Mapping rural services in the parishes of Leicestershire Final Report September 2007 Produced by the Policy, Research and Information Team, Chief Executive s Department, Leicestershire County Council
Contact details This report was produced by the Policy, Research & Information Team, Chief Executive s Department, Leicestershire County Council. For further details please contact: Brigitta Palinkas Rural Services Co-ordinator Leicestershire County Council t: 0116 30 58098 e: bpalinkas@leics.gov.uk Jeff Hardy Research Officer Leicestershire County Council t: 0116 30 57342 e: jhardy@leics.gov.uk Matthew Kempson Policy Assistant Leicestershire County Council t: 0116 265 6179 e: mkempson@leics.gov.uk Contents Section Name Page 1 Introduction 3 Aims 3 Objectives 3 Background 3 Methodology 4 Limitations 4 2 Context 5 Population of the rural Parishes of Leicestershire Access to services in rural areas: Policy Context An assessment of rural service provision within Leicestershire 3 Service Coverage 7 4 Service Diversity 8 5 Service Provision Profiles 9 Distribution of service provision by parish 12 6 Conclusions 13 7 Next steps 13 Appendices 14 5 6 6 2
1. Introduction Aims To inform the future delivery of the 2007 Rural Services programme which will be submitted to emda for funding support. The project maps a number of key services, particularly those closely related the Leicestershire Rural Partnership (LRP) 20 year vision, and provides comprehensive mapping of service provision in rural Leicestershire to enable us to target future LRP programmes. The services which have been included within the analysis are: 1) Access Centres 2) Community Halls 3) Libraries 4) Mobile Libraries 5) Petrol Stations 6) Post Offices 7) Pubs Objectives 8) Schools 9) Places of Worship 10) Food-Shops 11) Non-Food Shops 12) Mobile Retailers 13) GP Surgeries 14) Higher Education Colleges Ultimately the report will provide evidence to enable the LRP to prioritise and focus service support and grants to retain key amenities within rural Leicestershire through the proposed new Rural Services programme. This can be split into the following objectives: To map the fourteen services listed above and examine their geographical location and proximity in relation to the resident population of rural Leicestershire. To gauge the level of service provision within each rural parish of Leicestershire to help identify those parishes which have a limited number and range of services available and also identify those parishes which act as a service-hub for these parishes. To pull together a detailed multi-layered map of service provision within rural Leicestershire. 3 Background One of the most important aspects of rural life for those living in villages is the sense of community. This community spirit can disappear where there is a lack of facilities and services such as pubs, shops and post offices. By encouraging revitalisation of rural services, communities living in rural areas can benefit from the successful retention, addition or diversification of new or existing services which would widen the opportunities of accessing amenities. Over the last six years the LRP has developed an Access to Services programme. This programme has provided financial support to post offices, independent retailers in rural locations, independent retailers in small towns, key service centres, provision of support to pubs and the development of Community Access Points. This programme of support ended in March 2007. The mapping of access to services provides an opportunity to be more strategic in the provision of the support that Leicestershire County Council (LCC), and partners through the LRP, provide to develop and retain, new and existing key services and build upon the important work delivered through the previous programme. Priority areas which it is hoped the new programme will contain include, support to post offices in light of future closures, support for the last shop in the village (in line with the LRP s 20-year Vision). Strategic Access to Services support
Methodology The information provided within this report aims to provide an insight into the provision of services within the rural areas of Leicestershire. For the purposes of this report the definition of rural Leicestershire refers to those parishes within the county with a population of less than 5,000. Access to service provision has not been examined in parished and nonparished areas with a population greater than 5,000 but the provision of services within these areas has been considered for access by residents in rural areas. Data has been collated to provide a comprehensive list of service providers and their locations across Leicestershire, using the twelve service types identified in the aims of this report. The main source of data is PointX 1, along with data from Leicestershire County Council, National Federation of Sub-Postmasters and the Rural Community Council. Each of the fourteen services identified on the previous page have been examined to provide an assessment of service provision. The following approach and techniques have been used to carry out the analysis. Determine the level of service provision by calculating the number of services located within each parish. Determine the diversity of service provision by calculating the number of different types of service located within each parish. Examine the combination of the level and diversity of services within each parish. Produce a classification of parishes based on the level and diversity of services located within, identifying parishes with a similar profile of service provision SPSS has been used to carry out a two step cluster analysis 2 to produce a parish level classification of service provision. 