Seven of County Durham’s eight districts are more then 50% rural and this makes County Durham essentially rural in nature, according to the new Urban/Rural Definitions, prepared by the Rural Evidence Research Centre on behalf of the Government’s Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (Defra). Only Chester-le-Street is identified as less than 50% rural.
Defra tracks certain districts as being indicator (or lagging) ones; six of these are in the North East. Despite the progress made over recent years, five are in County Durham; Derwentside, Wear Valley, Teesdale,Easington and Sedgefield. Nonetheless, there are substantial assets and opportunities in the rural areas of County Durham and the County Durham Economic Partnership (CDEP) has robust plans to make the most of them.
Key Areas of Activity
Key activities that the CDEP is driving are:
- Eastgate - development of the former cement works as an energy village
- West Durham Regional Rural Pathfinder.
- Rural Proofing.
- Market Town Initiative (MTI) and Settlement Renewal Initiative (SRI) projects
- West Durham Rural Strategy and Action Plan.
West Durham Rural Strategy and Action Plan (WDRSAP)
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Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this information.
WDRSAP - CDSP130505.pdf (59 pages, 200
kb)
The CDEP appreciates the economic significance of the rural areas to the County and the variety of conditions, opportunities and needs that are present. The CDEP’s County Durham Economic Strategy describes the necessity for targeted action and identifies West Durham as that target, covering Wear Valley and Teesdale. The document describes how the CDEP intends to improve conditions and develop a sustainable economy in West Durham. Key priorities are set out as:
- Building a diversified rural economy.
- The development of tourism and culture.
- Making the most of information and communications technology.
- Investing in market towns and local service centres.
- The Future for Land Based Businesses.
- Empowering Rural Communities.
- Integrated Rural Transport.
Each of these priorities is supported by proposed activities, in the form of implementation tables. The WDRSAP also sets out key indicators for monitoring.
The CDEP Secretariat will regularly update the document to ensure that it retains it’s credibility as a working document; the next update will follow the publication of the new County Durham Economic Strategy in the autumn of 2006.
West Durham Regional Rural Pathfinder
When Government published the Rural Strategy 2004, as part of its Modernising Rural Delivery agenda, it included several actions for each of the Government Offices for the Regions. One of these was for each region to establish a Regional Rural Pathfinder. Their purpose is to experiment with and test:
- Ways of achieving more joined up delivery of services in rural areas, addressing economic, social and environmental issues.
- Innovation in rural development and delivery of services in rural areas, building as appropriate on existing best practice.
- Better prioritisation of existing resources, in line with local priorities, towards areas, communities and people with the greatest needs.
A unified County Durham Pathfinder proposal was put forward to Government Office North East (GO-NE), by the CDEcP in February 2005.
West Durham Study
This was the precursor to the West Durham Regional Rural Pathfinder. The West Durham Study (WDS) evolved from the Bowland Initiative developed by Lancashire County Council and mentioned in the Rural White Paper (2000).
Rural Proofing
'Rural Proofing is a process whereby a project or policies impact on rural areas is considered and where necessary adjusted to address the particular needs of those who live in or enjoy the countryside' (Countryside Agency, 2003). The Rural White Paper (2000) made Rural Proofing a mandatory part of the Government’s policy-making process. The CDEP agreed that Rural Proofing is an important activity, that if incorporated effectively into partnerships decision making process will both maximise the potential of rural County Durham, whilst saving money and resources in the future. The CDEP is using this technique to take into account the rural parts of the County other than West Durham. It has taken a regional lead in the development of a Rural Proofing toolkit below.
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Rural Proofing Toolkit.pdf (16 pages, 44kb)
