Border Group Rural Voices

Speakers’ Corner Trust (SCT)nef (new economics foundation)

Timetable up to project start

January – March 2009: Scoping by SCTApril 2009: SCT proposal to RAWMAugust 2009: revised SCT/nef proposal to

RAWM after CLG changed programme criteriaOctober 2009: project commissionedEffect: 12 month project compressed into 6

months

Objectives of the project

• To involve 50 residents• 15 – 20 of these to become more active

citizens (e.g. gain confidence to engage with local

authority decision making processes)• Achieve this by identifying and tackling one or

two local issues

Timetable of the project

12 November 2009: meet chair, vice-chair and clerk of Border Group parish council

15 December: present to parish council + selected public15 January 2010: first public meeting

1 February: second public meeting agrees to tackle flooding23 March: parish council hold closed meeting on flooding

Issue Desirable Feasible

1. Lack of broadband 9 votes 10 votes

2. Flooding 9 5

3. Provision for children and young people 4 2

The parish council and flooding

• Initial stance: not able to go it alone – could not attract key decision-makers

• Some people affected outside the area covered by the Border Group parish council

• Closed meeting on March 23rd appeared to be a change of tack

• Deterred volunteers

What we learned

• Complexity and unpredictability of small rural communities

• Gap between even the lowest tier of local government and the community

• Community frustrated with a lack of opportunities to work through issues

• Community forums would enhance the democratic process by complementing parish council meetings

What we achieved

• Created welcome opportunities for dialogue• Began to bridge government/community gap

– in a replicable way• Produced a guide to organising a community

forum• Reached the whole community by

summarising/publicising the guide in the parish newsletter.