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Financial support is available to organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors across western Northumberland.
Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group uses the Leader approach to distribute money from the Rural Development Programme for England. In the last 18 months they have supported projects such as Humshaugh Community Shop, Heatherslaw Light Railway, Upland Farming Micro-hydro Study and the new Bellingham Music Festival.
£400,000 is still available for grants up to March 2011 and NULAG want to see project ideas coming forward in the next 4 weeks in the following specific areas:
- Young people and enterprise
Projects that focus on extending the participation of young people (aged 25 and under) in business. These projects might include study tours and exchange visits that concentrate on enterprise for young people, or indeed for business start ups. Our aim is to encourage young people with their enterprise ideas.
- Use of wood as a fuel
Projects that work with whole communities, (including businesses, clubs or groups of people) and help stimulate demand, interest and improved knowledge of the use of wood as a fuel. Projects can also look at issues of fuel poverty.
- Sustainable farming and forestry
Projects that support sustainable farming and forestry, specifically through diversification into new markets; by adding value to current and new products, and by encouraging new people into the farming and forestry sectors; in particular the next generation.
- Employment and skills provision
Projects that focus on getting people into employment and helping people progress whilst in employment, through the gaining of new skills.
Leader is a Europe-wide approach. Tom Burston, Coordinator of the Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group said, ‘Leader projects should be innovative. We want innovative and inspiring project ideas coming forward that benefit the Northumberland Uplands. If you want to try something new Leader may be able to support you.’
If anyone has an idea that they think might fit these areas contact the NULAG team for further details or download and submit an expression of interest.
Opening of ‘The Bridge’ – Community Library, Visitor Information Point and Internet Café
A strong community spirit in Haydon Bridge and the wider parish has led to the successful development of ‘The Bridge’ as a Community Library, Visitor Information Point and Internet Café. ‘The official opening of The Bridge will take place on 21 May.
The former County Council Library building has been refurbished and upgraded to fulfil its new expanded role. Alongside this Haydon Parish now has a new website for the benefit of visitors, local businesses and the community (www.haydon-bridge.co.uk) as well as information for visitors about what the area has to offer.
The initiative reflects a partnership between the Parish Council and the recently established Haydon Bridge Development Trust, a charity and limited company set up to take forward community led initiatives identified in the Haydon Parish Plan.
Funding was secured from the County Council, Parish Council, local charities through the Community Foundation, and through the Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group. NULAG is hosted by Northumberland National Park and uses the Leader approach to make funding decisions. The funding is being made available through the Rural Development Programme for England, which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union, and is managed by One NorthEast in the North East region.
There were four main reasons why NULAG agreed to put over £50,000 of funding into this initiative:
- The level of community participation in the parish planning process was a real strength in that the community had identified their own priorities. This is consistent with a key Leader principle that development should run from the ‘bottom up’
- NULAG were keen to work with a newly formed Development Trust
- The number of committed volunteers involved in the project, speaks highly of the level of community involvement in the development of Haydon Bridge
- It was noteworthy that the community wanted to retain its library and build on it so that a number of different services were offered
Roger Wilson, Chair of NULAG said: “we were very impressed with the depth of community consultation and clear vision for the sustainability of this rural community which underpinned the funding bid to NULAG. This has been carried through into delivering real benefits on the ground for both local people and visitors”.
County Councillor Alan Sharp said: “I was delighted to provide some capital funding support towards the refurbishment costs of the library. It is a privilege to represent a community which is so committed to taking practical action to address the issues and challenges it faces.”
Marguerite Gracey, the Heritage and Libraries Manager for Northumberland County Council emphasised the commitment of the volunteers and the excellent partnership between the community and the County Council.
She said: “The Development Trust and Parish Council have shown great determination in developing The Bridge and we have been very impressed by the recruitment of well over 30 volunteers, who we have been training to run the library service. This is a really successful partnership between the community and local government.”
Mark I’Anson, the Chairman of the Development Trust said: “We have come a long way since we developed the Parish Plan to address the economic and social sustainability of our community following the development of the Haydon Bridge bypass. The opening of The Bridge is tangible evidence of the energy and skills of our community to fight for its future health and well-being.
“We see the opening of The Bridge as just the start of a bigger development programme. The next phase will include developing the role of, and activities at The Bridge; further volunteering opportunities; more walks and trails for walkers and cyclists; better publicity and marketing about what our community has to offer; improved welcome and customer service for visitors; and a range of activities about the artist John Martin linked to the major exhibition at the Laing and the Tate galleries in 2011
We all give our time voluntarily – directors and the volunteers at The Bridge – and we have no paid staff. We would like to thank all our funders and partners for their ideas, practical help and support. As a community we have shown we can deliver results and with the continued support of our partners we will continue to make exciting progress.”
The official opening of The Bridge, Church Street, Haydon Bridge, will take place at 3pm on Friday 21 May.
