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The Rural Access to Services Partnership (previously Nottinghamshire Rural Transport Partnership) was originally funded by the Countryside Agency, and was responsible for the development of projects of lasting benefit to rural communities.
This is a partnership project between Rural Community Action Nottinghamshire (RCAN), Nottinghamshire County Council, Newark and Sherwood District Council, Greater Nottingham Partnership and other voluntary and statutory bodies. Following the changes to the Countryside Agency, NRTP has gone through some changes too.
The main focus of the transport officer at RCAN is to work strategically with a range of partners and organisations to improve the provision of rural transport. They have an important role to play by providing the link between local communities through the Rural Community Action network, and local authorities and local and regional strategic partnerships. This role ensures that rural access remains high on the agenda of funders, planners and policy makers.
The Partnership approach is central, and we aim to signpost communities to initiatives developed by partners, such as the County Council Smarter Choices, Travel Planning, car sharing developments; RideWise and developments within Greater Nottingham Transport Partnership; to avoid duplication and maximise benefit to communities and parishes.
Working with parishes and rural communities on local transport solutions remains central to our objectives. Currently funded by The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Nottinghamshire County Council, our future plans will be in line with socio-economic objectives of emda. Working with community transport providers, work will be progressed to increase training opportunities for volunteers that will do two things: ensure that skills existing in communities are used to the full, and attract new, younger volunteers by offering skills and training for personal development and inclusion in the job market.
The Rural Access to Services Partnership Officer (RASPO) works closely with the Nottinghamshire Wheels to Work project, and will work closely with that programme to extend access to employment and training, and develop individuals' confidence to meet their own future transport needs.
The Village Connections project, a previous RCAN pilot project lives on all but in name. The aim was, and remains, to integrate available transport services. A significant part of the project was development of quality taxi improvements, including taxi voucher schemes. This work will now continue across Nottinghamshire coordinated by NCC. Log on to the village connections website for further details and reports on activity.
We work closely with Nottinghamshire County Council with Community Transport Schemes, many of which started life as part of the RASP. The RASPO is a member of the Accessibility Planning Steering group in Nottinghamshire.
Investigation of social enterprise solutions is a core part of the strategy in order to promote sustainable business models within the taxi industry, and Community Transport providers. Social enterprise and partnerships with the private sector are also under investigation to secure sustainability of local transport and access projects after 2008.
| | Project type | Transport | | Area covered | Nottinghamshire | | Project contact | Elspeth Mallowan - Rural Access to Services Partnership Officer | | Telephone | 01623 727600 |  Send email |
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01623 727600
01623 720148
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