Goole area MEDiBUS now available in Howdenshire to take people to hospital

At the recent meeting of the Goole and Howdenshire Community Partnership, Parish Councillors from Eastrington and Gilberdyke raised the issue of the changes to the East Yorkshire Motor Services (EYMS) number 155 bus running between Elloughton and Goole.

Residents have also approached me directly, and I share their concerns about getting to appointments at Goole hospital and/or their GP surgery following changes to this bus service.

Susan Oliver from the Humber and Wolds Rural Community Council (H&WRCC), who is the voluntary sector representative on the Partnership, has looked into this and the options available and provided the following information.

I am pleased to say that the Goole area MEDiBUS is available to take people in our area to hospital and medical appointments. Medibus provides you with transport from your front door to morning clinic or early afternoon appointments and transport home after your appointment.

It operates Monday to Friday and passengers are picked up at home. Pre booking is essential, and must be done no later than the day before a person needs to travel. However, most people book the service as soon as they know when their appointment is.

Fares are charged for the service but concessionary passholders travel free.

Although MEDiBUS has been operating in parts of the East Riding, for a number of years, the Goole area service is relatively new, and not everyone will be aware of it. We have asked for leaflets about the service to be delivered to shops, garages, etc. in the villages concerned, and this information should be out there within the next few days.

The telephone number to book (and for further information) is 08456 44 59 59

or visit: http://www2.eastriding.gov.uk/environment/public-transport-travel/medibus/#medibus

Have your say on the future of the countryside

The Conservative Party has developed the new 'FutureCountryside' website for canvassing ways of promoting a sustainable countryside.

This recently launched initiative is an opportunity for radical thinking, it aims to engage people to gather views on rural issues, such as sustainability and impact on the environment, against the backdrop of climate change and growing pressures on resources.

I feel rural areas that make up a large proportion of the East Riding of Yorkshire face real challenges in the years ahead, including climate change, development and the over-exploitation of natural resources such as wind and minerals. We face critical decisions over how we will manage the East Riding countryside, enhance biodiversity and cater for the demands of agricultural diversification, improve communications and transport, cater for renewable energy generation in the future, and encourage ‘rural localism’.

Shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert says,” Now is the opportunity for new thinking with radical ideas such as our proposal for a scheme of conservation credits to help us protect habitats and enhance biodiversity. As part of our commitment to new politics, we want to open up this debate."

The 'FutureCountryside' website provides a public forum for stakeholders to discuss the long-term policy decisions that would decide the future of the countryside.

It seeks to assess a range of issues set to affect the future of the countryside in the 21st century.

Over the coming months, it will explore the role of regulation; the potential for new market-led solutions to promote conservation, and how to achieve a sustainable countryside.

The website does not solicit party political support.

This initiative is seeking to engage informed views from across the political spectrum, and is your opportunity to join the debate.

http://www.futurecountryside.com/

Funding Boost for Rural Areas of the East Riding of Yorkshire

One of my roles as an East Riding of Yorkshire Councillor is to be a 'critical friend' to the ERYC Rural Policy and Programmes department. This is something I really enjoy as it is a subject in which I have a real interest, as many who know me can testify.

So I am pleased that a major grant funding has been announced for the Coast, Wolds, Wetlands and Waterways (CWWW) region, which covers a large (880 square miles) rural area of the East Riding and North Yorkshire (but excluding Bridlington, Goole, Beverley and the surrounding rural areas).

The funding has been confirmed by Yorkshire Forward, the Government Office for the region, and is made under the Rural Development Programme for England LEADER programme, a grant funding initiative aimed at assisting rural communities to improve the quality of life and economic prosperity in their local area. The programme is administered by the Regional Development Agency in each of the English regions and, in this region, it is Yorkshire Forward. The East Riding of Yorkshire Council is the accountable body for the CWWW local action group.

Yorkshire Forward has agreed to fund the CWWW’s local development strategy and will shortly be finalising its decision and announce the amount of funding to be awarded.