For further information contact Peter Fletcher, Secretary, Haydon Bridge Development Trust on: 01434 684944 or email: admin@haydon-bridge.co.uk
Wooler Youth Drop-In
WOOLER YOUTH DROP-IN has received a grant of £20,000, spread over the next four years, from the Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group, which gives out grant monies using the Leader approach.
Since 1999 Wooler young people, over the age of 13, have been using the centre at 53 High Street and the Local Action Group have been impressed with the range of facilities youth workers and members have planned. Regular activity includes art and music nights, games, a training programme with the Fire service and work with local paramedics. Internet links and regular help from the Connexions service give access to all kinds of information and advice; a service rarely available to young people in rural districts.
Older people in the town have given generous support: last month a sale of donated goods raised £1700 in two days and last year the management committee, all Wooler people, raised over £6000 in local events.
Mike Murray of NULAG commented “We are delighted to support Wooler drop-in Centre and it’s work with young people in and around the town. We were impressed with their commitment and the fact that they are reaching out to young people and offering them all sorts of opportunities in and around Wooler. There is a need within the Northumberland uplands to support such grassroots projects that are of direct benefit to young people in the area”.
Mike Allport, Chair of Trustees for the drop-in, said “we welcome support of this kind, which will help us for several years to come. It recognises the ability of our team of youth workers to attract a large membership of young people. Our remaining need is for the help of volunteers; to help at the centre and to refresh our management committee- after ten years some of us are getting a little old for the job!
Anyone interested please contact Mike Allport at 01668 281249 – or the staff at the centre on Monday, Thursday and Friday evenings.
NULAG – Exploratory Visit to Sweden
Roger Wilson, Chair of the Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group (NULAG), Tom Burston, Coordinator and Mike Murray (NULAG member) visited Sweden between 7 and 11 December. The objective of the visit was to build on contacts Mike made during the summer and explore the scope for a collaborative agreement with Leader Linne, a LAG in Småland.
The visitors called first on The Swedish Board of Agriculture, which is the managing authority for the New Leader programme in Sweden and The Swedish Rural Network (SRN) in Jönköping Johan Fors, of the Board of Agriculture, and Hans-Olof Stålgren, of SRN explained the structure and function of the Swedish Rural Network as a platform for mutual learning and understanding and the kind of support it can give to the LAGs. Furthermore they explained the function of the Swedish RDP regarding cooperation projects and they also gave some of the experiences from former cooperation projects. The manager of a rural transport project financed under the Northern Periphery Programme travelled from Ånge in Northern Sweden to discuss rural transport questions and to ask about NULAG' s role in the ADAPT programme in Northumberland. NULAG has funded the purchase of two purpose built mini buses which ADAPT will operate in deep rural areas. NULAG has invited the project manager to visit Northumberland when the new buses are in use.
Swedish log processing
The NULAG team then spent three days with Leader Linne, which covers six districts in Småland (Alvesta, Ljungby, Markaryd, Värnamo, Växjä and Älmhult.) They were able to observe the Linne LAG meeting on 9 December and visit a number of projects financed by Linne mainly in the bio energy field. They visited Sweden's largest privately owned sawmill to learn about woodchip and pellet production and to see how a large industrial sawmill can use energy generated from its by-products to contribute to district heating schemes. They saw a small pellet production plant on a family farm and a district heating scheme operated by a group of 5 farmers and supplying a substantial part of a village's heating needs including a school. They saw two cultural projects - a project which is helping to develop a pilgrims' trail in Småland and a story telling museum in Ljungby which runs a world renowned annual story telling fair, visited by story tellers and visitors from all parts of the world.
Swedish log yard
At the end of the visit to Leader Linne Roger Wilson invited the Swedish LAG to visit Northumberland in April 2010. If that visit goes well the two LAGs hope to sign an agreement on collaboration. In the meantime they are exchanging information and experience about projects in their areas which may be of mutual interest.
At the end of the visit Roger Wilson said. “This visit has greatly exceeded my high expectations of developing a mutually beneficial Leader project with Sweden. Our significant differences enhance creative solutions to common rural problems whilst our shared Leader principles and values have accelerated and enhanced our joint determination to deliver significant contributions to the sustainability and quality of life of our respective rural communities both now and in the future.”
Sven Sunesson, Chair of Leader Linne, said "It was a real pleasure for us to welcome three colleagues from NULAG in Småland and to have them attend one of our regular Local Action Group meetings as observers. NULAG has invited Leader Linne to visit Northumberland in April and we are, of course, eagerly looking forward to that. Leader Linne and NULAG are now exchanging information on projects and ways of working. There already seems to be a solid basis for collaboration between the two groups."
Northumberland Uplands Local Action Group is hosted by its lead Partner the Northumberland National Park Authority. Funding is made available through the Rural Development Programme for England, which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union, and is managed by One NorthEast in the North East region.
Links to...
Northumberland National Park Authority
For all the latest rural news and events in Northumberland, visit the Rural Voices website.
