Natural England

Chief Executive's report and matters arising - 10 July 2003

A1.             VITAL VILLAGES

Things seem to have been settling down, following the scare stories spread at the time it was necessary to put a temporary halt to all new grant commitments across the Agency.   Vital Village grants seem to have been the most sensitive area.

In terms of positive achievements, the first parish clerk has achieved the AQA Certificate in Local Council Administration. This qualification is essential underpinning to the 'qualified clerk' test in the new Quality Parish Scheme. Following a very positive feedback from parish councils we have reprinted (50,000 copies) and circulated the Parish Councillors' Induction /Good Councillor Guide.   The guidance notes and administrative arrangements for the Quality Parish Scheme were announced by Alun Michael on 4 June. 

The ODPM has announced that the 3 northern regions will have referendums to see if they want to have elected regional assemblies. This will also mean that local government structure reviews will be held in the more rural two tier areas of these regions. (The Agency is developing a research programme and a 'handling' strategy to respond to these announcements).   I am taking the contrast between two-tier Shropshire and unitary Herefordshire as the theme of my day briefing the ODPM Permanent Secretary on 1st August.

I spoke at an international rural conference in Inverness organised by the Arkleton Trust and part sponsored by the Countryside Agency on 27 June on the theme of small grants to empower communities. I am also speaking at the LGA Independent Group's annual dinner on 1 July.   Board Members (Pam Warhurst and Bishop Graham James) are also speaking at other regional seminars promoting Quality Parishes during July, as am I. 

We are developing a formal 'Compact' agreement between the Agency and the Rural Community Councils following best practice advice from the Home Office and Defra. We hope that this will introduce a stronger foundation for our working and day to day relationships with the RCCs.   We will bring this to the Board in September.

A2.             ESSENTIAL SERVICES

Annual rural proofing report.   On 3rd June we published our second annual rural proofing report, the key recommendations from which were discussed by the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Rural Renewal.  

Services.   The Chairman launched Locals Online at a pub in Piddletrenthide (Dorset) on 29th May.   This national demonstration project, in 5 Dorset and 4 Northumberland pubs, provides local communities with a broadband internet point and gives them access to ICT skills, training and educational opportunities.   An inter-departmental group of officials led by Defra has now met twice to take forward work on promoting multi-service outlets, as a way of improving rural service provision, drawing heavily upon lessons from Countryside Agency research and demonstration projects.  

Transport.   The Chairman had another in his series of regular meetings with Charles Clarke and Alan Michael, where they discussed championing Wheels 2 Work within government, good practice in implementing Connexions and the possible impact of falling school rolls on rural schools.   The Chief Executive met Tim Matthews, his counterpart at the Highways Agency, on 4th June, to discuss how our two agencies can work better together and to raise concerns about particular road schemes especially in Somerset and Sussex.   We are awaiting formal announcements from the next batch of multi-model studies.   We have already expressed our concerns about some of the proposals, including three that would impact on AONBs (South Downs, Chilterns and Dedham Vale).    

Housing.   On 27th June John Varley spoke at St James's Palace at a launch, attended by the Prince of Wales, of two booklets by Business in the Community, one aimed at landowners and giving advice about providing affordable rural housing and the other identifying action needed to improve its supply.   The Agency was a partner, as were the Housing Corporation and Country Land and Business Association.   We are in discussion with the Housing Corporation and other partners for our Rural Housing Enabler initiative, to secure future funding for them and we are also working on a succession strategy for when our own funding ends.   The Chief Executive and Margaret Clark visited Richmondshire to hear from various local organisations about the issues around the provision of affordable housing in the area.   The main lesson was the futility of inviting local authorities to prepare long-term housing strategies if government funds only come in one-year allocations.   I also had concerns about the long term sustainability of National Parks towns and villages unless more affordable housing is built.

Good progress is being made on several of the issues highlighted by the Agency’s Rural Economies: Stepping stones publication. Highlights include the first Rural Business Support conference which was held in June led by ourselves, Defra and the Small Business Service.   The conference brought together a wide range of organisations involved with giving support to rural businesses so as to enable a debate about how a more integrated and effective level of support can be provided rural areas.   The event was well attended and feedback has been very positive.   New Enterprise also led the Chairman’s tea party at the Royal Show on 30th June.

The team are also working with Defra on their Learning Skills and Knowledge review giving particular emphasis to the need to improve workplace training for micro businesses.   Due to our particular expertise and knowledge base in this area we have been asked to contribute to the rural section for the the Dti /Treasury strategy on making England the best place to start new businesses.

A report on the role of women in the rural economy has just been published and we will be launching a pilot project to facilitate better linkages between those giving advice and rural business women in at the Yorkshire Show.

