by Christopher Napier, Chairman CPRE Hampshire

Do you think public services provided to rural areas meet the real needs of rural communities? Are they effectively and efficiently delivered?

The setting up of Rural Pathfinders by DEFRA is an acknowledgement that the answer to those questions has to be in the negative, and Hampshire County Council (HCC) has been chosen by the Government Office for the South East (GOSE) to pilot a Rural Pathfinder for the South East Region.

HCC held two workshops for stakeholders in January designed to get the process underway, and CPRE Hampshire attended both, along with about 40 other bodies with an interest in rural matters.

The Rural Pathfinder seeks to improve delivery of rural services. The key questions to be tackled are:

• Where are the blockages and gaps in effective delivery?
  
  
• What can be done in terms of organization, partnership working and funding to improve delivery?

The underlying principle of a pathfinder is devolution to the front line. The outcome is intended to be specific projects to deliver services - with the local government, government agencies and voluntary bodies working together under the firm leadership of one body and with a consistent funding source. This is intended to avoid the current position where often several government bodies are working in the same area, and available funding streams often conflict and are too complex to work properly on the ground.

The workshops identified areas for priority treatment as:

• community building (for example every village to have a Parish Plan and a market plan, which are actually made to work not just sit on the shelf)
  
  
• access to services (ensuring a wide range of services is available in rural areas, and a high proportion of the rural population served)
  
  
• farming and land management (one stop shop for advice to land managers, simplified funding steams, identification of new markets)
  
  
• funding and regulation (reduced number of funding streams, availability of start up funding, simplified applications for funding)
  
  

Of course, with all these sorts of initiatives the proof of the pudding is in the eating. There have been many failed attempts. Let's hope for more success with the Rural Pathfinder!

May 2005