With over 70% of its land area in agricultural use, Essex is essentially rural.

The Essex Rural Partnership was formed in 2002, the result of a merger between the Essex Rural Renewal Forum and the Essex Rural Strategy Steering Group.

The county has a high quality environment and a larger number of historic sites and buildings. It is also home to many. In order to address the, sometimes conflicting, demands placed upon it and to promote the coordination of service delivery, the Essex Rural Partnership was re-launched in 2005.

Role

The Essex Rural Partnership brings together key organisations in Essex (and some regional bodies) to consider, debate and act on major issues affecting the rural parts of the county.

The Essex Rural Partnership encourages not only co-ordination of activities, to maximise effectiveness of resources, but also joint-working to achieve greater buy-in, better chance of securing funding, and best value.

Membership

The Partnership is made up of a range of organisations that deliver services to rural Essex or that represent stakeholders.

Essex FSB has representatives on the Essex Rural Partnership Steering Group and the Economic Action Group.

Rural Srategy

In order to identify the Partners' priorities, an Essex Rural Strategy was launched in 2005 with an updated version launched on 24 November 2009.

Download Essex Rural Strategy here

Latest News

For the latest news on this issue go to Essex News and insert "Rural Partnership" in the search engine.

Comments

If you have comments on this issue please send your views to Essex FSB Regional Organiser Keith Brown.