The Agency’s Market Towns programme is being used as a case study by the Haskins review team and both the national and North West team have been involved in providing briefing to them on the initiative.   We stressed that our demonstration programme of 220 towns, which is progressing well, allows us to use the lessons learned to develop the healthcheck further, share good practice and use the emerging information to influence policy and practice.

The first 10 Beacon Towns have now been selected and detailed work plans for each will now be produced before an announcement is made. 

B1.             LIVING LANDSCAPES

Positive Planning.   The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill has been delayed until the next session of Parliament. It is expected to be amended to include provisions on compulsory purchase and the removal of crown immunity. We will continue to influence the Bill as it passes through its various stages but the bulk of our influencing activity will be concentrated on the raft of secondary legislation and policy guidance that will accompany the Act. During the summer, we will be focusing attention on the revision of PPG7 on the Countryside - a draft of which is expected to be issued for consultation shortly.

Land Management & Countryside Capital.   After intense negotiations, agreement was reached in Luxembourg on 26th June on reforms of the CAP.    From a UK perspective there is much in the agreement that we can welcome.   A briefing note for Board Members is being prepared and will be in your folders for the meet

Our task now is:

• to make clear the importance of re-coupling payments to products of public benefit.   Not to do so will risk loss of public and political support for continuing payments to landowners in the longer term
• to influence the drafting of the EU implementing regulations, through active involvement in Defra working groups
• to work with Defra on UK implementation to ensure our interests are reflected
• to understand what the effects of the changes will mean on the ground

Our work to devise an accreditation scheme for farms receiving school visits has been promoted at an event at the Royal Show.   Accreditation will ensure that farm premises meet health and safety standards but also that the educational messages are sound and linked in with national curriculum needs.    Alun Michael and Ben Gill warmly welcomed what has been done.   The Minister said the initiative had the full support of Defra and is an important step in reconnecting farmers with the public.

Rural Tourism:  We have reached agreement with VisitBritain on the elements of the Countryside Agency/English Tourism Council that will be taken forward by VisitBritain and by the Countryside Agency.    We see an expanded role for DCMS which will be discussed at a meeting on 30th July.

Finest Countryside.   The New Forest public inquiry, finished early on the 10th April. The Inspector thanked the Agency for providing all the additional information that he had requested during the inquiry and said that he expected to present his report to the Secretary of State in the autumn. We expect a final decision from the Secretary of State in spring 2004. 

A public inquiry into the South Downs National Park was announced in April. The inquiry will look at the principle of national park designation, the boundary, future administration and hear objections to the AONB revocation Orders. The draft programme show the inquiry running until July 2004 although this may be revised following the pre-inquiry meeting on July 7th. The inquiry is due to start on 10th November and is likely to be predominantly based in Worthing. Discussions with some of the local authorities, facilitated by SEEDA, have yet to bear fruit. West Sussex County Council have publicly re-stated their resolution to oppose the national park. 

AONB grants are still on hold pending a final decision on the budget review. This is creating increasing unquiet amongst our AONB partners. The formal consultation on the Chilterns and Cotswolds Conservation Boards is still due to take place this September but local authorities have indicated that if the VAT issue has not been resolved then they are unlikely to give their consent. Defra have confirmed that without universal support from the local authorities the Minister is very unlikely to confirm the orders.

B2.             WIDER WELCOME 

Open Access update .   The mapping project is progressing to the timetable agreed at the May Board meeting.   The provisional map for Area 3 (Central Southern England) was published on 23 May.   The draft map for Area 7 (West) was due to be published on 30 June, and the final draft map, for Area 8 (East), will be published on 2 September.   We will review our mapping budget at the end of September, when we know the volume of comments on the Area 6 & 7 maps.   The first few mapping appeals hearings have been held, although the outcome is not yet known.   The results of the first few written reps cases have been announced; three appeals which we did not contest were upheld, and one which we did contest was rejected.   The exercise to procure a managed service for restrictions is on track, as is the preparation of relevant authority guidance for submission to the Minister.   A separate paper on access management, prepared in the light of NCAF's advice to the Agency, is on the agenda for this meeting.  

External consultation on a new Country Code is under way.   Sir Ben Gill was strongly of the view that it needed to be even shorter than the current version and capable of being pinned to footpath signs, for farmers to refer visitors to.

The Department agreed to contribute a further £2 million grant-in-aid to the Agency to help keep the access programme to target.

I needed to lead a meeting in the House of Commons on the future management of the Ridgeway.   This is a thankless task because of the conflict between 4 wheel drive vehicle users and walkers/horseriders/cyclists who prefer less mud.   I have committed the Agency to a contract to deliver a repaired and safeguarded Ridgeway within 3 years, if local highway authorities will play their part too.

