The Rural Bulletin 4th June 2024
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With the election approaching, our focus is on engaging Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) through our "Winning the Rural Vote" campaign. We urge you to pose our key questions to PPCs, ensuring rural issues like fair funding, affordable housing, and digital connectivity are addressed.
This week, we celebrate Volunteers Week, honouring the invaluable contributions of rural volunteers. Their dedication keeps essential services and community spirit alive.
Today, we will be listening into the Future Countryside 2024 event, discussing strategies for enhancing rural landscapes. Although in-person tickets are sold out, you can join online for free to engage with key rural policy discussions.
The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has opened nominations for the Star Council Awards 2024. We are delighted to be on the judging panel for one of the awards, recognising the fantastic work taking place across parish councils in England.
Thank you for being a part of the Rural Services Network. Your involvement and support are essential to our collective success.
Securing Rural Futures: Engaging PPCs in the Winning the Rural Vote Campaign
As members of the Rural Services Network (RSN), our collective commitment to advocating for the needs of rural communities remains unwavering. With the deadline for Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs) to submit or withdraw applications by 7th June fast approaching, our focus now turns to directly engaging with these candidates in rural constituencies to communicate our rural priorities effectively.
In preparation for this pivotal interaction, the RSN has compiled a comprehensive bank of hustings questions under our "Winning the Rural Vote" campaign. These questions are designed to challenge and encourage PPCs to commit to actionable plans that address the unique challenges facing rural areas. We urge all members to actively participate by posing these questions at local hustings to ensure rural issues are a central part of the election discourse.
Read more
Celebrating Volunteers Week: The Unsung Heroes of Rural Communities
Forest of Dean Delivers 128 Eco-Friendly Rural Homes in 2023-24
Innovative Bus Service Expands: A Step Forward for Rural Connectivity
NALC Opens Nominations for Its Star Council Awards 2024
Rural Related Politics - An RSN weekly review
Community hub: Horncliffe pub opens community café to help local people with support from Pub is The Hub
A community café at the Fishers Arms in Horncliffe, near Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, is bringing local people and groups together to help combat loneliness and isolation.
Expert help and a Community Services Fund grant from Pub is The Hub, the not-for-profit organisation that helps pubs to diversify their services to help support people living in rural communities, was provided to help to set up the café.~
The big need for the community café was recognised as the area is poorly served by public transport and has few other services. The village had already lost its shop, post office, school and church, with the pub being its last amenity. The area also has a higher-than-average number of both over-65s and unpaid carers, who are also benefitting from having somewhere to meet and socialise.
Read more
Looking for funding for your local project or community group? Read the latest edition of the Funding Digest here
Read the latest Government Consultations that may be relevant to rural communities here
Member Insights is the place to discover the statistics that define communities within our membershipVisit the Members Insights here
Find out about our campaign for fairer funding for rural areas here
This includes our work on the Local Government Finance Settlement
The Rural Services Network encompasses a wide range of partners and organisations who all work together to help provide a voice for rural communities. Over 20,000 members belong to the network.
We represent over 500 organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors including leading national bodies, local authorities, utility companies, health trusts, housing associations, grass root community organisations and more.
The Rural Services Network is a membership organisation and includes different types of membership depending on the kind of organisation you belong to.For further details click here
Posted: Thu, 6 Jun 2024