Following another successful year for the Growing Communities Healthy Packed Lunch Plot Competition

The first Planting Day has proved a huge hit held at Friars Grove Primary School.

RCCE has been successful in securing a delivery grant from Essex County Council to tackle social isolation and loneliness at community level across a large area of Essex and is now looking to employ 9, part-time Community Enablers across Essex.

RCCE and ECC are holding two briefing sessions for village hall trustees and committees interested in setting up a Community Library.

Robert Jenrick MP and Lord Gardiner of Kimble launch a new £3m grant for village halls.

RCCE was recently involved in the making of a video about its competition - Essex Village of the Year. Nick Shuttleworth, RCCE's Executive Director explains in the video the importance of running this competition.

RCCE's Best Kept Churchyard is now open for entries.

The competition looks to recognise and reward those look after Churchyards in Essex. We are looking for not only well-managed churchyards, but also those that provide a peaceful haven for both humans and animals.  

With the continued support of our sponsors - Lodge and Sons (Builders) of Stebbing and Essex Wildlife Trust, there are cash prizes for the winners.

Essex Halls celebrate National Village Halls Week!

Village hall and community building trustees across Essex will be dedicating events being held in their halls to National Village Halls Week over the coming week.

The search is on for the 2019 Essex Village of the Year. This popular annual competition run by RCCE, with the support of sponsors Essex & Suffolk Water and Inkpen Downie Architecture & Design Ltd, focusses on the efforts local people are making to strengthen and sustain rural community life.

The RCCE office is closed from 1pm, Friday 21st December 2018 and will re-open at 9am on Wednesday 2nd January 2019.

We are launching the 2019 competition earlier than usual in order to give villages more time to prepare and submit their entries.

Congratulations to Growing Communities joint winners:

Rickling C of E Primary School - Saffron Walden

St Nicholas C of E Primary School - Tillingham

Both schools produced bumper crops of vegetables for this years harvest, their dedication to gardening is clear to see!  Well done and keep up the good work!

Please click the link at the top of this article to view the photographs.

Growing Communities invites all children in primary schools and special schools of Essex to take part in designing a healthy kitchen garden plot and create a recipe for a healthy packed lunch using the produce!

RCCE Annual Review 2017/18

Our latest annual review shows how we’ve supported people and places in rural Essex over the past year

By way of a thank you to all our dedicated volunteer competition judges, RCCE organised an afternoon at Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, near Maldon in Essex on Monday 1st Oct 2018.

All are welcome!            

Chelmsford Cathedral 30th September 2018  at  3:30pm

The National Harvest Torch will be coming to Chelmsford Cathedral.       

Followed by a Tiptree cream tea.           

Priti Patel, MP for Witham, paid a visit to RCCE recently to hear about their projects and to discuss support for rural communities.

The RCCE Village Halls & Community Buildings Conference will be held on Saturday 13th October 2018 at Peldon & Wigboroughs Community Hall.

It can take several years to bring an affordable rural housing scheme to the stage of an official opening. So it is always exciting when an invite arrives and already this year we have seen two affordable housing schemes officially opened in Essex; one in Wickham Bishops and one in Little Hallingbury. These two schemes were highlighted at RCCE’s recent AGM and here we take a closer look at the developments.

Winnners and runners up of the Essex Village of the Year Competition  received their prizes at the RCCE's AGM.

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The 11th Essex Schools Food & Farming Day at Writtle University College was a great success, with over 3000 school children finding out where their food comes from. RCCE was pleased to be involved and once again, the sun shone.

Community Agents Essex is seeking to recruit 3 Community Agents to work in the Chelmsford, Tendring and South of Colchester areas.

For more details visit Community Agents Vacancies

There is still time to enter RCCE's Essex Village of the Year 2018 Competition!

RCCE knows that in villages of all sizes throughout Essex, local people are doing great things to strengthen their communities and Essex Village of the Year Competition is designed to celebrate and reward such efforts.

It is a simple application process - just one question and thanks to our sponsors Essex & Suffolk Water and Inkpen Downie Architects there are cash prizes to be won!

Villages have until the 4th May to enter.  It doesn't have to be the clerk or a parish councillor who completes the entry form - anyone that knows the village and what is being achieved can do it.