The key themes of the local development strategy are:

To maximise business opportunities throughout the delivery of the programme that lead to the development of new and exciting local enterprises.

To build capacity and empower rural communities by drawing on the potential of the area’s natural and cultural heritage.

To stimulate growth of the cultural and creative sectors through the development of creative space and capacity.

Building on the potential of the area’s natural heritage opportunities, develop local ownership of and participation in environmental management, planning and interpretation.

To develop facilities and networks of activity that create a focus and enable understanding and connectivity to local heritage and landscape.

These themes will incorporate a range of initiatives to encourage innovation, enterprise and skills building so that community capacity is strengthened for the long term. They all contribute to the overall aim of the CWWW programme which is to utilise the unrealised potential of the area’s heritage and culture to stimulate local vibrancy, encourage enhanced pride in place, and thereby improve the area’s economic performance and social sustainability.

Helen Wright, the ERYC Rural Policy and Programmes Manager said, “The CWWW programme will build on and consolidate existing activity and disseminate best practice to the new area as well as identifying new programmes and projects.

“The LEADER programme is a vital lever in helping regenerate and renew rural communities which do not always attract the high profile and intervention strategies of the UK’s urban areas. Thanks must be given to all those who gave their time and expertise in putting together the Local Development Strategy. ”

I would like to congratulate and thank Helen Wright and her team for all the work that has gone into achiveing this funding. Well done!!

Commission Report Points To Worsening Rural Poverty

More people in rural areas such as Howdenshire are living in poverty, according to the Commission for Rural Communities in its ‘State of the countryside 2008’ report, which is published today. The report, the tenth in a series giving a definitive picture of rural England, also points to concerns over the decline in services and the challenge of meeting the need for affordable homes.

The reports says that rural economies continue to show inherent strengths, such as a higher rate of business start-ups than in urban areas and an overall growth in the number of businesses compared to a net decline in towns and cities. But it says wages in the countryside are still low for many people so that being in work is not a secure route out of poverty.

Figures show poverty is increasing at a faster rate in the countryside – three per cent - than elsewhere and that about a fifth of households now live below the poverty line. There are also signs of growing inequalities within rural areas themselves. In the poorest fifth of homes half the weekly income goes on food, housing, energy, transport and other essentials compared with 39 per cent in the highest income rural households and 47 per cent in the poorest urban households.

The report confirms what I here from many residents in different communities regarding declining services and says that in each of the last ten years the Commission has found fewer outlets for many services and increasing problems of access to services for people without cars. There has been a marked rise in internet use but the availability of high-speed broadband remains low in sparsely populated areas.

Housing affordability continues to be worse in rural areas, the report says. Last year the average price of a home in the countryside was £257,600, more than £50,000 above the cost of an average urban home. The cost of a house is 6.8 times the annual rural household income, compared to 5.8 times in urban areas and in some sparsely populated districts the price of a home can be almost ten times the annual income.

This is were we as the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, representing one of the largest geographical areas in Britain, need to look at ways of addressing these identified concerns, and find ways of putting pressure on this Government to deal more positively with rural issues.

To read the full report please click the following link

http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/projects/stateofthecountryside2008/overview

"We do not want to see local post offices closed"

MASSIVE SUPPORT FOR POST OFFICE CAMPAIGN

David Davis MP reports, “I would like to thank all the residents of HOSM who have signed my recent petition calling for Government action to protect local post offices. I would also like to thank those residents who have organised their own petitions.

The response from people in Holme on Spalding Moor was huge and I will continue to push in Parliament to save our local post offices. The Conservatives have produced an action plan to help post offices.”

Paul Robinson and Charlie Bayram continue, “Post offices are a vital local service for many and we will do all we can to protect them. Unfortunately Mr Blair and his Government, made up of many urban MP’s, do not seem to share our passion for preserving the vital services in rural communities which are offered by our post offices.”


Paul Robinson & Charlie Bayram (above) say “We do not want to see local post offices closed”