Annual Report 2007-2008 FOREST OF BOWLAND Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty www.forestofbowland.com Contents Chairperson's View 03 Training for Bowland Businesses AONB Manager's View 04 GTBS Community Futures 18 Natural & Cultural Heritage Lancashire Rural Futures 19 Traditional Boundaries 05 Lancashire & Blackpool Tourist Board 19 Natural England Hen Harrier Recovery Project 06 Tasty Bowland tempts TV and teachers 20 Hen Harrier Cam 06 RSPB Birds of Bowland Project 07 Enjoyment United Utilities Sustainable Catchment Ranger Services in Bowland 21 Management Programme (SCaMP) 09 New Forest of Bowland Harvey Map 22 Wyre Coast & Countryside Service 10 Cheese Trails 22 Volunteering in Bowland 11 Wyresdale Wheels for All 23 Sustainable Bowland - Village projects 11 Bowland Festival 24 Annual Conference - Landscape & Climate Change 12 Co-ordination & Management Stone Carving Workshops 12 Forest of Bowland AONB Management Plan Review 25 Social Equity & Economic Opportunity Publications and Leaflets 25 Forest of Bowland AONB Website developments 26 Sustainable Development Fund 13 Financial Summary 27 Sustainable Bowland 14 Membership 28 Forest of Bowland Business Network Contacts 29 Business's supported Cover Image - small skipper butterfly on Knapweed © Graham Cooper www.forestofbowlandimages.com The view from Whins Brow © Graham Cooper www.forestofbowlandimages.com www.forestofbowland.com 2 Annual Report 2007 - 2008 Chairperson’s View Locally produced food is getting more popular again for reasons of freshness and taste but also a desire by people to support their local farmers and food producers and reduce food miles. The attractive 'Taste of Bowland' brochure and the Leader Plus funded 'Cheesy Trails' with downloadable material on the Bowland website are one way of promoting local produce. Please check them out if you haven't already done so. The 'Sustainable Bowland' two year project reached its conclusion in March 2008. It has enabled the AONB Unit to work much more effectively with businesses and communities, illustrated by the many achievements described in this report. Overnight stays are more beneficial to the local economy on the whole than day visits so we have been encouraging green tourism. Our work has been of interest to many other areas in this country and elsewhere in Europe. Read all about it here in the annual report and on the website. One of the principal tasks of the Bowland Joint Advisory Committee is to make sure there is an up-to-date Statutory AONB Management Plan in place with the means to implement it. The legislation requires the plan to be revised and updated every five years and the local authorities are held accountable for it. So in late 2007 we began the review and I would like to thank everyone that helped get us off to a great start especially in local workshop sessions in Barley, Eldroth, Hornby, Scorton and Slaidburn and the Saturday drop in session at Chipping. It really does matter, as it is the statutory document that will underpin all our work through to 2014. We aim to complete the process by December 2008, in good time to meet the Secretary of State's deadline in March 2009. On a more informal note, I really enjoyed trying out for myself a new all terrain tramper last year that got me across a rough and difficult piece of ground that otherwise I could never have walked over due to an ailing knee. The use of the trampers to open up new experiences to the elderly and infirm, and those with disabilities, is really worthwhile and I know from the comments recorded by users that it's one of the Our farmers and landowners shape the landscape and we need a most appreciated things the County Council and the Bowland partners buoyant land management sector in Bowland confident in its ability to have achieved in recent years. adapt and prosper to keep sons and daughters on the land. In the same context I want to mention two long standing champions of There are so many examples of successful projects by the AONB farmers and landowners in Bowland and to personally thank them for partnership to read about in these pages and I have only mentioned a their long service to the Joint Advisory Committee and the Officers few, so 'enjoy' and be inspired for more good work in the coming years. working groups - so a big thank you to Rod Banks, recently retired Manager of the Abbeystead Estate whose canny advice will be missed by all. Also this is an opportunity to thank Henry Bainbridge, long time 'advocate' for upland farmers who, although he has retired from active farming, is still very much active in Bowland and helping on officers working groups and long may he be so. Looking to the future we will always welcome new interest and support from the farming and County Councillor Jean Yates landowning community. Chairman of the Forest of Bowland AONB Joint Advisory Committee County Councillor Jean Yates Chairman of the