Cumbria Uplands Centre aims high

The prospects for creating a new and unique International Centre in Cumbria, which will seek ways to bring economic and social success for upland areas in the county and the world beyond, have moved into the final stage today with the consideration of two very impressive bids to take the project forward. The two bids are from a partnership consisting of the University of Central Lancashire and Voluntary Action Cumbria and a separate bid from an international consortium led by Lancaster University. 

Rex Toft Leader of Cumbria County Council announced the news at today's meeting of the Cumbria Strategic Partnership. 

The two bids were chosen from a shortlist of six institutions and agencies that took up a challenge to define new ways of tackling the social and economic problems of upland areas. The challenge was issued last autumn by a group of bodies led by, Cumbria County Council, which developed an idea proposed by Cumbria-based international mountaineer Sir Chris Bonington. The Steering Group saw the establishment of an International Centre for Sustainable Uplands in Cumbria as a major step forward in the county's recovery from the ravages of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001 and a spur to securing the future of upland areas in the rest of Britain, in Europe and even further abroad. 

Councillor Rex Toft, Leader of Cumbria County Council, says: 

"I am very pleased to announce this progression through to the final stage of the selection process. We see this being not just a huge boost to rural recovery but also a contribution to national and international thinking on this subject. The work generated by developing an International Centre will be of immense value to upland areas in many parts of Europe. Many of them are facing similar problems of decline in traditional industries like agriculture and need to work together across boundaries of all sorts to find ways to develop sustainable alternatives, such as tourism, and to find new ways of promoting the economic and social well being of the uplands. It will also be of value to their hinterlands, the neighbouring urban areas whose life is linked to theirs. The next stage of evaluation will be to see how the individual bids might be strengthened or how the two organisations might wish to collaborate to produce the perfect solution."