The Leicestershire Rural Partnership
Big Society Rural Advice Service

Telephone 0116 2662905
Fax 0116 2660153
ruraladvice@ruralcc.org.uk

Big Society: Rural Advice

The Leicestershire and Rutland Rural Community Council (RCC) is delighted to have been chosen to deliver the Leicestershire Rural Partnership (LRP) Rural Advice Service.

Funded by Leicestershire County Council the service will provide the following support to help progress Big Society initiatives in rural areas:

• Advice and guidance to communities on a range of rural issues
• Specialist advice on community consultation, action planning and project development activity
• Signposting to other organisations and support services that may be able to provide further support and advice in specialist areas

The RCC run service includes:

• telephone and e-mail advice 9.00am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday
• online resources to support community consultation and community action planning activity
• an online network for community groups (in development)
• promotion and introduction of new initiatives that help to provide services for people in rural areas
• signposting and liaison with LRP partner organisations and other service providers on local issues, networking and the sharing of best practice
• identification and targeting of support to key priority areas and themes utilising local intelligence and information available
• promotion of Leicestershire villages websites
• an annual event for local community groups to showcase good practice and new initiatives.
• FREE places will be available on session 1 of the RCC Community led planning training course (subject to agreement)

In addition to the support provided by the Rural Advice Service the RCC will offer an enhanced level of support for communities registered and paid up as RCC members.

This includes:

• Access to searchable database of funding sources
• Access to members area on RCC website
• Access to training courses at a reduced cost

Community Solutions

Many communities want to copy projects that they have seen others undertake. To help you to find ideas for projects that you might want to undertake, take a look at the Community Soloutions that others have found and the projects that they have undertaken. Assistance with getting started and Peer to Peer support may be available to help you to get started.

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Latest News

Rural Community Broadband Fund

The third and final round for Expressions of Interest under the Rural Community Broadband Fund is now open until 24 May 2013.The Rural Community Broadband Fund, jointly funded by Defra and BDUK, is aimed at the 10% hardest-to-reach areas which risk only receiving standard 2Mbps broadband.

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Consultation on Leics Draft Carbon Reduction Strategy

Leicestershire Together (a partnership made up of the county's major public service budget holders such as local councils, the police and the health service) has a commitment to ensuring that our contribution to climate change is reduced. As part of this commitment Voluntary Sector representatives, along with representatives from County and District Authorities and the business community with the guidance of expert consultants Verco have worked together to produce a Draft Carbon Reduction Strategy.

We are keen to ensure that voluntary sector organisations and their members are consulted on the content of the strategy and would strongly encourage you to respond by reading the draft document and completing and submitting the response questionnaire.

A copy of the draft strategy and the evidence base can be found below.

The closing date for responses is Friday 17^th May 2013.

A link to the response form is provided above.

Once submitted you will receive an email confirming that the form has been sent.

If you wish to make representations on the draft Carbon Reduction Strategy without using the form or if you have any technical issues with the response form please email to: oliver.savage@leics.gov.uk

If you have any queries on how you might help people in your community to reduce their Carbon usage and become more resilient to climate change or how you are already contributing, please contact ruraladvice@ruralcc.org.uk

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Rural Advice Service Toolkits

The following documents may be of use to communities embarking on new initiatives and ventures.

Community led Planning Toolkit

Community Welcome Pack Toolkit

Writing a Press Release

Funding sources

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Links To Partner Websites