History

Summary

The WMRAF was born of the Rural White Paper 2000, which made a commitment to establish national and regional sounding boards to enable Ministers to maintain regular and direct contact with country people. The launch of the Rural Strategy in 2004 charged each of the eight regional Rural Affairs Forums to undertake a review to ensure they were fit for purpose stakeholder groups. The West Midlands review was completed in June 2005 with representation across seven sectors, bringing together rural stakeholders from the region to inform and monitor the local delivery of policy in rural areas.

Detail

1. The origins of the Regional Rural Affairs Forums can be attributed to the Rural White Paper. It was published jointly by the then DETR and MAFF, and recognised for the first time the importance of intelligence and information about things happening on the ground. It recognised the importance for Ministers having regular and direct contact with rural groups so that they knew what was going on and what countryside people were thinking.


2. There was a commitment set up a National Rural Sounding Board, to meet at least once a year, chaired by Ministers, (from DETR and MAFF), to bring together Ministers from a range of Departments as well as representatives form a wide variety of organisations and individuals with an interest in rural policy.


3. The Rural White Paper wanted to go even further to ensure that people at a local level could become directly involved in public sector activities so that their voices could be heard and their particular knowledge and experience of rural issues be used in policy and programme development and delivery.   The commitment was made to establish Regional Rural Sounding boards to bring together rural stakeholders within Regions to inform and monitor the regional and local delivery of policy and programmes in rural areas.


4. The commitment to set up the national sounding board was realised with the setting up of the Rural Affairs Forum for England in late 2001/early 2002 after the FMD outbreak in 2001.  The impact and consequences of FMD, the machinery of Government changes, i.e., the creation of Defra was a driver in setting up the arrangements.  This was a ‘quasi representative’ body - with representatives from the usual rural organisations, chaired by a Minister.  There were also representatives of Regional Rural Affairs Forums on the England Forum.


5. In each of the eight English Regions a Regional Rural Affairs Forum was set up to completely fulfil the Rural White Paper commitment.  Alun Michael as the Rural Minister at the time was very committed to the concept and he ensured that the arrangements were implemented and he also ensured his participation in both the England Forum and in meetings of Regional Forums as and when time allowed.


6. The West Midlands Regional Rural Affairs Forum was established in 2002 - its first Chair being Dr Tony Harris (past Principal of Harper Adams University).  Dr Harris, (with the support of the then Rural Director in the Government Office for the West Midlands, oversaw the setting up of the Rural Affairs Forum in the West Midlands.  (It’s worth saying that each Regional RAF developed in a different way - a response to the regionalisation agenda prevalent at the time.


7. The stated purpose of the WMRAF was to:
   • Act as a sounding board for rural practitioners and delivery agencies;:
   • Reflect the need and aspirations of rural people;:
   • Provide direction, leadership and co-ordination in respect of the regional agenda;:
   • Act as a conduit for rural views, and present these views at national, regional and sub-regional levels, though with the primary effort directed towards the ‘regional’.
   
   
8. Since it was first set up the West Midlands Regional Rural Affairs Forum has maintained a mix of rural representation under seven broad sectors.  Members are drawn from organisations, public, private and the voluntary sectors and there are individuals who represent sub-regional partnerships.  Overall the Forum is nearly 50 members in total.  It meets four times a year at various locations around the West Midlands – often in a village hall or another venue in the rural areas.