4 Limitations Though the analysis within the report provides a comprehensive assessment of service provision, there are several limitations that need to be considered when interpreting the findings and conclusions drawn. The analysis predominately includes details of services in Leicestershire and not those of neighbouring Local Authorities. It is recognised that many Leicestershire residents access services beyond local authority boundaries. Efforts have been made, therefore, to secure datasets of services located within neighbouring authorities. The data used to map the services is the best and most robust comprehensive database of service locations available in Leicestershire. However, during the process of the analysis it has been noted that it is not 100% complete. The data obtained was verified to ensure that it was as accurate as possible. This report does not consider the actual accessibility of services within Leicestershire. It doe not consider how access is affected by the road network, car ownership, or public and community transport provision. 1. PointX is a joint venture company set up to develop and market a 'Points of Interest' database covering Great Britain. Our vision is to lead the Points of Interest market by delivering the most comprehensive, current and consistent national data 2. cluster analysis is an exploratory data analysis technique designed to reveal natural groupings within a collection of data
2. Context Population of the rural parishes of Leicestershire Map 1 (below) shows the distribution of the resident population of Leicestershire by parish, The map shows the population distribution within rural parishes, those parishes with a resident population under 5,000. The population of these 201 rural parishes constitutes 171,600, accounting for 28% of the whole population of the county. Ashby Woulds (3,700) Measham (4,960) Markfield (4,400) Newbold Verdon (3,180) Desford (3,900) Kegworth (3,350) Bottesford (3,450) Asfordby (3,140) Rothley (3,840) Thurnby & Bushby (3,160) Great Glen (3,460) The map identifies the seventeen parishes with a larger population, between 3,000 and 5,000. The map also highlights that the parish population is more sparsely distributed in the south-east of the county, within Harborough District and Melton Borough. These areas have less urban centres (population > 5,000) compared to the north and east of the County. The next sections of this report will examine the distribution of service provision within the context of the rural population of Leicestershire. Parish Population 3,000 to 5,000 1,500 to 3,000 500 to 1,500 150 to 500 10 to 150 areas > 5,000 population Ratby (4,030) Kirby Muxloe (4,550) Stoney Stanton (3,460) Cosby (3,650) Source : Population - Leicestershire County Council mid-year estimates 2004 Fleckney (4,910) 5 Kibworth Beauchamp (3,900) Map 1 : Distribution of the resident population of Leicestershire by rural parish
Access to services in rural areas: policy context The dispersed nature of rural communities means that there are specific challenges to service delivery which need to be addressed in order to ensure sustainable rural communities. Policy initiatives at national, regional and local levels have accepted the need for intervention through innovative and cost-effective solutions. Principally this has been led through Defra s Rural Strategy 2004. Within this the Government aims to ensure fair access to services and that no one is seriously disadvantaged by living in a rural area. Most recently Defra s Rural Services Review 2006 has identified the level of services provision residents in rural areas should expect. These cover education, health and social care, broadband, postal services and emergency services. The need to ensure delivery is reflected within Defra s Public Service Agreement target to reduce the gap in productivity between urban and rural areas and to improve accessibility of services (PSA4). Action to improve accessibility to jobs and services is key to the East Midlands Rural Action Plan. This aims to achieve, as a minimum, Defra s Rural Services Standard, support viable models for providing transport solutions, local service delivery and information and advice, and improved collaboration between all service providers. The Plan identifies actions to be led at a sub-regional and local level. These include, 1) an audit of rural services, 2) the development of innovative approaches to make best use of community facilities, and 3) support for communities to assist in identifying and addressing their needs. Within Leicestershire important research into the County s rural economy has supported these priorities by identifying the need to maintain and develop the employment and service role of market towns and rural settlements. There is a strong need to ensure greater localisation of service provision and employment opportunities. This has been considered in developing LRP s 20-year Vision and Leicestershire Rural Strategy, 2007-2014. The Strategy includes a number of priorities to improve accessibility and information, and enable rural services and facilities. The proposed Access to Services programme will enable the LRP to deliver a range of identified individual priorities in support of its Vision for rural Leicestershire. Finally, within Leicestershire the proposed programme is supported through the LSEP s Sub-Regional Investment Plan, 2007-2010 and further evidence of need is contained within the RCC s Rural Trends 2006 report, parish plan action plans and Service Co-ordination Events. These will provide important supporting evidence and information which will be considered in developing the programme of intervention. An assessment of rural service provision within Leicestershire The remainder of this report contains analysis to determine the level and diversity of service provision within each rural parish of Leicestershire. The analysis is grouped as follows: Service Coverage the proportion of parishes which contain each type of service the proportion of resident population within a parish containing each type of service Service Diversity the number of service outlets by the number of different types of service. Service Provision Profiles the combination of the number of service outlets and the diversity of the service types within the parish. 