From Templars to Tippers

Cressing Temple to Littley Green Walk - Saturday 28th April 2018

We very much hope you will join us for gentle exercise and to support the Essex Rural Fund.  Experience has shown that these walks are usually accompained by Spring sunshine. 

For more information please download letter and booking form.

Best Kept Churchyard Competition 2018

The Competition is kindly sponsored by Lodges and sons (Builders) of Stebbing and Essex Wild Life Trust.  Their combined involvement, together with the Diocese of Chelmsford, provides recognition of the work you and your volunteers do.

Please find the entry form on the section marked competitions / Best Kept Churchyard Competition.

Please find attached the Entry Form and Guidelines for our 2018 Essex Village of the Year competition. The deadline this year is slightly later that 2017, however the timescale for the competition is the same as previously. Deadline for the submission of entries is Friday 4th May 2018. 

The 'Healthy Packed Lunch Plot Competition' is now CLOSED.

Growing Communities would like to thank all the schools who have entered, we have received some amazing entries well done to all the children!  We do hope the children have enjoyed participating and we wish you all - GOOD LUCK!

Judging is to take place this week so watch this space for the winners and runners up announcement!!

..... because your schools entries are important to us!

Growing Communities have extended the entry deadline for the Healthy Packed Lunch Plot Competition.

Primary Schools in Essex can still register following this link by Friday 23rd February and all entries must be received by:  9:00am Friday 2nd March 2018 - ready for judging the following week!

We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic, well organised Enquiries Officer for the Community Agents Essex project based at RCCE House, Feering.

The closing date for all applications is:  9th March 2018

Come and celebrate......our wonderful Essex Village Halls and the volunteers who run them!

RCCE invites you to a COFFEE MORNING to celebrate the inaugural #VillageHallsWeek.

RCCE is holding a training day for Treasurers and Trustees of Village Halls and Community Buildings on Saturday 3rd February 2018 at FEERING COMMUNITY CENTRE. All welcome!

Community Agents Essex is seeking to recruit 4 Community Agents to work in the Chelmsford, Witham and Burnham on Crouch areas.

We are delighted to present the new Growing Communities logo, with special thanks to Perrywood Garden Centre and Nurseries for helping make it happen! 

RHS have a few spaces left on their Free Secondary Science Teach Meet, taking place on Thursday 16th November, 4.15 – 6.15 pm at Hartismere School, IP23 7BL. 

Growing Communities helps with the 'Community Bug Hotel' build which is coming along just nicely...  Yet another great initiative for the Growing Communities project to get involved, roll up our sleeves and make a difference for a local primary school and their community.

Growing Communities attended the BIG DIG working in partnership with Messing Primary School and the local community

Find out how Essex Police will tackle crime in rural areas

Thursday 16th November 1.00 - 4.00pm

Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, CM3 6RN

FREE ADMISSION!

DIRECTIONS: http://www.stowmaries.org.uk/contact/how-to-find-us

Please note:  The postcode gives the correct location, however if you wish to use a satnav or google map it will direct you to an entrance which isn’t accessible. Please use the above link.

The RCCE Village Halls & Community Buildings Conference will be held on Saturday 14th October 2017 at Chignalls & Mashbury Village Hall.

Abberton Rural Training (ART) held its prize-giving ceremony at the end of the term on 20th July. It also used the occasion to launch the new Essex Rural Skills Project which starts in September.

Do you fancy a new challenge? If so we are currently seeking applicants for two current vacancies.















More details can be found in the Working For us page














 

The Essex Village of the Year competition, organised by RCCE, is open to applications and the deadline of Friday 7th April is fast approaching. The competition, sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water and Inkpen Downie Architects, is an annual quest to showcase the very best of rural Essex today.

New Affordable Housing Opens in Messing

A new affordable housing scheme was officially opened recently in Messing.

It was a lovely autumnal day when the Rt Hon. Priti Patel officially opended Hastoe Housing Association's latest affordable rural housing scheme in Messing on the 11th November.

RCCE is holding two coffee mornings, in different parts of the county, to encourage all parishes that are considering undertaking a Neighbourhood Plan or those already in progress with a Plan to come along and talk about the process.

Wednesday 16^th November 2016, 10am to 12 noon, at Felsted Memorial Hall, Braintree Road, Felsted, CM6 3DS.

