Report on the Sustainable Development Fund in the Forest of Bowland AONB 2009/10

This year we supported 18 exciting projects ranging from arts festivals, education projects, and tourism support; through to renewable energy and community composting.

Schemes were submitted by voluntary organisations, schools, village halls and social enterprises; all seeking to develop projects which tackle the three elements of sustainability - meeting social, economic and environmental needs within the AONB.

If you want to know more about any of the projects please contact cathy [dot] hopley [at] lancashire [dot] gov [dot] uk

Middlewood Trust renewables integration study
This was a small research project, using a grant of £1437, which looked at the feasibility of integrating a number of existing renewable energy schemes and the possibility of  developing new systems at this sustainability centre in rural Lancaster.

Longridge Food and Drink Festival
We gave a grant of £2109 to support running costs at the first Longridge Food and Drink Festival held in June 2009. 1400 people attended the two day event which saw 45 local producers showcase their wares.

RSPB Bowland Wader Project
This is a long term RSPB project which we also supported in the first year of SDF. The project was awarded £18,000 towards staff and running costs, to support valuable work with volunteers, landowners and farmers to improve habitats for wading birds. In 2009 the project supported three large farm projects which enabled over 330 hectares of land to be managed specifically for breeding waders, and created 53 scrapes and 355 metres of re-profiled ditches to provide vital feeding habitats for the lapwing, curlew, redshank and snipe. In addition 62 farms were included in this year's Lapwing Survey, carried out by volunteers in Bowland, and two farm walks were run by the project as part of Festival Bowland. See the latest Birds of Bowland newsletter at

http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/conservation/projects/bowland/index.asp

Lancashire Green Tourism Project 
This was an internal application from the AONB Unit, following on from a similar contribution last year. The £8000 grant largely funded business support to new sustainable tourism projects in the AONB (including North Yorkshire, which was not funded by the other partners in the project).  In addition the grant aid supported marketing costs and staff support for seven new Bowland businesses achieving Green Tourism Business Scheme accreditation. For more information go to www.lancashiregreentourism.org.uk

RSPB Education Outreach Project 
This project was a roll out of best practice established in the AONB in 2008/09, in a partnership between the AONB and RSPB Education staff. This second year has built on lessons learned and worked with 8 primary schools, offering each school three classroom based lessons, and one site visit to a farm. Lessons focused on the Forest of Bowland landscape, wildlife, birds and farming. The project was awarded £4339. The schools involved in 2009/10 were St Mary's Catholic Primary at Claughton on Brock; Goosnargh Primary at Whitechapel; St Leonards C of E Primary at Billington; Grindleton C of E  Primary; Bolton by Bowland C of E Primary; Rathmel C of E Primary; Wray with Botton (Endowed) Primary; and Cawthorn's Endowed school at Abbeystead.

Bowland Arts Festival 2010
Bowland Arts Festival has now operated over two years and has been successful in attracting participants, viewers and publicity. This year the Arts Festival ran through May and June and consisted of over 50 events, including an exhibition to showcase the schools work and three special commissions carried out by Helen Saunders, Veronica Caperon and Sumit Sarkar. The project was awarded £10,000. See more at www.bowlandarts.co.uk

Bowland Wool
This project, run by a community interest company based in Dunsop Bridge, used a small grant of £2387 to test the market for hand made garments made of Bowland wool. Fleeces collected from farmers in the Trough of Bowland were processed and dyed using natural materials. Garments were then hand knitted up and exhibited at a Country Landowners Association event held at the Inn at Whitewell in March

Landscape Stories
The AONB's own Landscape Stories project was awarded a small £1000 grant to part fund a photography project to document this years activities . In addition a number of community photography workshops were held to encourage local people to also document the project and photograph the local landscape

For more information visit www.forestofbowland.com/landscape_stories

Gazegill Farm Education Project
Lower Gazegill is a beautiful organic farm, lying on the lower slopes of Pendle near Rimington. The owners offer educational access to the farm by hosting school trips. With a special project grant from Natural England they have converted a barn into a classroom so that they can offer up to four school visits a week. The SDF grant of £3403 covered fitting out costs for the classroom, including purchasing a scanner so that schoolchildren can view the sow's unborn piglets – just like a real farmer! 

