Lottery Answers SOS from Rural Communities

16/08/2011

A campaign to help Northern Ireland communities buck the trend of rural decline and revive village life by starting up new business ventures has been launched by the Big Lottery Fund. 

The UK-wide Village SOS Active campaign, which includes a £5m funding pot, will inspire people-powered change, helping communities to tackle the problems they face. They might revitalise community-owned pubs, local food businesses or arts and heritage facilities, to attract visitors, create employment and rejuvenate their villages.

Big Lottery Fund NI Chair, Frank Hewitt, said: “Every year local amenities such as shops and pubs close down in rural areas. The effects of this, along with limited transport options, rural isolation and lack of employment opportunities for young people, can all strike at the heart of village life.

“Through this campaign, the Big Lottery Fund will help people to tackle all this by bringing together support, information and expert advice on how to develop community enterprises, as well as the chance to get some Lottery funding to aid them.

Central to Village SOS Active is the www.villagesos.org.uk website, which will offer a range of tools and information to help people bring their ideas for community business to life. It will also enable people to share advice and first-hand experience through an online community network where people can discuss ideas and share solutions to common issues.

Villagesos.org.uk will direct people to the best source of funding for their community business, including more details about the Village SOS Active competition. The competition has £5m Big Lottery funding in awards of £10,000 - £30,000 for the brightest ideas for new community enterprises that will make a lasting difference in rural communities with a population of less than 3,000.

The Big Lottery Fund will also offer face-to-face advice to communities at a range of learning events across the UK, and a dedicated national advice line, run by rural community enterprise experts the Plunkett Foundation, where people can receive tailored advice on different aspects of setting up a community business.

An example of the type of project that could be developed with the support of Village SOS Active is Ballygally Community Association’s community hall and retail shop. The group, based in the coastal village of Ballygally near Larne, was awarded a grant from Village SOS to build the shop and hall in the village main street, transforming an eyesore into a vibrant social enterprise.

The village did not have a shop or post office and locals had to do a round trip of ten miles to get to the nearest shop in Larne. They have built a two storey facility with the shop on the ground floor and community hall on the second floor.

The association now hopes to offer a range of services including drama for young people and IT classes for older people, while the shop has post office facilities, an ATM, internet access and tourist information.

The launch of the campaign coincides with prime-time TV series on BBC One following the journeys of six UK villages, who received a £400,000 Big Lottery Fund grant each to set up a new community run business to rejuvenate their local area. Village SOS, currently showing at 8pm on Wednesdays on BBC ONE, shows what can be achieved when rural communities come together. Up first is Talgarth Mill, which is using its Lottery grant to restore the old village water mill to generate renewable energy and create an artisan bakery using flour ground on site, with accompanying cafe.

Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk                 

The six villages included in the Village SOS series on BBC One, in order of appearance, are:

• Talgarth - The villagers of Talgarth near Bronllys, Powys in Wales, will renovate the village's mill cottage to create a sustainable education and renewable technologies centre, with space for local enterprise and a gallery. An eco-cafe will also be established in the education centre and the old mill will be reinstated as a working flour mill, to produce and sell local bakery products.
• Honeystreet - Barge Inn Community Project, in Honeystreet, Wiltshire, was awarded a grant to purchase the Barge Inn’s lease (20 years) and operate it as a social enterprise, securing its future at the heart of the local community. As well as rejuvenating the pub itself, the project will run services including a village shop, campsite, and community activities.
• Caistor - Caistor Arts and Heritage Centre project will use Village SOS funding to breathe new life into a former Methodist chapel building in the historic rural village of Caistor.The project will create a hub for a range of arts and heritage activities. Local artists will have a space in which to make, sell and exhibit their work while visitors can browse through a shop selling local produce and souvenirs, or visit a cafe for refreshments.
• Myddfai - Myddfai charity Ty Talcen in Carmarthenshire, Wales, is developing The Myddfai Trading Company, which will create and sell a new range of craft products from the local community in Myddfai near Llandovery. It will draw upon the 13th century legend of the Physicians of Myddfai who were well-known for their skills in homeopathy and will see local people growing and selling herbal medicines under the Myddfai brand. The goods will be sold at a new purpose-built community facility replacing the current dilapidated 60-year-old village hall.
• Tideswell - Tideswell was known in the Middle Ages as 'the King's larder' and the project aims to capitalise on the village's history of producing quality food. Based on four elements - 'Grow it, Cook it, Make it and Sell it' - the new community-run business will include a community nursery, kitchen garden, Taste Tideswell brand, micro brewery and professional kitchen, which will be used to train local school children and as a venue for cookery courses for adults.
• Newstead - Based in the former mining village of Newstead in Nottinghamshire, this community plans to transform the site of the former pit tips into a thriving Country Park. A sustainable eco-build visitor centre will be built and the original finishing and polishing ponds transformed into angling lakes, working closely with the CAST project which uses angling as a way to engage with disadvantaged young people. There will also be an annual community music event on the site.

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