90th AGM and Conference

ORCC celebrated its 90th birthday in style on Friday 8th October 2010 – 90 years to the day (and almost to the hour!) since the organisation was first set up by a group of Oxford University academics in 1920. An illustrious line-up of speakers addressed the theme of ‘Rural Communities – thriving assets or expensive liabilities?’ and gave plenty of food for thought.

Elinor Goodman, a Commissioner from the Commission for Rural Communities and former Chair of the Rural Housing Commission, opened proceedings by making the connection with topical government policy concepts such as localism and fairness. She spoke of the challenges that the fundamental changes to planning arrangements will mean for rural communities – can the ‘right to build’ ever work if a minority are able to veto any development? If the CRC and RCCs across the country are in support of affordable housing in rural communities, should we also be in support of executive homes? She argued that perhaps any (proportionate) development that helps achieve more mixed age groups and more movement in the rural housing market could be beneficial. She reminded us too that incomers are often assets to communities, bringing energy, commitment and new ideas.   

Catherine Bearder, now and MEP but also an honorary Patron (and former Trustee) of ORCC, gave us a European perspective. In the EU as a whole, 60% of the population lives in rural areas, and 90% of the land mass is rural. While in ‘old’ Europe, people are choosing to migrate from the towns into the countryside for the quality of life, ‘new’ Europe is going through the same process that its neighbours went through during 19^th century industrialisation – extensive migration out of their rural areas. With free movement throughout the EU, this migration was not just into their towns, but often across international boundaries. Much EU rural policy activity is centred around agriculture, but it also aims to renovate rural communities, protect rural cultures and diversify the rural economy.

Sylvia Brown, Chief Executive of ACRE (the national parent body of Rural Community Councils) spoke of the ‘Big Society’ and the huge extent to which rural communities are already ‘doing it’ and the extent to which the RCC network supports that local activity. A copy of her powerpoint presentation is attached. She ended her speech by saying ‘Thank you Oxfordshire!’ for having the very first RCC in the country and leading the way for every one of the rural counties in England to have their own Rural Community Council. It’s probably safe to say that staff and Trustees alike were happy to accept her compliments!

Dame Helen Ghosh, Permanent Secretary at DEFRA, was able to provide very instant news of the work being speedily undertaken by Ministers and their civil servants to flesh out the concepts that have been set out in broad terms by the new government. This included developing what the ‘Big Society’ looks like and how it might be supported in the face of inevitable financial cuts. Dame Helen’s message was stark – if government doesn’t need to do/provide any given action or service, then it is very unlikely to do so. ‘Rolling back the state’ means that nothing can be taken for granted and everything is being challenged and scrutinised. The rationale behind coming changes is therefore not just financial; the whole way in which government works will be different.

Nevertheless, she had some encouraging words for ACRE and the RCCs. DEFRA accepts the value of the work of ACRE and the network and has been impressed by an independent evaluation of our activities (done by ‘Capacity Builders’). We are hopeful that this may open the door to their having second thoughts about the final termination of our contract with DEFRA, due in March 2011. Dame Helen hinted that any future DEFRA funding is likely to be diminished from its current level, but with the inevitability of funding pressures from all our other funding bodies, it will certainly be good news if we are able to retain a proportion of it. 

While time for questions to the panel of speakers was inevitably short, the members of the audience were invited to use a workshop session to consider what questions they would like to pose, and to whom. All the questions and comments are being collated and we will follow them up with the relevant bodies and let everyone know what the responses are.

Our sincere thanks go to all our speakers and to all who attended and helped make it a fitting way to mark our important milestone.

Copies of the annual report (both the formal report/ financial statements and the colour magazine Annual Review are available on the website or in hard copy on request.   

To view a copy of Sylvia Brown's presentation please use this link.