6
3. Service Coverage Chart 1 (below) show service coverage within rural Leicestershire based on the proportion of parishes within rural Leicestershire which have each of the different types of service. It also shows the proportion of the resident population who live within parishes that have each of the service types. Analysis by parish Mobile retailers, petrol stations, non-food shops, static libraries, GP surgeries and Higher education colleges are located in less than 20% of the rural parishes. Rural Leicestershire is well served with places of worship, mobile libraries and moderately served with pubs and community halls. Around half of the parishes have a school but less than half of them contain a post office (44%) or a food shop (30%) Analysis by population More than 80% of the rural parish residents are served with places of worship, pubs, schools and community halls within their parish. Post offices are accessible within the parish for 81% of the rural parish population and two-thirds of the parish population can access a food shop. Approximately one-third of the rural parish population benefit from having a library, a non-food shop or a petrol station in the village. Less than one-quarter of rural residents can access a mobile retailer, a non-food shop, a GP surgery or a college without leaving their parishes Chart 1 : Proportion of rural Leicestershire parishes which contain each type of service compared to the proportion of the resident population who live in a rural Leicestershire parish with each type of service. 92% 78% 64% 63% 53% 44% 30% 18% 15% 12% 10% 8% 1% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% by Parish Place of Worship Mobile Library Pub Community Hall School Post Office Food shop Mobile Retailer Petrol Station Non-Food shop Fixed Library GP surgery Higher Education College 7 1% 21% 24% 38% 33% 39% 66% 69% 81% 92% 89% 89% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% by Population 99%
4. Service Diversity Table 1 (below) shows the diversity of services within rural Leicestershire based on an assessment of the number of service outlets against the number of different types of service outlet within each rural parish of the county. Negative Aspects In Leicestershire there are six rural parishes with no key services. There are 17 parishes with very low service provision. These parishes have only one service. 20% of the parishes (41 out of 201) contain only a maximum of two different types of service with a maximum of two outlets per parish. These parishes rely on services available within neighbouring parishes. Positive Aspects 14 parishes within rural Leicestershire contain more than 20 service outlets and most of the services (seven or more types) are available within the parish. 78 parishes (39%) are quite well served as they have more than 10 outlets in the parish with five or more different types of service. These parishes can act as a hub for those surrounding parishes which lack services. Table 1 : Distribution of parishes in relation to the number and diversity of service outlets located within the parish Service Diversity (number fo different types of service) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+ total % of total number of service outlets 0 6 6 3.0 1 17 17 8.5 2 1 17 18 9.0 3 5 13 18 9.0 4 1 3 4 7 15 7.5 5 - < 10 1 3 10 15 10 9 1 49 24.4 10 - < 15 7 13 13 9 3 1 46 22.9 15 - < 20 4 8 5 1 18 9.0 20 - < 25 1 3 6 10 5.0 25 - < 33 1 3 4 2.0 total 6 19 26 20 17 22 27 31 15 8 10 201 100.0 % of total 3.0 9.5 12.9 10.0 8.5 10.9 13.4 15.4 7.5 4.0 5.0 8
5. Service Provision Profiles The profile of services within a parish refers to a combination of the number of service outlets and the diversity of the service types within that parish. To help assess the overall picture of service provision across rural Leicestershire, the profile of services five groups of parishes have been identified based on a similarity in their service coverage and diversity. A two-step cluster analysis has been used to group together parishes which have a similar service provision profile. The cluster analysis resulted in the creation of the following five types of parish. Group 1 : No services or skeletal service provision Group 2 : Minimal service provision Group 3 : Medium service provision Group 4 : Good service provision Group 5 : Very good service provision A description of each of these groups of parishes is provided below. Also, a full list of the parishes within each group is shown in appendices 1 to 5, along with the types of service located within the parish. Group 1 : No services or skeletal service provision The parishes within this group have no service outlets or very few service outlets. Chart 1: Percentage of Parishes within Group 1 which have each of the eleven service types compared to all rural parishes within Leicestershire Number of parishes within this group, 18 (9%) Number of people living in parishes within this group, 3,210 (2%) Number of parishes with no service outlet = 6 Parishes in this group are likely to have none or one service outlet. Nearly 40% of the parishes within this group visited by a mobile library service and (22% ) by a mobile retailer. None of these parishes have a school, post office, GP surgery, non-food shop or a higher education college. Very small proportion of these parishes have a community hall. (17%) or a place of worship (6%), both much lower proportion for all rural parishes (64% and 92% respectively). Only 22% of these parishes contain a pub, compared to 64% of all rural Leicestershire parishes. 