Chairman gets a flavour of rural issue
One NorthEast chairman, Margaret Fay, got a feel for the issues affecting rural areas when she toured Tynedale, yesterday, and met farming, tourism and high-tech businesses.
As the regional development agency gears up for the possibility of playing a more active role in rural affairs - if recommendations in the Haskins' Rural Delivery Review are adopted - Mrs Fay's visit included a trip to High House Farm in Matfen where farmer Steven Urwin has diversified into brewing.
Having spent years growing malting barley for national beer producers, Steven, 30, decided to start his own microbrewery at the family farm ale, with help from a Defra grant, through the Rural Enterprise Scheme and he is now supplying local pubs with his own recipe of traditional ale.
Steven came up with his business idea during the Foot and Mouth outbreak that severely affected farms in the area. Although his farm was spared, Steven realised the benefits of diversification away from mainstream agriculture.
He explains: "The impact of Foot and Mouth made many farmers assess their current operations and look at doing things differently. I wanted to find a niche market that wasn't far removed from my core business and that I had a real interest in - the result was the micro-brewery."
After sampling Steven's agricultural enterprise, Margaret Fay then met bosses at the Engineering Business in Riding Mill - one of the country's leading renewable energy firms.
The firm has been involved in the design and manufacture of tidal stream, wind and wave technologies that can be employed across the world to harness natural power and is currently developing the WaterBridge offshore wind turbine access system.
Devised and patented by the Engineering Business and constructed by the firm at its workshop on the Tyne, the equipment aims to make offshore turbines easier to access for maintenance purposes. Tested at the South Tyneside college test tank, and then trialled firstly in Blyth Harbour, and
then on the offshore turbines at Blyth, the WaterBridge has already attracted interest from the largest turbine manufacturer in the world. The offshore oil and gas industry is now taking up the idea, aiming to reduce helicopter transfers and opening up a huge new market opportunity for the Tynedale firm.
A tour of the Lord Crewe Trustees' Blanchland estate completed the visit. Here, local people are involved in developing a business plan aimed at sustaining the Estate and its community including tackling issues such as rural housing, support for the village businesses and concerns over CAP reforms, Open Access, climate change and future energy/transport supplies.
Margaret Fay also joined key figures from the area including Tynedale Council, Northumberland National Park Authority, National Farmers' Union and the Forestry Commission at a meeting in Haltwhistle.
