Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE VILLAGES INITIATIVE

The County Council has demonstrated its commitment to maintaining and improving life in the countryside by investing in the rural community through the Country Towns Initiative, the Market Towns Programme and by involvement in the Rural Towns Rural Life Project. This commitment can be extended by way of the Hampshire Villages Initiative, which encourages and supports local community partnership projects for the improvement and enhancement of the environment of villages within the county. In support of this initiative, considerable interest has been expressed by local communities and parish councils to work in partnership with the County Council on environmental improvement schemes within their villages.

As well as complementing local aspirations expressed in Village Design Statements and other Government initiatives, it is anticipated that this particular initiative will provide an opportunity to implement priorities for improvements that might be identified in the emerging community strategies. In order to achieve the aims of the initiative, it is important that guidelines are established for future projects, therefore a number of objectives and selection criteria have been formulated.

A decision was taken on 7 April 2004 for the sum of £80,000 per annum to be permanently vired from the Regeneration of Older Urban Areas minor projects allocation to the Hampshire Villages Initiative. In addition, approval was given for the preparation of a further report to identify a two year programme for this initiative for 2004/05 and 2005/06 against the objectives and selection criteria and this will be submitted to a future decision meeting. Currently preliminary work is underway to identify possible candidate projects for the programme prior to consulting the local Member.

The Hampshire Villages Initiative will be an effective way to engage with local communities and support parish councils to focus on the delivery of quality enhancements to achieve significant improvements to village life.

KEITH B. ESTLIN

Executive Member

for Environment.