Access to Services
From Norfolk RCC
To find Information on community tranport in your area click here
Report on Access In Rural Norfolk
A report on access to services in rural Norfolk can be found here. The report highlight that services are often harder to access in Norfolk even when compared to other rural areas.
Access4Life Project
For Access4Life Great Yarmouth click here.
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 project focuses on the various issues that 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
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.
The steering group working on Access4Life for this area consists of people representing a variety of different organisations including:
- Age Concern
- Great Massingham Community Car Scheme
- jobcentreplus
- meridian-east
- Passenger Transport
- West Norfolk VCAwestnorfolkvca
- Dereham Area Partnership
- Norfolk Council for Voluntary Youth Services www.norfolkcvys.org.uk
- C.A.B.[1]
- http://www.firstfocus.org www.firstfocus.org]
- West Norfolk Community Transport Association
- Norfolk Libraries www.norfolk.gov.uk
From April 2008- March 2010 the Access4Life project has worked 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 have delivered some exciting access initiatives that have been derived from the survey results.
These initiatives include:
- A Community Car Scheme - Ryburgh Car Shopper. This scheme provides volunteer transport for the residents of Colkirk, Stibbard and Great Ryburgh to the Great Ryburgh village shop and home again.
- The Big Red Bus Project - Colkirk. Access4Life has worked closely with EP Youth, a Fakenham based charity organisation, to deliver their Big Red Bus Project in the village of Colkirk for an eight week period.
- West Acre Footpath. As a direct result of the Access4Life survey, it has now been agreed that a much needed footpath, linking the main residential area of the village to the bus stop, will be built in 2010.
- Adult Education. The Access4Life project and Adult Education have worked together to produce a 'Getting There' section within all Adult Education literature, giving advice and information on how to access existing classes.
There are other initiatives that are currently still being devloped and that will be delivered during 2010.
From April 2010 - March 2012 Access4Life will be working in the North West of the county. If you would like to know more about the villages that will be included in this new area or if you have any access issues you would like to tell us about, please contact: Debbie Pepper on 01362 698216 or debbie@norfolkrcc.org.uk
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