Communication seen as key to rural strategy

The East Riding rural partnership has published a draft strategy and opens a major public consultation exercise on Monday.

Its main aims include: encouraging and enabling micro-businesses and social enterprises to grow; ensuring communities are stable and vibrant with good utilities and infrastructure; and taking a “joined-up, landscape-level approach” to environmental management.

It will seek to deliver these in the face of mounting pressures and challenges, including flood risk and coastal erosion, pockets of social and economic isolation, limited public transport networks and “poor connectivity” (such as road networks and broadband) in remote areas.

Other issues to contend with include shrinking funding at East Riding Council, one of the biggest unitary authorities in England, which already faces disparities in comparison with urban authorities.

However, the strategy does predict the borough will benefit from hundreds of millions of pounds of investment set to flood into the region if the long-awaited Greenport renewable energy project in Hull goes ahead.

The East Riding covers 933sq miles and has an estimated population of 337,000. More than half the population live in rural communities, compared to only 20 per cent in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

According to the document, the average Government grant per head of population in the East Riding is £304.28, compared to £486.96 in England.

The average council tax per head in the East Riding is £440.34, compared to £389.10 in England, while wages are also lower, with average annual earnings in the East Riding at £18,784, compared to £21,560 in England.

The council’s 2011-15 business plan shows the authority will face a funding reduction of £30m over this period, although it has already achieved savings of £18m.

The strategy says the Greenport development, where German engineering giant Siemens plans to build a factory to manufacture and assemble offshore wind turbines, will potentially bring in £300m of private sector investment and £25.7m from the Regional Growth Fund. It also has the potential to create 3,500 jobs.

Hull Council’s planning committee is due to meet on Wednesday May 7, to consider whether to grant planning permission for the scheme on Alexandra Dock, which is a partnership with Associated British Ports.

The consultation will run until Friday June 8, and the partnership will hold the first of a series of information events at Holme on Spalding Moor Village Hall next Tuesday from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.

Councillor Jane Evison, the council’s portfolio holder for rural issues, said: “The council values the views, expertise and local knowledge of parish councillors and residents and hopes that as many people as possible will attend these events in order to help us to finalise the rural strategy.”

More details about both the strategy and the drop-ins are available by calling 01482 391691.