§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what strategy her Department is adopting to provide support and encouragement to parish and town councils to maximise their effectiveness. [26487]
§ Alun MichaelThe Government believe strongly in the role and potential of town and parish councils to act as community leaders in their area.
Our strategy to help parish and town councils develop a new role and give communities the opportunity to shape their future is set out in the Rural White Paper, published in November 2000. We have made considerable progress in putting in place measures to help local councils develop their potential to lead and invigorate their communities, including (over three years): £15 million for Community Service Grants to help projects to maintain or introduce services which are local priorities; £15 million for Parish Transport Grants scheme for small scale projects to meet local needs; a further £5 million to help up to 1,000 parishes draw up their own town or village plans to set out local needs and aspirations. The Countryside Agency and the National Association of Local Councils have 1042W published a national training and support strategy for parish and town councils, towards which we have allocated £2 million. In November we published a consultation paper on putting the Quality Parish and Town Council concept into practice. This sets out our detailed proposals for enhancing the role of local councils, giving their communities a better deal on local services and a stronger voice in the decisions that affect peoples lives.
The National Association of Local Councils is now represented on the Rural Affairs Forum for England, which I chair, and which met for the first time on Wednesday 9 January.
§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the recent Countryside Agency publication which denoted parish and town councils according to their level of activity. [26486]
§ Alun MichaelThe publication to which my hon. Friend refers is a Countryside Agency working document made available in the Library of the House pursuant to my answer of 28 November 2001,Official report, column 1018W, on rural parishes. It is part of the agency's work to monitor over time the state of the countryside and was the source of summary figures on "community vibrancy" that the agency published last April to form a baseline for reporting in future years. "Community vibrancy" is one of 15 Headline Rural Indicators identified to monitor progress in achieving the objectives we set in the Rural White Paper. Our aim is to see the indicator move in the right direction over time.