23rd July - Living Working Countryside - Matthew Taylor Report
The
Matthew Taylor report on Affordable Housing is presented today and an
explanatory news release is available at: Matthew Taylor News Release
16th July - State of the Countryside Report
This year's report, providing further proof of persistent rural poverty in our region, is published today and is available at: http://www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk/projects/stateofthecountryside2008
9th July - Community Empowerment White Paper
The White Paper looks at who has power in local communities, on whose behalf is it exercised, how is it held to account, and how can it can be accessed by everyone in local communities. It is particularly relevant to rural communities.
Many tens of thousands of people are motivated by their faith to provide services to local communities. But their contribution hasn’t always been fully appreciated. We intend to remove the barriers to commissioning services from faithbased groups and carry out a national survey of third sector organisations, including faith based organisations, to understand the difficulties they face.
(Summary. Item16)http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/summarycommunities
7th July - The problem of bats in church
DEFRA has lifted the Protection Zone introduced in response to the H7N7 avian flu outbreak on a free range unit near Banbury.
28th June - Visit of Rural Advocate to
Dr.
Stuart Burgess, The Prime Minister’s Rural Advocate is undertaking a visit to
Develop
the Rural Advocate’s understanding of rural child poverty;
Highlight
rural child poverty as a major challenge and opportunity to eradicating child
poverty by 2020;
Highlight
best practice; and
Explore
the practicalities of developing a regional partnership to tackle rural child
poverty