This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Priorities set for rural areas
27/01/2005
Twenty parts of Scotland have been designated Rural
Services Priority Areas (RSPA) after the identification of
disadvantage in service provision, access to services and
subsequently opportunities.
The status will enable government, local authorities and
other agencies to focus improvements in services in the
most disadvantaged rural communities, aiming to find
innovative solutions to providing, for example, health
care, training or childcare services.
The 20 RSPAs, identified by analysing the results of the
Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation, will be in local
authority areas:
- Argyll and Bute
- Western Isles
- Highland
- Orkney Islands
- Angus
- Dumfries and Galloway
- East Ayrshire
- South Ayrshire
Rural Development Minister Ross Finnie said:
"Improving access to services is vital in maintaining
vibrant and viable rural communities.
"In developing the Rural Services Priority Areas, as
part of our Closing the Opportunity Gap approach, our aim
was to identify areas which suffer disadvantage in terms of
both overall deprivation and service provision.
"We want to see communities with a bright future where
young people and families choose to live and work.
"Given the important role of local authorities and
others in local service delivery, we shall be working
closely with the Community Planning Partnerships concerned
in driving forward improvements in each area.
"A first step will be consulting with the RSPA
communities to identify their priorities."
Councillor Andrew Campbell, Vice President of COSLA and
COSLA's Rural Affairs Spokespersonm, said:
"COSLA welcomes the Minister's commitment to improving
the accessibility and quality of services in disadvantaged
rural areas, and his recognition that this can best be done
by working together in partnership.
"We are sure that rural councils working with local
people in the communities concerned and their community
planning partners, will deliver on the service improvements
agreed. We also expect that, in doing so, we will develop
good practice in improving services that can be shared
across Scotland. "
The announcement of the 10 Closing the Opportunity Gap
targets took place on December 9 last year, setting out
commitments for tackling disadvantage across the whole of
Scotland.
The
Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation measures deprivation according to a number
of indicators, grouped as domains. It includes an access to
services and telecommunications domain.
Discussions will be held with Community planning
partnerships to define the precise areas within which
action will be taken to improve services and an additional
five RSPAs could be added if anomalies come to light.
Of the RSPAs, five are, or have been, the focus for the
Executive's Initiative at the Edge programme. The Closing
the Opportunity Gap initiative will take further the action
already in hand in these communities, specifically with
respect to service provision.
The next step will be qualitative research to establish
in each of the RSPAs the views of local people on key
services, followed in the autumn by agreement with CPPs on
which services to cover and what targets to set for
improvements.