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Community Hall Library (fixed) Library (mobile) Petrol Station Post Office Pub Food Shop School Place of Worship Non-food Shop Mobile Retailers % of all rural parishes which have service GP surgery Higher education college See Appendix 1 for a full list of Parishes within this group 9
Group 2 : Minimal service provision The parishes within this group have a limited number of services Number of parishes within group, 58 (29%). Number of people living in parishes within this group, 7,740 (5%). All of the parishes within this group have at least one service type. All parishes within this group contain a place of worship and 71% are visited by the mobile library. The next most likely service to be within a group 2 parish is a community hall (26%). A very small proportion of these parishes have a petrol station (2%), a pub (10%) and a school (12%). All of these parishes within this group do not have fixed library, a post office, a college and not even a shop (food and non-food) or a GP surgery. See Appendix 2 for a full list of Parishes within this group Group 3 : Medium service provision The parishes within this group have a limited number but broader range of services than those in group 1 and group 2. Number of parishes within group, 83 (41%) Number of people living in parishes within this group, 68,240 (40%) All of the parishes within this group have at least four different service types Almost all of the parishes in this group are visited by a mobile library (99%) and all of them have at least one place of worship. The majority of the parishes within this group contain a community hall (82%), a pub (96%), a school (73%). These proportions are higher than the average for all rural parishes in Leicestershire. More than half of the parishes in this group have a post office (59%) but none of them have a fixed library, a non-food shop, a GP surgery or a higher education collage parishes within Leicestershire with a post office (41%). Around one quarter of the parishes within this group visited by a mobile retailer. See Appendix 3 for a full list of Parishes within this group 10 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Chart 2: Percentage of Parishes within Group 2 which have each of the eleven service types Community Hall Library (fixed) Library (mobile) Petrol Station Post Office Pub Food Shop Chart 3: Percentage of Parishes within Group 3 which have each of the eleven service types Community Hall Library (fixed) Library (mobile) School Place of Worship Non-food Shop % of all rural parishes which have service Petrol Station Post Office Pub Food Shop School Place of Worship Non-food Shop % of all rural parishes which have service Mobile Retailers Mobile Retailers GP surgery GP surgery Higher education college Higher education college
Group 4 : Good service provision The parishes within this group have a diverse range of services. Chart 4: Percentage of Parishes within Group 2 which have each of the eleven service types Number of parishes within group, 11 (5%) Number of people living in parishes within this group, 9,760 (6%) All of the parishes within this group have 5 or more different service types. Parishes within this group are have at least one place of worship and visited by a mobile library. Most of these parishes (91%) within this group have a community hall, a pub and a non-food shop. More than three thirds of the parishes within this group contain a post office and a school. Less than half of parishes within this group have a food shop (36%) and visited by a mobile retailer but none of these have a fixed library or a petrol station. Higher education colleges can be found within this group of parishes only. 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Community Hall Library (fixed) Library (mobile) Petrol Station Post Office Pub Food Shop School Place of Worship Non-food Shop % of all rural parishes which have service Mobile Retailers GP surgery Higher education college See Appendix 4 for a full list of Parishes within this group Group 5 : Very good service provision Compared to other rural parishes within Leicestershire this group have a high number and diverse range of service outlets. Number of parishes within group, 31 (15%) Number of people living in parishes within this group, 82,650 (48%) All of the parishes within this group have at least six different service types. All of the parishes within this group have a post office, a school and a place of worship. The majority of the parishes within this group have a community hall (97%), a pub (90%), a food shop (81%) and a fixed library (65%) Around half of these parishes have a petrol station, a non-food shop, a PG surgery and visited by a mobile library. See Appendix 5 for a full list of Parishes within this group 11 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Chart 5: Percentage of Parishes within Group 3 which have each of the eleven service types Community Hall Library (fixed) Library (mobile) Petrol Station Post Office Pub Food Shop School Place of Worship Non-food Shop % of all rural parishes which have service Mobile Retailers GP surgery Higher education college
