wards outside the usual list of the 88 most deprived districts, recognising the more scattered nature of rural disadvantage.
We have commented on draft Regional Housing Strategies. All eight now at least include a commitment to the Housing Corporation’s Rural Programme (for settlements with fewer than 3,000 population), although the extent to which they address the needs of market towns is mixed. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have produced draft revised planning guidance on housing (PPS3), which includes a new policy enabling local authorities to designate sites for affordable housing - almost the same as the Agency's proposals for sites for social diversity. We count this as an influencing success.
The transport team will soon complete their series of regional seminars to promote to local authorities and others our good rural practice report on Local Transport Plans. There have been discussions with the Community Transport Association about their criticism of our support (or lack of it) for certain projects. I have agreed to address their conference on 16th October, when I will stress the importance of mainstreaming following up our support in demonstration projects! Early findings from the evaluation of the Rural Transport Partnership scheme indicate some positive findings, including:
- two thirds of projects started by a RTP grant have continued once our grant ceased;
- a significant influencing role has been played by the partnerships supported (e.g. with market town partnerships); and
- most wider welcome transport projects have provided good value for money.
The Board may recall the Ley of the Land project, which they saw as part of their visit to the south west in March. This was run by the West Devon Environmental Network, which was part-funded by the Agency as a social inclusion demonstration project. The Board heard that the key issue for the project was the availability of long term funding. This is an important theme for us, so the Board may find it useful to know what has happened since. The period of Agency funding came to an end. The project requested further Agency funding, which we decided not to provide, given our clear research and demonstration remit. We could not see what more would be learned from extending our funding and, unfortunately, no long-term funder was in prospect. The project has, however, now secured some European Social Fund money, which it is struggling to match. We have learned some useful social inclusion lessons from our engagement with this project, that can be disseminated elsewhere, but a key message must be the need for greater clarity with potential project partners about the nature and purpose of our funding.
A3. NEW ENTERPRISE
We launched the Women in Rural Areas (WIRE) report at the Yorkshire show and have set up a pilot facilitation project in the region to improve linkages between those giving advice and rural businesswomen. The launch by Margaret Clark received excellent media coverage at a national and regional level.
We are pleased to see that our input to the Learning Skills and Knowledge review has been influential with much of our thinking reflected in the first action plan produced by Defra. Similarly we have influenced the revision of the Rural White Paper economies chapter to good effect.
Our launch of the first 9 Beacon Towns met with an enthusiastic response from the selected towns and gained widespread media interest. Given that there is no extra funding available we have been heartened by the level of enthusiasm and support for the Beacon Towns approach. There have been a number of regional events to discuss how to take the projects forward. For example over 100 people attended a very positive weekend seminar in Faringdon.
B1. LIVING LANDSCAPES
Work on creating the two new National Parks is on target.
Following the need to renegotiate to keep our overall grant totals within budget, the AONB community have concluded wrongly that grants have been cut overall and that the Agency is an insecure source of funding. We have reassured the Government. We have also agreed with the Government to provide additional funding for conservation boards to help them deal with an unexpected liability for Value Added Tax.
CAP reform is generating increased demand from Defra and others for strategic and technical advice. Recent staff movements have left us short of capacity to respond.
An accreditation scheme for farms hosting educational visits was launched successfully at the Royal Show, though our capacity to deliver other work on education is very limited and further progress is dependent on finding external funding.
We are currently reviewing the areas of delivery of our Inheritance Tax advice to deal with risks identified in a recent audit. We are about to do a similar review of our administration of AONB grants, to assess the scope for making efficiency savings.
B2. WIDER WELCOME
Open Access The Planning Inspectorate has now published its guidance to Inspectors on dealing with mapping appeals. This incorporates and elaborates on Defra's guidance on the same subject, which was published in July.
Appeal decisions are beginning to come in now for the South East and Lower North West. There is inevitably a learning curve - for the Agency, our site surveyors and the Inspectorate - and we are a little way from winning all contested appeals. We will address any generic examples of differences of interpretation of the mapping methodology between ourselves and the Inspectorate if and when they become apparent.
The volume of appeals in area 3 (South) was 2.5 times higher than forecast. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Some are generic, and can be expected to recur in the remaining areas, such as the change in the OS base mapping product between areas 2 and 3, which might be expected to result in more individual appeals covering the same overall amount of land. Others are area-specific, such as the importance of rough shooting on the uncultivated land in southern England, an issue which emerged strongly at our roadshows for that area. We will need to increase staffing to cope with the higher number of appeals in order to stay on target.
Equally important to staying on target is being able to let the contract to manage restrictions. We are close to having the final regulations from Defra, without which we cannot safely invite final bids from contractors, but any further delay here will mean we cannot open for applications as planned in January, which in turn will threaten the late summer target for first commencement of the access rights.