RCCT Fishing Passport
Ribble Catchment Conservation Trust received a grant from us last year to fence off stretches of Bashall Brook, a tributary of the Ribble. They have now set up  a fishing passport or permit scheme for day users on the newly conserved stretches of brook. This is available online at http://www.associationofriverstrusts.org.uk/passport/ribble/

The grant was for £3437 and helped to pay for the website, plus printing the vouchers and putting up boxes and signage.

Quernmore Primary School Sensory Garden
Quernmore school were previously supported through SDF to install a small wind turbine, which is proving very successful. They have now developed a corner of the school grounds by working with a local artist to design and develop a 'sensory garden' for pupils and visitors. The garden includes an all access path, a solar water feature, hedging, and plants which have distinctive textures, colours and smells. The garden will be made accessible to the general public, and later phases will create an iron gateway featuring designs and illustrations reflecting the local Bowland landscape. Total grant approved £6000.

Growing with Grace composting scheme
Growing with Grace, based just outside Clapham in the AONB, are  major organic vegetable growers who also produce compost from green waste collected by Craven district council. The composting scheme purchased new machinery with our grant of £8286, and a dedicated worker will carry out research to identify new products and markets in 2010 with match funding from the Yorkshire Dales SDF scheme.

Hornby Village Institute Heating Control
We supported Hornby village trust in their drive to improve energy efficiency in 2009 when they installed double glazing to the Institute's beautiful 1950's ballroom. This year they installed underfloor piping which will enable them to control the heating in the Institute, so that only the rooms being used need to be heated. This should significantly reduce their running costs in the future. The grant was for £1975

Transition Town Clitheroe
This new initiative is one of many nationwide, where community led groups are seeking to develop 'transition towns' which will support communities moving into a 'peak oil' scenario and beyond. Transition is all about coping with the changes this will bring, and the group in Clitheroe have started to raise awareness and set up working groups to look at issues such as transport, food growing and well being. Our grant of £2826  helped the group to purchase books, films and other resources, and to send members on specialised training courses. For more information go to http://transitionclitheroe.wikidot.com/

Gibbon Bridge Hotel shredder
Gibbon Bridge Hotel is one of the largest accommodation providers in the Forest of Bowland AONB, and a Silver GTBS award winner. As part of their commitment to the environment the hotel seeks to recycle as much waste as possible. Purchasing a new shredder with a grant of £3000 from SDF has enabled them to shred garden waste so it can be composted more easily. In addition cardboard, used in deliveries to the hotel, can be shredded and re-used as bedding for the hotel's hens, pigs, ducks and geese

Waddow Hall energy efficiency project
Waddow Hall is owned and managed by Girlguiding UK, and provides a wide variety of accommodation and conference and training facilities. As part of their drive to become more sustainable the estate have drawn up a plan to reduce their reliance on oil, and to cut electricity demand. A major scheme to install wood fuel heating is underway, but the SDF grant of £9000 helped to improve energy efficiency by installing insulation, radiator reflectors, light sensors and water saving devices.  

Middle Wood Trust – a sustainable building
This Roeburndale based study centre has been running educational courses on a variety of sustainability issues for many years. Our £9000 grant has enabled the Trust to make the centre more accessible to more people and to demonstrate good environmental and sustainable design. A major refurbishment of accommodation and washroom facilities was carried out, and solar thermal heating and new compost toilets were installed. 

Halton Community Centre rainwater harvesting system
A major refurbishment of this popular community centre has been carried out and many sustainable features have been incorporated. The management committee were keen to also harvest and use rainwater from the site, so our grant of £9000 has enabled them to install a large tank and piping system so that dependence on piped mains water is reduced.