§ David DavisTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans her Department has for the future assessment of community vibrancy according to parish. [50616]
§ Alun MichaelWe announced in the Rural White Paper that we were asking the Countryside agency to bring together, and report on in their State of the Countryside report, a set of headline indicators including one on Community vibrancy, under the theme A Vibrant Countryside. This was to measure "percentage of parishes in four categories (vibrant, active, barely active, sleeping) assessed on numbers of meeting places, voluntary and 137W cultural activities, contested parish elections". The purpose of the indicator is to measure on a national basis the trend over time.
The indicator which was first reported on in April 2001 in the State of the Countryside report is still under development and we recognise that there are a number of short-comings in the data from which it has been compiled. For instance, the indicator does not reveal the extent to which smaller settlements and parishes are able to take up community activities in neighbouring parishes. Furthermore, communities in all sizes of parish may exhibit community vibrancy in other ways than those assessed through the Rural Services Survey.
The Countryside agency intends to look at the whole issue again, through consultation on the methodology, rather than amending individual classifications. This will include working with DEFRA and the National Association of Local Councils. The revised approach will be piloted with a number of communities or their representative bodies.
Differing views over individual classifications is inevitable but the Countryside agency would prefer to address these in a review of the indicator rather than on a case-by-case basis. In particular, the naming convention of the groups may be re-considered to more accurately reflect the underlying information.