Over recent years I have been involved in looking at many aspects of rural life and two years ago I helped to write a paper related to Tarporley Ward that promoted the creation of a Community Bus service reaching six communities and the potential to access primary road and rail transport to improve connections.  That paper was called ‘Connecting the dots …’ and can be found here .  It was the precursor to an initiative by the Department of Transport that led to Cheshire West and Chester trying to establish just how a lack of rural transport might increase loneliness in some of its outlying Parishes.

What I am including here is a link to some further research that will be used to help establish real and cohesive links to address loneliness.  There is a finite timescale and the team at CWaC have until 28^th January to submit a paper to DfT for funding – in effect it is our ‘Expression of Interest’ and we hope that you are able to complete the attached survey.

Thanks for taking part. Francis Tunney – Chair Utkinton and Cotebrook Parish Council