News

Well done to all the village winners in Bowland and especially to those who won in the medium, small and hamlet categories – Chipping, West Bradford and Barley! Our villages add to the distinct character of Bowland and are something we should certainly be proud of.

Other winners were as follows:
Champion village – highly commended – Roughlee and Blacko
Large village – winner – Whalley
Medium village – winner – Chipping, runner up – Caton, highly commended – Brookhouse and Ribchester
Small village – winner – West Bradford
Hamlet – winner – Barley, runner-up – Arkholme
Most improved medium village - Caton

Festival Bowland

Festival Bowland is the new 'year-round' calendar of events that celebrate the birds, wildlife, landscape and culture of the Forest of Bowland AONB. Festival Bowland events allow us to showcase the area's special qualities and share with others what makes it such a special place for people and wildlife. Still led by local experts, landowners and businesses, this will replace the'‘Bowland Festival' that traditionally took place in June and provides a wealth of events and opportunities for people to explore the area's special qualities throughout the year. Look out for Festival Bowland events from January 2009. If you have an event that you would like to be listed as part of Festival Bowland please contact susan.macdonald@lancashire.gov.uk

Annual Report

Many thanks to all of those who contributed to the Forest of Bowland AONB Annual Report 2007/08. It features lots of excellent articles covering many outstanding achievements and is now available online. Please call Susan MacDonald on 01772 531473 to request a copy to be printed.

Sustainable Development Fund - open for business

This year we have £61,666 available to distribute as grants which can help to support sustainable development projects within the AONB. Since our first grants panel in June, where we made 7 awards, we have offered a further two small grants to Corio Raptor Care and Rehabilitation and to the Dalesbridge centre. These will enable the birds of prey rescue centre to establish a hospital wing (ha ha!) and the accommodation centre to improve its energy efficiency. The grants panel will meet again on 11 November and we hope to assign our remaining funds (around £14,000) to one or two deserving projects. If you have a scheme in mind which delivers both environmental, social and economic benefits within the AONB please contact Cathy Hopley on 01200 426433, or email cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk

Forest of Bowland AONB Literature

The Forest of Bowland AONB General Information Leaflet and Fishing in Bowland leaflets have been updated and reprinted and are available from Tourist Information Centres or download here. Bowland by Bike is currently being updated and will be available from the end of October.

Volunteers help build cycle trails

Volunteers have been helping to design and build cycle trails through Gisburn Forest during what was ludicrously called 'summer' and autumn. Volunteers from 3Ms Healthcare came out on 2 days as part of the firm's 'Employee Volunteering'' scheme, and other volunteers came out on 4 Sundays in August and September. These latter volunteers were a mixture of cycling enthusiasts - several from Sustrans, the UK's leading sustainable transport charity - local folk, and people just wanting to do something constructive on a Sunday. Sunday doesn't suit everyone however so we've come up with a variety of weekend dates to take advantage of the warm weather that we are due to have in November. So don't book that airline ticket - they may go bust! Come and help out in the forest, you would be very welcome, you'll have fun (probably get a bit dirty) and your efforts will be really appreciated. For further details visit the volunteering page of the website or contact martin.charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk .

Heritage Lottery Funding secured for the AONB

We are delighted to be able to announce that the Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded us a grant of £49,900 to support our new two year project called 'Landscape Stories'. We are currently advertising for a new project officer to join our team to deliver this exciting programme which will be working with four community led history projects looking at human influences in the Bowland landscape. For more details please email cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk or martin.charlesworth@lancashire.gov.uk or telephone 01200 426433.

Sustainable Tourism Business Network

There are now 73 members in the network meeting twice a year to share ideas and good practice.

New members include Brabin's Gallery in Chipping, John Clarke Fine Arts at Dunsop Bridge and Downham Post Office Arts and Crafts so quite a surge of interesting 'arty' projects! These provide both an outlet for local producers and places of interest for visitors. Downham Post Office is keen to find someone local who might have pottery to market, so if you know of anyone please contact mike.pugh@lancashire.gov.uk

The Network has taken on the "Bowland Experience" name and will be using this as an umbrella brand for promoting events, holidays, etc. we will keep you posted with updates on this.

Green Tourism Funding secured for Lancashire

We have recently secured funds to carry out a 3 year project to promote Lancashire as a green tourism county, and to further develop our sustainable tourism work in the AONB. This is an exciting joint venture with Lancashire County Developments Limited and Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board .

At the beginning of October the AONB unit ran a series of seminars to introduce the Green Tourism Business Scheme to tourism operators across Lancashire. Events were run at Chipping, Barley and Tosside Village Halls with attendance from 25 businesses. 14 businesses have now signed up to the scheme and a further 10 have expressed an interest in taking part this year. These businesses will be inspected by the Green Tourism Business Scheme in March 2009. Any business interested in being accredited or wanting to learn more about the scheme please contact hetty.byrne@lancashire.gov.uk

Natural Tourism Funding

A small grant has been secured for a Natural Tourism Demonstration Project funded by Natural Economy Northwest, to develop the wildlife elements of the website. This will include new bird profiles with sound and video clips, a wildlife blog, hen harrier video footage and a series of downloadable web walks based on various wildlife themes. Look at the website over the next few months to see these developments or for further information contact hetty.byrne@lancashire.gov.uk

Other AONB Projects

New areas of work currently being developed by the AONB Unit include the commissioning of a revised Landscape Character Assessment; gauging interest to respond to the Commission for Rural Communities 'Upland Communities' inquiry which will be investigating the current state of hill farming and upland communities in England www.ruralcommunities.gov.uk; and working in partnership with Natural England to consider how to support new applications from AONB landowners and farmers to the Higher Level Stewardship scheme. For further details, please contact donald.mckay@lancashire.gov.uk or cathy.hopley@lancashire.gov.uk.