Friday 16^th December 2016, 10am to 12 noon, at Langford and Ulting Village Hall, Maldon Road, Langford CM9 4SS.

Smart Energy GB

Did you know that even though you are off mains gas you can get a smart meter for your electricity supply?

Smart meters and the rollout

We are working with our partners in the ACRE Network and Smart Energy GB to raise awareness of the smart meter rollout. We’re promoting smart meters to off mains gas residents in Essex .

An affordable housing scheme in Essex has been shortlisted for two national awards.

Hastoe Homes affordable housing development at Moat Field, Hatfield Heath has been shortlisted for two national awards.

Celebration Time for Community Magazines

AMBO, the village magazine for Radwinter, Hempstead & The Sampfords from Uttlesford District has just carried off the major prize in the latest Essex Life Community Magazine Awards.

In villages of all sizes throughout Essex, local people are doing great things to strengthen their communities. The purpose of our competition is to celebrate and reward such efforts.

We have made some changes to the application format, with the aim of giving it a fresher image, a clearer purpose and, very importantly, making it easier to enter by reducing the paperwork! Making it even easier for Essex villages to enter

Take part in the Essex Life Community Magazine Awards

 Essex Life, Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE), Newport News and the Diocese of Chelmsford are staging a competition to find the best community magazine in the county. 

Don’t be caught out by the current mild weather. Oil prices are at the lowest they have been for 9 years. Even better RCCE Oil Buying Scheme members generally save over 4p per litre compared to average oil prices.

On the 13th January 2016 our members paid 25.46p per litre including VAT. The next bulk purchase will be on 22nd January 2016

For more details click here.

Community Agents – the county-wide project supporting older people to continue living independently – may only be a year old, but it has scooped a top award for partnership working.

The Forestry Commission in the East of England and East Midlands is promoting free support to forestry businesses thinking of applying for grants within the new Rural Development Programme, which includes LEADER.

 Villages across Essex still have time to enter RCCE’s 2015 Essex Village of the Year & Best Kept Village Competition. The deadline for entries is Friday 10^th April and the prizes on offer include £500 for the Essex Village of the Year, provided by sponsors, Essex & Suffolk Water.

Edible Essex is delighted to announce that a pupil from Ivy Chimney’s Primary School in Epping has won first prize in this year’s Packed Lunch Plot Competition. 

Edible Essex is pleased to announce that the Ramsey Academy in Halstead has won first prize in its ‘Use the Plot’ competition 

Welcome to the 2015 Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition.

Sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water and Worldbridge Ltd, and supported by Essex Life.

Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has confirmed that it will maintain its £2.3m investment in the ACRE Network for 2015/16.

Nick Shuttleworth, Executive Director of Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) said:

“This is good news for our organisation and the nationwide ACRE Network of Rural Community Councils. We would like to thank everyone who showed their support for rural communities and the work we do.”

The red carpet was out at the West Hanningfield affordable housing scheme, Pandan Close, for a very important visitor when HRH the Prince of Wales visited the development on Tuesday 16 December.

RCCE (Rural Community Council of Essex) is an independent charity helping people and communities throughout rural Essex to build a sustainable future. We are currently looking to recruit a part-time Community Engagement Officer on a fixed-term contract.

Community Engagement Officer

Fixed term - 1 year contract

Salary – £20,000 per annum, pro rata

Hours – 18 per week

RCCE (Rural Community Council of Essex) is an independent charity helping people and communities throughout rural Essex to build a sustainable future. We are currently looking to recruit a part-time Community Engagement Officer on a fixed-term contract.

Community Engagement Officer

Fixed term - 1 year contract

Salary – £20,000 per annum, pro rata

Hours – 18 per week

National survey paints portrait of village hall life: 12 million hours of volunteering, £11m of renovations and 38.6 million cups of tea!

Clavering, in Uttlesford District, is celebrating after capturing the top prize in the annual Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition for the first time since 1998. The competition is organised by Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE), sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water and Worldbridge Ltd. and supported by Essex Life.

Celebration Time for Community Magazines

Theydon Bois Village News from Epping Forest District has just carried off the major prize in the latest Essex Life Community Magazine Awards.

