Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation Taking Account of the Recession - Hidden Deprivation in Rural Areas (Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats)

Oxfordshire Liberal Democrats <info@oxfordshirelibdems.org.uk>

Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation Taking Account of the Recession - Hidden Deprivation in Rural Areas

November 3, 2009 4:46 PM
By Cllr David Turner in Council

Whilst I understand that the large pockets of deprivation in Oxfordshire are in Oxford and Banbury, we must not lose sight of the smaller pockets of deprivation in rural areas. In fact if you are deprived in a rural area you are in my opinion even more deprived as you have little or no access to facilities and advice which are second nature to people in urban areas through facilities such as family centres. These facilities do not exist in rural areas and access to them in the towns is dependent upon public transport which for many rural villages does not exist. Hence you are totally isolated.

It is interesting that the advent of rural children's centres whether mobile or fixed has been a revelation to young mums and dads where they have been able to access information and advice that they had no idea existed. However, there are many rural settings that Children's Centres do not cover and of course family centres covering the needs of older people are non-existent.

It is a fact that whenever there is a new government initiative to help deprived people it always correctly starts in the high areas of deprivation, but then disappointingly rarely gets rolled out into the rural areas. Hence these people always seem to miss out. It is interesting that in South Oxfordshire District Council's last Comprehensive Performance Assessment whilst getting an excellent rating, nevertheless they were criticised on their performance to accessing the needs of the rural poor. It would be disappointing if this Council received the same criticism in the next external assessment.