Access Keys:

How do you rate this information / service?

Find My Nearest
Enter your postcode to find services and information for your area on a map e.g. schools, libraries and GP surgery
Translate this web page

21/10/03 - Cumbria projects helped over a hurdle

Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet is making special funding available to help move forward three projects which need specialist work to develop them. The projects are the first to seek help in this way.

They are the Bluebird Project at Coniston, the Grizedale Project and the plan for a railway attraction at Kirkby Stephen. All three need a feasibility study to help develop them to the point where they can apply for European Objective 2 funds from the Rural Cumbria Economic Development Zone managed by Cumbria County Council.

Cumbria County Councillor Lawson Short, Cabinet member with responsibility for economic development, said: 

“This help is being given from the European Technical Support Fund which the county council set up in May. It will allow these three projects to get over a hurdle which was holding them up.

All three need a feasibility study to be carried out in order to make out their case when seeking European Objective 2 funds through the Cumbria Rural EDZ. However, none of the three had the money available to pay for a study.

Cumbria County Council has addressed this problem by setting up the European Technical Support Fund especially for situations like this. These projects can now commission their feasibility studies and hopefully move on to the stage where they can apply for money for the projects themselves.

If these projects are not kept moving forward there is a danger that the funding they want will be lost to Cumbria and allocated elsewhere.  We have used limited funds to make early progress and anticipate more substantial support from Rural Regeneration Cumbria.”

  • The Bluebird Project has been awarded £7,700 towards the £15,400 cost of an appraisal to explore the ethics of restoring Donald Campbell’s Bluebird, recently recovered from the bottom of Coniston Water, and displaying it in the Ruskin Museum, Coniston. The study will also look at the economic effect of the project on the area.
  • The Grizedale project has been granted £10,000 towards a £225,706 feasibility study into a proposed new development in Grizedale Forest. The £4 million scheme would include a refurbished visitor area, play and adventure areas, residential centre, arts centre and forest arts project. The aim is to bring in more visitors to the economic benefit of the area.
  • Another £7,500 has been awarded to help with the £15,000 cost of a further feasibility study into the plan for a railway heritage centre and operational railway as a visitor attraction at Kirkby Stephen East Station. This study will assess the economic value of the project to Kirkby Stephen and will finally determine its viability.