£1m in grants help the Peak go green
The Peak District Sustainable Development Fund has given nearly £1m ingrants over the past five years to help "green" and educational projects inand around the National Park.
One of the latest grants will bring a big relief to farmers across the PeakDistrict who have to dispose of huge quantities of contaminated plasticwrapping. At present, most farm plastics are sent to China for re-cycling -an unwanted addition to the UK's carbon footprint.
But a £10,000 Sustainable Development Fund grant to a Yorkshire company, thenot-for-profit Green Business Network, will help them develop lower-costrecycling much closer to home. Once cleaned, the plastic will bere-processed into street and garden-furniture, decking, fence-posts,paving-blocks and pallets.
Other grants, of around £1,000 each, in the latest round of allocations havealso gone to:
* Bakewell Garden Allotments - to aid a feasibility study on sitesfor extra allotments due to high demand and inadequate current facilities
* East Cheshire Learning Community Project (£1,300) - acollaborative project involving four primary schools (Pott Shrigley, Wincle,Bosley and Kettleshulme) in creative study of local wildlife, working withrangers and artists
* Sheffield Black and Ethnic Minority Environmental Network(SHEBEEN) - to help diverse ethnic communities take an active interest inthe National Park, by walking, canoeing, rock-climbing and sight-seeing -accessed by public transport
* Living Art - a not-for-profit company based in Hathersage - for aLiving Landscape Exhibition, encouraging people to safeguard the NationalPark through inspirational photography.
Smaller grants went to Hollinsclough Primary School (between Buxton andLongnor) for bird-box monitoring equipment, allowing the children to followfledglings' progress, and to Sheldon History Group (near Bakewell), fordisplay boards and cabinets to showcase the village's heritage.
The Peak District Sustainable Development Fund is administered through theNational Park Authority and financed through Defra, which has given anannual £200,000 to each English national park since 2002. The grants areallocated by an independent panel of local people, and recipients are helpedto apply to other bodies for support, pulling in more than £1.43m inadditional grants to the Peak District in 2006/07 alone.
Peak District SDF officer Richard Godley said: "The Fund has made asignificant difference to the sustainable management of the countryside, andto greater understanding of sustainability, through working with localindividuals, businesses, community groups and young people.
"Projects helped range from school gardening projects and furniturerecycling to rainwater harvesting systems, hydro power surveys and renewableenergy projects including ground source heat pumps and small scale windturbines." More information:
www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/sdf