We have had a cautious response from the Minister to our proposal for funding access management, and we will need to discuss what is needed with him further. The Deputy Chairman has agreed to attend the meeting the Minister has called on this.
In August the Walking the way to Health Initiative (WHI) launched its 200th, and final, scheme - unusually for us this one is based in the respiratory department of a Middlesborough hospital. We have now reached our target for grant aided local schemes. The WHI 'family' includes another 100 schemes that have been set up with our know how and training but have found their own local funding. This large number of schemes gives us a critical mass in seeking promotional opportunities, for example ASDA have invited us to put on a health walk at each of their stores during September. We've managed a 90% fit between their stores and WHI schemes. And with ASDA reaching 11 million customers a week, this is a powerful shop window for what we can offer
We have also just begun work with around 1000 GP surgeries in a trial co-funded by the Department of Health. Here we are seeing how WHI step-o-meters given 'on prescription' can encourage patients to walk more. We want to capitalise on Ministerial interest in these devices, which cost less than one week's supply of blood pressure tablets.
We have had a positive reaction from the highway authorities along the Ridgeway National Trail in response to our offer to take the lead in preparing and action plan and I will be reporting back to the Minister as promised by the end of the month. Finally, we have agreed to change the name of the Wolds Way National Trail to the Yorkshire Wolds National Trail, following local suggestions that this will make marketing it easier and more effective.
B3. COUNTRYSIDE FOR TOWNS
The ALSF is holding a conference in October, involving the Minister responsible, Elliot Morley, and the 3 delivery agencies to record and celebrate the success of the first two years' delivery. This will be in advance of the formal decision whether to extend the scheme beyond March 2004.
Doorstep Greens is continuing to deliver, although it is clear that the new scheme to be administered by Groundwork, and announced in the Communities Plan, will be a competitor. Discussions are underway to minimise overlap. We scored an influencing success through our arranged visit to Marston Vale Community Forest by Jeff Rooker, Office of Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM). As a result, £10m for new greenspace in the Communities Plan Growth Areas was announced by the DPM. Government Offices will also be advised by ODPM to seek the advice of Countryside Agency regional offices in dispersing the funds. Our opportunity to influence the Growth Areas is therefore increasing. We have agreed a way forward on Community Forests to our and the Minister's satisfaction. This will involve a limited period of transitional funding. It is still subject to detailed negotiation.
C1 EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS
The new Evidence and Analysis team is now fully staffed, except for the Programme Director; interviews for this post are due to take place at the beginning of October. The new regional influencing and research networking research officers have begun their work with a well-attended regional research workshop in August and with a rigorous classification and cleaning exercise of all the submissions to the research database. We are working closely with the regional influencing officers to help them produce the first regional State of the Countryside reports to be prepared in the regions, rather than centrally in the Agency. We expect the technology for the research database to be delivered shortly, so that it can be made available internally to all Agency staff, and towards the end of the year externally through the website. We are also following up the launch of State of the Countryside 2020 with at least three regional workshops on futures in the regions and working together with the LGA to encourage local authorities to 'think rural' in their futures planning activities. A number of research projects are currently in the concluding reporting phase, including the taxation study, from which findings will be submitted to the Treasury to influence the next Budget; the collaborative accessibility study will be published jointly with the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales; and we are working closely with Transport Branch to ensure that the lessons learnt from completed TAIMS (Traffic Appraisal and Impact Systems) research is made available to local authorities. We are working closely with Defra economists on rural economies research projects - 'leading and lagging' and 'the contribution of the environment to the rural economy'. We are well ahead of previous years in starting work on preparing material for next year's State of the Countryside report; a task group has been established to progress the work and all team members are involved in scoping indicator themes, sourcing data and identifying the analysis required.
D. EQUIPPING THE AGENCY TO DELIVER
Programme Directors completed in July the first set of in-year progress reports under resource accounting and using our new "traffic light" system. They have been successful in flagging up issues for management/board attention, and also (as confirmed by a workshop for the staff involved) in generating team working across the programmes and with the finance team. We have agreed a new "corporate competency framework": this defines the skills staff at all levels need to deliver the Agency's corporate plan and to work to its values and behaviours. Individual competencies will be defined in work and development plans, and will from the basis of our training programme.
The Bristol based teams (SWRO, Vital Villages, LHI and the ALSF) have now moved to new offices close to Temple Meads station. The much improved accommodation also includes an IT training suite.
On the staffing side, Tracey Slaven has joined us as Director for Improving the Quality of Life in the Countryside. Meanwhile, we have accepted the resignations of several senior and significant staff members, who it will be difficult to replace. The Executive and Programme Directors have come together to form T(eam)14: the senior management team for the Agency: T14's primary role is to advise on strategy and future direction, drawing from shared expertise, external intelligence and experience of delivery.
