Access to Services
From Norfolk RCC
Rural Access to Services
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.
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 and Broadland Local Strategic Partnership.
Improving accessibility can be achieved through a range of different methods that can involve either taking the people to the service or the service to the people. Some examples are:
- Increasing people’s awareness of the community transport that is available in their area
- Reviewing the public transport services available
- Bringing more services in to the area e.g. mobile libraries, weekly GP surgeries in village halls etc
The Access4Life project focuses on the various issues people living in rural areas face when attempting to access a variety of services such as:
Food shops ; GP surgeries; Banks; Educational facilities; Employment; Hospitals;
NHS dentists etc
Difficulty accessing these key services can have a huge impact on people’s lives
preventing them from keeping healthy, gaining new skills, training, earning money. As a result it can stop them reaching their full potential.
Quite often it is the more vulnerable people of our society who are most at risk from a lack of accessibility, for example older people or people with disabilities.
One of the outcomes of this project, from the work carried out last year in North Norfolk, has been the development of the Services2gether project which aims to improve access to services in rural communities.
This year the Access4Life project will be looking at 30 parishes in the Breckland & West Norfolk area. If you would like to know more about what villages we will be working with this year or you have access issues you would like to tell us about, please contact the Project Officer, Debbie Pepper on 01362 698216 / debbie@norfolkrcc.org.uk
