Access to Services

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Access4Life Project


The Access4Life project is funded by Norfolk County Council and draws on the expertise of Norfolk Rural Community Council. The project aims to meet identified targets under the Norfolk Local Area Agreement.


The Access4Life project focuses on the various issues people living in rural areas may face when attempting to access a variety of key services such as:

  • Food Shops
  • GP Surgeries
  • Banks
  • Educational Facilities
  • Employment
  • Hospitals
  • NHS Dentists etc.


Quite often it is the more vulnerable people of society who are most at risk from a lack of accessibility. Difficulty accessing key services can have a huge impact on people’s lives and can in some cases prevent them from keeping healthy, gaining new skills/training and earning money, resulting in some people never reaching their full potential.  


Improving accessibility can be achieved through a range of different methods involving taking people to the services they need or bringing the services to the people. Some examples are:

  • Increasing people’s awareness of the various transport options available in their area 
  • Bringing more services in to the area, for example mobile libraries and outreach services
  • Improving access to services that already exist within their villages


For Access4Life Great Yarmouth click here.


Throughout 2008-09 the Access4Life project is working with thirty parishes in the Breckland & West Norfolk area. During the autumn of 2008 we distributed over 7,000 surveys to the residents of these thirty villages, asking them what access issues they might be currently facing. We received a huge response and with the support and guidance of the project steering group, we aim to deliver some exciting access initiatives that have been derived from the survey results.

The steering group working on Access4Life for this area consists of people representing a variety of different organisations including:


One of the outcomes of the work completed by Access4Life in North Norfolk during 2007, was the development of the Services2gether project which aims to improve access to services in rural communities.

If you would like to know more about the villages we are working with this year or if you have any access issues you would like to tell us about, please contact:  

Norfolk Rural Transport Partnership

The Norfolk Rural Transport Partnership projects came to an end in March 2006 when the funding from the Countryside Agency ceased. During the 8 years of the projects a number of Community Transport Schemes, both minibuses (dial-a-ride) and car schemes, were developed and supported. Most of these schemes are continuing to operate and the electronic version of the Community Transport Guide (Summer 2006 issue) is available here. There is also a Handbook on Health & Safety for voluntary drivers, which has been distrubuted to all Norfolk car schemes. Further printed copies are available on request or you can view the pdf version.

Latest DfT evidence review of the access barriers and the groups most likely to be affected can be found here. The North Norfolk Community Partnership's Active Travel Project is steadily progressing, use this link to North Norfolk Community Partnership for further information about the project and to access any online polling, which may take place at various stages.

Project Officer - Debbie Pepper on 01362 698216 / debbie@norfolkrcc.org.uk



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