PEOPLE living in rural communities are often unaware of local services, a Ribble Valley meeting heard

Lancashire County Council led a discussion entitled Partnership Solutions to Real-Life Situations at a meeting of the Ribble Valley Rural Forum.

The meeting in Chatburn Methodist Hall looked at how services might be brought closer to people living in rural communities.

Participants claimed access to local services was a lottery and asked for more targeted, simple and accessible information on local services.

Jan Styan, Lancashire County Council's District Partnership Officer for Ribble Valley, said: "We are committed to working in partnership with community, voluntary, private and public agencies to ensure local services make real sense to local people and meet their needs in a rural community.

"A wealth of ideas were prompted and will be explored further by Lancashire County Council, Ribble Valley Borough Council, the Council for Voluntary Service and other partners."

Jan Styan said her role was to help make local services more accessible and responsive to rural-dwellers.

She added: "National research has shown that rural voluntary and community groups often find it harder to link up to each other, share ideas and pool activity. Rural groups are often frustrated by a sense of isolation.

"The Council for Voluntary Service actively works with the local voluntary and community sector to support innovative ideas and projects to overcome this isolation. The Rural Forum is one key way of achieving this."

The Ribble Valley Rural Forum is hosted four times a year by the Council for Voluntary Service and is open to all voluntary and community groups, as well as private and statutory bodies involved in providing care and support.

Anyone interested in attending future meetings is asked to contact Liz Petten on 01200 422995.