About Us

The Essex Rural Partnership (ERP) was formed in 2002, the result of a merger between the Essex Rural Renewal Forum and the Essex Rural Strategy Steering Group.

The Partnership, managed by Rural Community Council of Essex (RCCE), brings together a wide range of organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors, all with a responsibility for the future of the county’s rural areas.

ERP was created to encourage co-ordination of activities to maximise effectiveness of resources and a joint-working approach to achieve greater buy-in, a better chance of securing funding and best value. As a result local communities, rural businesses and the Essex countryside are benefiting from a more effective way of working.

As a non-statutory body, ERP enjoys the position of being an independent lobbyist and is well placed to represent and raise the profile of rural Essex at a local, regional, national and EU level.

In 2005 the Partnership was re-launched and, in order to identify the partner’s priorities, a revised Strategy was published. The Essex Rural Strategy highlighted 15 Key Delivery Priorities, with a number of smaller projects and issues built into Action Plans. From this, three Action Groups focusing on community, economy and environment were formed.

The Essex Rural Strategy was updated in 2009 to establish a new ten year vision to 2020, with a five year strategy for 2010 – 2015.