Cash in on green projects

Green business ideas that might benefit the Yorkshire Dales National Park are being offered a cash grant to get started.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) – now in its seventh year of operation – aims to support new business ideas, community schemes and environmental projects that demonstrate ways of living and working in the Dales and that benefit the National Park and its communities.To date, more than £1 million has been awarded to 117 projects, large and small. And, in turn, the cash has attracted more than £2.5 million of match funding to the area from a wide range of statutory, voluntary and charitable sources.

Moya Turrell, the National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Officer, said: “The SDF is open to anyone and can fund a variety of costs both capital and revenue. We are particularly keen to support local businesses who want to go green.

“Applications from outside the National Park can also be considered as long as they show a clear benefit to the area. For example, we have funded a farm plastic recycling company based near Catterick, outside the National Park, which collects from farms within the boundary.”

In 2008, the SDF co-funded a wide range of projects such as Dales Bike Centre, which has been awarded the Yorkshire Post’s 2009 Environment Award for building projects under £1million. The centre, based in Fremington in Swaledale, is a dedicated cyclist facility comprising accommodation, cafe, bike hire, and bike retail and repair workshop. The judges obviously were impressed by the centre’s green credentials, which include a ground source heating system and water recycling bike wash and the bio-disc mini treatment plant, heat exchange kitchen ventilation system as well as every other area of the business being managed to limit waste, energy usage and environmental impact.

Owner Stuart Price said, “We are really pleased that the centre is being recognised for its green credentials. We would like to thank the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund and Yorkshire Forward Rural Enterprise Investment Programme for part funding of the whole project. Without their funding assistance we would never have got this project off the ground”.

For more information about the green credentials of Dales Bike Centre take a look at their website www.dalesbikecentre.co.uk or phone 01748 884908.

Support was also given to local businesses producing locally-sourced produce, such as the Sedbergh-based Laura’s Looms. With two grants from SDF, Laura has been able to develop and expand her business creating high quality woven ‘Howgill Throws’ using Bluefaced Leicester sheep fleece obtained from farms in Garsdale and Dentdale. She is now selling them both locally and on her website at www.laurasloom.co.uk.

In addition, the SDF provided cash to test a scheme that could offer a sustainable solution to the problem of the conservation of field barns in the Yorkshire Dales. The “Feildbarn” (correct) project aims to create a self-funding scheme to support the long-term repair and conservation of barns by building self-contained ‘pods’ inside that could be used for accommodation or light commercial use. The pods have minimal impact on the historic structure of the barn and are 100 per cent reversible.

The SDF is managed on behalf of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority by the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust.

Any organisations, individuals or businesses wanting application forms and further details about SDF funding for 2009/10 should contact Isobel Hall on 015242 51002 or email her at isobel.hall@ydmt.org. The first round deadline for funding is 14 August 2009.

Details and application forms are also available on www.yorkshiredales.org.uk.

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