September 2007 Cumbria County Council Business Gazette - Crisp cash boosts county communities
Last month's foot and mouth outbreak resurrected six-year-old memories of funeral pyres in the Cumbrian countryside.
Terrible and symbolic as they were, the 2001 epidemic flushed out stories of persistent social and economic deprivation in numerous rural Cumbrian communities that had existed long before the disease emerged.
While on the surface much of our county appears to be as idyllic as a chocolate box, the glorious scenery often masks serious problems with run-down services exacerbating the problems of isolated communities.
Cumbria County Council's innovative CRISP scheme (Cumbria Rural Infrastructure Support Programme) began to address some of these problems in 2005/06 with cash-funding for a range of new job-creating and socially worthwhile enterprises. Alan Air brings the story up to date as a new round of grants totalling £300,000 becomes available
Louise Dinnes, owner of the Black Swan at Raven-stonedale, near Kirkby Stephen, is full of energy, enthusiasm and optimism. She also has business acumen, a passion for Cumbria and a strong sense of community spirit.
It was the latter quality that drove her to open a shop in an annexe of her hotel - at a time when public transport and other local businesses had long gone to the wall.
With the help of a fifty per cent grant from CRISP and valuable advice and mentoring from Pub is the Hub, her community shop opened its doors earlier this summer to widespread acclaim.
"The support from local people and visitors to the area has been fantastic," she says, "and whilst we have to subsidise it through the hotel it is the kind of community venture that I would urge more people to consider getting involved in."
The shop sells groceries, fresh bread, local produce, newspapers, arranges postage and package deliveries through the Royal Mail and promotes local arts and crafts.
"We knew at the start that it would never be a profit-making exercise but we can use any unsold foodstuffs in our hotel so there is as little waste as possible.
"Both my husband and I are passionate about the area, it is absolutely beautiful and we are firm believers that pubs and village shops are the cornerstones of local communities.
"We are committed to both the hotel and the shop and the support from local people and visitors since we took over a year ago has been marvellous."
The Black Swan Hotel community shop is one of 36 success stories since CRISP was established two years ago.
Others include:
- £25,000 to create a new job in Brampton to improve com munity health;
- £20,000 towards renovating a house and providing childcare places in Calthwaite;
- £15,000 towards establishing five community websites containing news, events, a directory and marketplace in the Alston area;
- £12,000 towards developing a parish centre for community use in South Lakeland;
- £9,000 towards providing a low cost, good value Christmas hampers of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat to community co operative groups in deprived areas of North Cumbria.
Tim Heslop, Cumbria County Council cabinet member for economic development, acknowledges that the geography of Cumbria and scattered communities of small numbers of people often makes shops, pubs and childcare services economically unviable.
Official statistics illustrate the scale of the problem. In Cumbria 8,600 households live more than 8km from a bank or building society and 9,000 households live more than 9km from a petrol station.
Many people face travel distances for health services that are well above the national average. Nearly 10 per cent of households have to travel more than 8km to a surgery and more than 25 of all settlements with no surgery are more than 12km from a hospital. Furthermore, 17.6 per cent of households in rural Cumbria do not have a car at a time when government funding for public transport in rural areas is lagging well behind that for urban areas.
"We set up CRISP funding especially to tackle some of these rural sparsity issues," says Mr Heslop. "Sometimes it might be a case of helping existing businesses by finding a way for them to host other services like putting post office services into pubs. Sometimes it might be about establishing new enterprises or expanding existing childcare facilities.
"But it is always about supporting the local economy and backing local services." Businesses, community groups and local initiatives are now being invited to apply for a further £300,000 of funding from Cumbria County Council to underpin worthwhile ventures.
CRISP offers up to 50 per cent of project costs up to a maximum grant of £25,000.
A three-year business plan is required by applicants and to qualify for potential funding the project should:
- Be located in a rural area or planning to initiate an activity which primarily benefits rural residents;
- Provide a service that will deliver identifiable benefits to rural residents suffering from economic or social exclusion;
- Demonstrate significant evidence of need and community support;
- Have the potential to achieve financial stability;
- Demonstrate that the applicants have the necessary skills and expertise to deliver the project and bring it to fruition;
- Ideally be working within or complimenting local plans and strategies