Distribution of Service Provision by Parish Map 1 shows the parishes of rural Leicestershire according to their service coverage and diversity. Using the classification of parishes developed in the previous section, the five different groups of parish have been mapped to show the geographical distribution of service coverage and diversity across rural Leicestershire. Map 1 : Service Profile of rural parishes of Leicestershire In total, there are 76 parishes within rural Leicestershire that have no or minimal service provision, affecting 6.4% of the rural population of Leicestershire. The map highlights a different in the level of service provision between the east and west of the county. In the east of the county there is a higher number and concentration of parishes in group 1 and group 2 (no or minimal service provision) compared to the west. The map also emphasises the hierarchy of service provision, where a parish with little or no service provision is reliant on the neighbouring parish for most or all of its services. Staunton Harold Hoton East Gostcote Barkby Thorpe Billesdon Illston on the Hill In east Leicestershire there are clusters of adjoining parishes in groups 1 and 2 surrounding individual parishes in groups 4 or 5 and to some extent group 3. This emphasises the importance of places such as Kibworth, Fleckney and Great Glen as service hubs to their surrounding parishes. It also highlights the importance of the location and level of service provision in parishes such as Billesdon, Market Bosworth. Though parishes in group 4 do not have the full complement of services the level of service provision is good relative to its neighbouring parishes in groups 1 and 2. The map highlights a band of parishes to the south of Melton Mowbray and their reliance on the services in urban settlements of Leicester and Melton Mowbray, this is partly due to the absence of surrounding parishes within group 5. Osbaston Market Bosworth Claybrooke Magna Fleckney Carlton Curlieu Kibworth Beauchamp Great Glen 12 In the west of the county the majority of parishes within group 1 or 2 (no or minimal service provision) border a parish in group 4 or 5 (good or very good service provision). group 1 : no services or skeletal service provision (32) (18) group 2 : minimal service provision (76) (58) group 3 : medium service provision (21) (83) group 4 : good service provision (53) (11) group 5 : very good service provision (19) (31) area > 5,000 population
6. Conclusion Leicestershire has large geographical areas defined as rural (<5000 resident population) which account for 28% of the county s population. As expected, the more rural an area the fewer services available. Harborough district particularly stands out as having fewer services, but also has many of the smaller and less populated parishes in the county. In Harborough many of the parishes seem to be reliant on services available in adjacent rural centres such as Billesdon, Kibworth and Fleckney. Services that have good coverage include: Places of Worship, Public Houses, Schools, Community Halls and Post Offices with over 79% of the population having access to all of these facilities within their parish (this will need to be recalculated following Post Office closure announcements). 98% of residents have access to a Place of Worship in their parish. This level of coverage implies that highly targeted intervention is paramount to ensure maximum benefit is achieved for the most isolated rural areas and communities. Analysis by resident population is more precise and informative than solely considering parish areas. For example, 74% of the rural population live in a parish of good or very good provision whereas this only accounts for 35% of the total number of parishes. The value of analysis is also increased when the distance travelled to services is considered. 7. Next steps The results of this mapping report will be used to develop a 3-year programme of support which will develop and sustain services in rural Leicestershire. This bid for funding support will be submitted to the LSEP in November 2007. Specifically this report will be used to Identify priority geographical areas in need of greatest support Identify priority services Assess grant applications submitted for support through the Rural Services Programme Evidence contained within the report will be considered in the development of the Leicestershire Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS). The results of the report have been incorporated within the evidence base of the SCS. It will also be used to support the rural proofing of the SCS and Local Area Agreement. Further work will be undertaken to develop access to services targets within the next Local Area Agreement, covering the period from 2008 to 2011. 13
Appendix 1 : Parishes in Group 1 (No services or skeletal service provision) 14
Appendix 2 : Parishes in Group 2 (Minimal service provision ) 15
Appendix 3 : Parishes in Group 3 (Medium service provision) 16
Appendix 4 : Parishes in Group 4 (Good service provision) 17
Appendix 5 : Parishes in Group 5 (Very good service provision) 18
19 Mapping rural services in the parishes of Leicestershire (September 2007)
20 Mapping rural services in the parishes of Leicestershire (September 2007)