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8th October 2018
Present:
- Cllr Peter Thornton - South Lakeland District Council
- Cllr Alan Smith, Leader - Allerdale Borough Council
- Cllr Matthew Salter - Lancashire County Council
- Andrea Hines, Policy Manager (Economic Growth) - Allerdale Borough Council
- Cllr Aaron Beaver- Chorley Council
- Sean McGrath, External Investment & Funding - Lancashire County Council
- Cllr Richard Sherras - Ribble Valley Borough Council
- Cllr Janet Clowes - Cheshire East Council
- Cllr Stella Brunskill - Ribble Valley Borough Council
- Gemma Johnson, Project Manager – Superfast Broadband, Lancashire County Council
- Cllr Alan Whittaker - Chorley Council
- Daniel Herbert, Group Manager – Highways, Lancashire County Council
- Cllr Cosima Towneley - Lancashire County Council
- Debbie King, Senior Public Health Practitioner - Lancashire County Council
- Cllr Gill Gardner - South Lakeland District Council
- Cllr Bridget Hilton - Ribble Valley Borough Council
- Cllr Alan Schofield - Lancashire County Council
- Cllr Lizzi Collinge – Lancashire County Council
- Daniel Heery – Charge My Street
- Ivan Annibal – Rose Regeneration
- Jessica Selleck – Rose Regeneration
- Andy Dean – RSN
Peter Thornton welcomed everyone, setting out the context for the meeting. Each attendee then introduced themselves and outlined their key rural service concerns.
Andy set out the background to the operation of RSN and the purpose of the regional meetings.
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Daniel outlined the background to the establishment of the ‘Charge My Street’ initiative which was a response to growing congestion and pollution, low take up of electric vehicles and the prevalence of terraced housing in many rural communities in the Lancashire area where the provision of off-street, home-based charging points was problematic.
The initiative has been established as a Community Benefit Society which managed to raise £39,000 in its first round of installations through a combination of government grant and community finance. Four sites were included in the first round with 3 successfully installed to date.
40% of homes don’t have off street parking in major cities and northern towns, meaning that the provision of shared charging points is required to enable more widespread take up of electric vehicles.
The successful use of community shares as part of the finance for the scheme has served to demonstrate the strength of local interest, especially to the public sector.
An App is used to enable members to book time slots at each charging point and monthly bills are issued for the power used.
The scheme provides an income stream. For example, in Broughton-in-Furness electricity is generated from photo-voltaic panels mounted on the village hall roof. The village hall sells electricity to Charge my Street who sell this on to the users.
Charge My Street has recently received a grant from Innovate UK to help roll the scheme out nationally.
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Ivan summarised some of the key issues facing health provision in rural areas including the increasingly ageing population, house price affordability, declining services across the public and private sectors, fuel poverty and poor transport provision.
In addition, health services are extremely urban focused. Smaller hospitals find it more difficult to attract staff than urban centres and rural GPs are often difficult to replace when they move on.
Ivan summarised the challenges facing health provision on rural areas as:
A new ‘National Centre for Health & Social Care’ will be launched in parliament shortly. The focus for this Centre will be:
Specific points raised included the following:
Lancashire County Council were thanked for hosting the meeting and all members for their attendance and positive contributions.
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