Walkers will take to the footpaths around the villages of Danbury and Little Baddow on Saturday 26 April for the latest in a series of fund raising walks to raise money for the Essex Rural Fund.

 Anyone interested in making a donation to the Fund can find out more by going to the Rural Fund's webpage at http://www.justgiving.com/Essex-Rural-Fund.

Community Owned Energy Schemes

Generating More Than Just Energy

Free to Attend - Wednesday 14th May 2014, 7pm to 9.30pm at The Reading Rooms, Great Yeldham.

RCCE has joined forces with BDC, UDC and Daniel Kenning of Splendid Engineering to explore the potential for community owned energy schemes, showing how they can be used to generate a financial return for the community. 

Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE) in partnership with Locality

Is recruiting for the following positions:

4 x Trainee Community Organisers

Salary – £8.80 per hour for 30 - 35 hours per week



Fixed term 51 week contract

Welcome to the 2014 Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition.

Sponsored by Essex & Suffolk Water and Worldbridge Ltd, and supported by Essex Life.

The competition is all about encouraging vibrant, enterprising and caring rural communities. The judges will be looking for those villages which, irrespective of size, are doing most to enhance the quality of life for all inhabitants.

Community Led Planning Network Event

Christmas Coffee morning

An annual drop in session for RCCE members

Monday 9th December 10:00 am until 12.30 pm

At RCCE Office in Feering,

This is a drop in session and you are welcome to come along anytime between 10 and 12. This is a chance to chat with others producing Community Led Plans, RCCE Engagement Officers, RCCE Village Halls Advisor

And……………….

This year we have Stewart Rutland , Youth Provision Development Officer at Essex Boys and Girls Clubs coming along – why not pop along for a chat with him.

An afternoon reception was held at Layer Marney Tower to mark 10 years of RCCE’s Rural Housing Enabler service. Four guests at the reception were members of the original Advisory Group which met on 1 October 2003 including the first chairman of the group, Chris Moor, and the first Rural Housing Enabler, Nichola Plumb. One of the four, John Swords,  sits on the current group but due to a change of job did have some time off inbetween.

On Wednesday 9 October Parish Councillors from across the Uttlesford district visited a number of affordable rural housing schemes on a ‘See It Believe It’ tour. The group visited Wimbish, Thaxted, Hatfield Broad Oak, Clavering and Langley where they were joined by each of the parish councils to hear about their experience of going through the process of developing homes for local people.

Chairman of Great Bardfield Parish Council, Councillor Janet Dyson, officiated at the opening of English Rural Housing Association’s latest scheme on Tuesday 17 September.  With 12 homes for local people Castle Shot was initiated by the parish council after a sizeable response to an article in the parish newsletter asking if local people were in need of affordable housing. This led to RCCE’s Rural Housing Enabler carrying out a Housing Needs Survey and English Rural finding a willing landowner with a suitable site. Despite the rain about 50 people attended the event which  included English Rural’s Annual General Meeting.

RCCE is holding an open air cinema and picnic event at Layer Marney Tower, near Colchester,  on Sunday, 18th August to raise money for the Essex Rural Fund, a funding stream specifically set up to support rural community groups and charities in Essex.

Wednesday 6 November 2013, 7.00pm to 9.30pm at RCCE House, Feering.  The delivery of public health services changed in April 2013.  Find out how the new system works and the role of community organisations

Rural Community Council of Essex is working with at800 to ensure you are supported and can continue to watch television.

This summer will start to see the arrival of new 4G mobile services in the Brentwood, Grays, Harlow and Loughton areas. Unfortunately these services may cause problems with local TV reception, leading to loss of sound, blocky images or loss of some or all Freeview channels. Read this news item for more details.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJsFjizIxNM&hd=1

Ever wondered who lives in the affordable rural housing that our Rural Housing Enabler helps to develop? Or wondered how it helps the whole community? Take at look at our brand new film commissioned to celebrate 10 years of the Rural Housing Enabler service here at RCCE.

On Sunday 7^th July, a team from RCCE took part in Race for Life at Hylands Park, Chelmsford. This annual event brings together women across the country, in various locations, to raise money for Cancer Research UK. 

Birch C of E Primary School, winners of the Edible Essex Packed Lunch Plot Competition, spent a day filming with BBC Countryfile last Friday.

