by Felicity Humphrey, Action with Communities in Rural England

Affordable, regular transport and a Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s on every corner. When you live in London or Edinburgh you won’t find yourself travelling miles just to see your GP.
You also don’t have the agony of not being able to make or receive a phone call.

Not having signal – seems like a bit of a 1st world issue doesn’t it?

There are bigger things to worry about.

But what if you couldn’t access universal credit, because it’s completely online and you couldn’t get connected purely because of where you lived… Wouldn’t that start to feel … Unequal? And would that be a silly 1st world issue – not being able to get the money you need to put food on the table?

It is the Government’s ambition for the country to be a world leader in 5G, but how many of us are really living with a digital deficit?

In February this year, Rural England published the State of Rural Services 2018 report. The report found that more than half (58%) of rural homes could not access 4G compared with just 17% in cities; cities that will now receive 5G. Not being able to have access to mobile connectivity in a world that is being built on technology including fundamentals like healthcare, banking and education is catastrophic for those living in unconnected areas.

As fast as digital connectivity moves forward, and society’s dependence on it deepens, the divide in access to the benefits between rural and urban areas becomes greater.

National rural charity ACRE (Action for Communities in Rural England) presented evidence to the Rural Broadband and digital only services inquiry held by the EFRA Committee on Wednesday 12 June.

Jeremy Leggett, ACREs Policy Adviser said “The divide between urban and rural has the potential to get much worse and the government’s intervention seems to have lacked effectiveness. Indeed, as fast as digital connectivity moves forward, and society’s dependence on it deepens, the divide in access to the benefits between rural and urban areas becomes greater.”

The fundamental barrier for rural areas is not technological, but rather economic and political.

ACRE added. “Up to now, the UK Government has sought to use public money to accelerate roll-out to rural areas, a plan that has not proved successful. If here is to be an equality of service throughout the UK, government needs to use its regulatory powers to ensure an equity of provision for all.”

As a term-time worker, Helen will be taking a break in the school holidays over the summer. In September and the Autumn, Helen will be focusing on delivering advice sessions in Slough and West Berkshire, at Children’s Centres, Homestart Groups, and other venues. If you run a group with high numbers of low-income families attending, please get in touch by phoning CCB on 0118 961 200, or emailing Helen at helen.dean@ccberks.org.uk.

Connecting Communities in Berkshire are running a short course on Community-led housing on Thursday 19th September.

We are aware that development and new houses are currently being built throughout Berkshire on a large scale but are they really affordable or accessible to people growing up or working in your village or community?

Community-led housing is housing built on a not-for-profit basis by a community to meet its own needs. There are a number of different approaches to community-led housing, all resulting in homes built for the community but with different processes and levels of involvement.

This short course will enable participants to understand the differences between the various models of community-led housing. It is aimed at Parish & Town Councillors, land owners and anyone from both rural and urban communities interested in exploring the options for providing affordable housing for people with a connection to their community. The options of rural exception sites is now quite well-known but at this session we will examine the details of this as well as delving into other options including community land trusts and housing co-operatives.

Please do feel free to share this with colleagues or friends that you believe it may be of interest to. Places must be booked, to book your place please complete this form: https://ccberks.wufoo.com/forms/community-led-housing/

Our Community Buildings Advise Service (CBAS) Kate Meads delivered two training courses in Effective Chairperson training in June at Chieveley and Wokingham.

Both courses were well booked up with delegates from wide range of backgrounds. Parish Councillors, Village Halls, WI’s, Citizens Advice and Council Tennant Groups. The course was highly interactive and covered both practical planning of meetings and how to manage committees. In all 32 people attended the workshops.

July saw the last Adult Community Learning Event in this academic year.

A workshop was delivered to Parish Councils, Village Halls and Recreation Ground Trustees on understanding their different Governance structures and how to work together more effectively. This course was well attended by 20 Parish Councillors, Village Hall and Recreation Ground Trustees. We learned how complex and varying Charity Trusts can be and how Parish Councils can support these community focused Charities with funding. Training also looked at how Village Halls and Recreation grounds can support the local Parish Council with facilities for events, volunteers and office spaces etc.

We thank out funders at Wokingham Borough & West Berkshire Council Adult Community Learning for supporting and helping to fund our training programme. If there are any courses that you would like to attend or see run in the new academic year please get in touch – Gemma.Pearce@ccberks.org.uk