B3.             COUNTRYSIDE FOR TOWNS 

The new rural/urban fringe 'vision' is under development with Groundwork and plans have been laid to present to ODPM and DEFRA ministers.   We are refining, assisted by advice from others, our practical role in influencing the Thames Gateway and other Growth Areas highlighted in the Communities Plan.   I am showing Lord Rooker some of the benefits of investments in the urban fringe to help pave the way for development in Marston Vale Community Forest on 1st July.   The Minister has expressed some doubts about the prospects of mainstreaming community forests so that regional bodies take over our role in 21 months’ time.   This appears to show the need for closer working with all parts of Defra.

C1.             EVIDENCE AND ANALYSIS 

We are continuing to influence opinion formers and partners through The State of the Countryside Report.   This month we presented findings from the 2003 report and the State of the Countryside 2020 report to the member-level Rural Policy Group of the Local Government Association.   Councillors attending the session were particularly interested in exploring futures scenarios.

The rural evidence base is the focus of Defra’s call for tenders to establish a Rural Research Centre.   The Agency has been included in discussions about the objectives of the Centre and will need to establish the role of its own research programme in relation to this high profile and well-funded initiative.   We will put an outline of a first cross Agency research strategy to the Board in September, along with a  paper on the future of the State of the Countryside reports (regional and national).

We are continuing to develop indicator themes through major research initiatives, such as the Countryside Quality Counts project.   The first two stages of this project are now complete, with final reports delivered.   Database development and data acquisition is well underway.   The final stage will focus on indicator construction and validation. More information is available on this project on the CQC Website.  

Other notable research projects include the taxation study, and reporting in September for the pre-budget submission; and the accessibility project, jointly managed with the Scottish Executive and the National Assembly for Wales, also due to report in the autumn.

The team’s corporate research role continues to expand with the establishment of a data and analysis ‘hub’ for the regions.  

C2/3             COMMUNICATIONS AND REGIONAL PARTNERSHIPS 

Media & Parliamentary.   Capitalised on three major opportunities to raise the profile of the Countryside Agency and its activities with the launch of the State of the Countryside report 2003, the official opening of Hadrian's Wall Path national trail and the publication of our annual Rural Proofing report - stimulating considerable interest and a broad range of media coverage.

Communications.   Our new website will go live at the end of July – only a little later than planned - with a formal launch planned for the Autumn. We are exploring sponsorship opportunities to help fund and broaden the promotion of a new country code to be launched Summer 2004.   The Nationwide Building Society have agreed, in principle, to continue sponsoring our Lottery Heritage Initiative. 

Regional Partnerships.   The Chairman made a rural advocate visit to Worcestershire (health issues) and spoke at the Business Support Conference in Lancashire on 9th June and at the Rural Development Council at House of Commons on 24th June.   I am due to speak at a big conference in Newcastle on 17th July.   We were also engaged with SEEDA in an attempt (futile, it seems) to reduce the cost of the South Downs National Park inquiry.   The local authorities appear determined to proceed with barristers rather than more cost effective approaches.

D. EQUIPPING THE AGENCY TO DELIVER 

The contract with our IT service providers, IBM, has been renegotiated to provide better service levels, a more comprehensive help desk facility, and to make sure IBM are proactive in giving us advice on new technical solutions: IT/IS is a vital tool in our "Know How and Show How" work: IBM are advising us on best industry standards here. A small step to help with better information management and retrieval has been introduction of a new "master index" to allow  document search across our databases. 

The new management reporting system (approved by the board in April) has been agreed with Defra and rolled out to programme managers. The first reports based on this system and using resource-based accounting will be  prepared for Q1 in July for examination by the Executive.   They will be circulated to the board for information by e-mail in late July and presented to the board in September. A financial liaison team has been set up to make sure our finance experts can provide support and advice to their internal customers, particularly whilst the new accounting systems bed down.   The Annual Accounts preparation process has worked exceptionally well this year and the accounts will be ready for sign off in early July, a significant improvement on the past two years.

All staff now have new, business focused, individual Work & Development plans - stage one of the new, structured performance management.   Outstanding performance bonus awards have been made to staff. And in this year of the European Disabled, the Agency has achieved the "Positive about disabled people” Disability Symbol which demonstrates our commitment to providing employment opportunities for people with disabilities, and retaining people who become disabled.   Preparation for our next IIP reassessment has started.

Amongst staff changes to report are the departure of Pam Robinson in June and the appointment of Tracey Slaven as Director B with effect from mid-August.   I pay tribute to Jeremy Worth for his hard work as the temporary Director, especially as this coincided with the need to get a better grip of the access to open land project.