Advice services in the Braintree district are about to get even better.

Braintree, Halstead and Witham Citizens Advice Bureau, Mid Essex Mind, Greenfields Community Housing, Braintree District Council, Age UK Essex and Rural Community Council of Essex have joined forces to improve advice and support in relation to welfare benefits, debt, housing and employment.

FREE EVENTS, between now and Christmas, for RCCE members to obtain support and advice

RCCE has just launched the quest to find this year’s Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Villages.

Our popular annual competition is all about encouraging vibrant, enterprising and caring villages. Recent winners such as Langham, Great Bardfield, Great Waltham, Stisted and last year’s winner, Alresford, emphasise that this is a competition which villages of all sizes from around the county have a chance of winning.

Edible Essex is delighted to announce that a pupil from Birch C of E Primary School in Colchester has won first prize in the Packed Lunch Plot Competition. 

A FREE event for groups who are in the process of, or about to start,  a Neighbourhood Development Plan

Date: Friday 1^st March 2013

Venue: RCCE, Feering Essex. CO5 9SE

Time: 10am – 3pm

(includes lunch & refreshments)

Celebration Time for Community Magazines

The distinctively named, ‘Ambo’ magazine, which serves the villages of Radwinter, Hempstead and The Sampfords in Uttlesford district has just carried off the major prize in the latest Essex Life Community Magazine Awards.

Edible Essex is delighted to announce that Peter Seabrook MBE and Charlie Stocker will be judging our competition at the end of February at RHS Hyde Hall.

The Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford, officially opened the latest scheme of affordable housing for local people in Pandan Close, West Hanningfield on Monday 15 October. The 12 homes were completed last October after a Housing Needs Survey carried out by RCCE’s Rural Housing Enabler in 2005 identified local people in need of affordable accommodation.   With ground source heat pumps the homes are also energy efficient and cheaper to run. Three residents opened their doors to allow those attending the event to look around.

Maldon District Council is the first local authority in Essex to sign up to support the National Housing Federation’s ‘Save our Villages’ campaign.

Don’t miss our Essex Rural Fund event Flix in the Stix Picnic and Outdoor Cinema on Sunday 19^th August, being held in the beautiful gardens of Layer Marney Tower. This charity fundraiser, now in its third year will be showing A Knight’s Tale as the feature film.

RCCE has been praised for its work to ensure that nobody was left with a blank television screen when the analogue transmissions in the London TV region were switched off in April.

RCCE is looking for local co-ordinators to help run its new bulk-buying scheme for domestic heating oil.

Edible Essex invites you to discover more about edible plants growing wild in our countryside.

Edible Essex, in collaboration with Essex Wildlife Trust, is providing a fantastic opportunity to discover more about edible plants, fruit, nuts and fungi that grow wild in our countryside.

Essex Life magazine, which is celebrating its 60^th anniversary this year, has announced that it will join with RCCE and sponsors, Essex & Suffolk Water, to support this year’s Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition.

Thursday, 16th February 2012

7.30pm, Writtle College, Chelmsford.





As part of the Edible Essex project, Christine Walkden the author, lecturer and broadcaster, will be sharing some of her expertise with the people of Essex on Thursday 16th February.



Attendance is FREE, but booking is Essential.

Tuesday, 6th December - Roundwood Garden Centre, Braintree
Edible Essex is offering a FREE event designed to equip both new and existing volunteers, with the practical skills, knowledge and confidence they need to successfully work on a community allotment plot. 

Saturday, 8th October - 10.30 to 12.30 - Abbotts Hall Farm, nr Colchester
Come and learn about wild food. Free event - families are welcome

ACRE, Citizen’s Advice and the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers - information to help communities set up oil buying groups.

Friday 29th July 2011 from 10.00 - 13.00

RCCE Conference Room, Feering, CO5 9SE

Three churches in Essex were the lucky winners of the 2011 RCCE Best Kept Churchyard competition.

Would you like to learn more about Community Led Planning?
Come along to a training session at RCCE offices on 11th October

A village in the heart of Essex is celebrating after claiming the top prize in this year’s Essex Village of the Year and Best Kept Village Competition

New guidance has just been published which highlights how local authorities are helping communities to plan their future by making the most of Community Led Planning.