Rural Scotland People, Prosperity and Partnership

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Local Authority Action on Services

• Annandale and Eskdale has established a scheme to pool leisure and recreation equipment for loan to rural communities and another to provide free transport to and from rural areas to allow young people to participate in leisure programmes operated throughout the District. A similar scheme operates in East Lothian.

• In Fife Region, local service offices have been established in certain rural communities to promote community involvement in service delivery. Several post offices in more remote communities provide information about regional council services.

• Highland Regional Council established a Community Development Projects Initiative to assist community-based projects such as rural swimming pools, rural post offices and heritage centres. With the benefit of European funding, the Council has also developed a system for public information and service provision to rural areas, based on public multi-media computer terminals which enables public services which are routinely available in urban centres to be made available cost effectively to the most rural areas.

• Several local authorities run small business and rural shop assistance schemes and operate mobile libraries.