Forest of Bowland AONB Joint Advisory Committee 01524 859005 [email protected] www.forestofbowland.com 3 Annual Report 2007 - 2008 AONB Manager's View work of local businesses and the funding by local and regional agencies that backed us! If you want to see something of what has been done have a look at the Evaluation Report for the Sustainable Bowland project on the 'Plans, Strategies and Reports' pages of our website, or download some of the Sustainable Tourism Newsletters if you have a broadband connection. Because of the innovative work by the Bowland partnership over many years, Bowland attracts students and study groups. One Sunday in late November we had the pleasure of welcoming just such a group - 24 Norwegian researchers, planners, local and regional project leaders and politicians (including three mayors). They were from the West Norwegian Fjords, the Telemark Research Institute and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). They were enthusiastic to see and hear about how different communities and interest groups, with their own different Inspiration has often come from how we respond to landscape. For agendas, could find ways to rub along together and even join forces to many folk there is an added depth of interest in those landscapes that achieve great results, as they evidently had done in Bowland. reveal evidence of the past. One of the unexpected outcomes of our work with community groups, over the last two years in particular, has Split into two groups, one group visited the Pendle Hill outlier of the been the discovery of a rich seam of community interest, not only in AONB to hear about managing a traditional estate landscape of picture the remains of pre-history that you might expect, but also how local postcard villages, field and woodland, crowned by Pendle Hill itself. A land based industries of more recent centuries shaped their parish landscape under pressure from visitors seeking outdoor recreation and landscapes. With SDF funding we have been able to assist local history a venue for sports such as fell running, hang gliding and parascending. groups with projects in the past, and the demand for more information The second group saw one of our stone carving workshops in full has helped us draw up project proposals to bid for funding for the swing at Bolton-by-Bowland before heading on a circular walk to get to future. In coming reports we aim to see the fruits of these labours know the local issues better, pausing only for some very tasty local translated into tangible interpretation. baking and refreshments at the 'Village Shop, Post Office & Tea Room'. Monday saw the whole party visiting local businesses to see for Meanwhile, check out the beautiful 'Discover Bowland Guide' on the themselves how the AONB programmes were making a difference, and website, or the published version, to see the diverse ways of how businesses in Bowland were working together with the AONB to appreciating Bowland's living landscapes. achieve the highest standards in sustainable management. One of the most enjoyable episodes of the last 12 months for me was There were plenty of useful discussion sessions and the group made the round of six public 'Communities of Place' workshops held in use of our Bowland Sense of Place Toolkit to assist them in getting the villages around Bowland, where representatives of a range of local most out of these. It wasn't all serious though, and on the Sunday interests and members of the general public were invited to help evening the group relaxed for a while launching into an impromptu review and revise the Forest of Bowland AONB Management Plan. The 'choral' session of popular satirical Scandinavian songs, much to our workshops were one part of a larger suite of consultation activities to surprise and that of the staff and guests at the hotel. Thankfully inform the statutory review process. What might have been rather dry tolerance prevailed and everyone enjoyed the fun. and academic were instead lively, challenging and productive events. To help things along, refreshments and lunch were provided by local All our progress that attracts so much interest from far and wide would caterers. Participants certainly earned their lunches during the five half not be possible without the support of local communities and day workshops, generating some 1,200 individual comments. Check the businesses, continued investment by Natural England and the county Forest of Bowland website for progress on the Plan. and district councils, who have the statutory responsibility to plan for 'conserving and enhancing' our well loved AONB One important aspect of revising the Plan is to incorporate the Strategy for Sustainable Tourism, drawn up with tourism stakeholders in 2004/05. When I recently reviewed the Action Plan for the Strategy, I was Don McKay pleased to see how many actions we have already achieved in such a short time.