Grant will help promote South Pennines

South Pennines

A vision to create a South Pennines Regional Park moved a step closer today with the award of a £183,500 grant to Pennine Prospects, the area’s regeneration agency.

Backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund’s (HLF) Resilient Heritage Programme will last 18 months and will be used to improve sustainable management and build capacity in what would become the UK’s first designated park of its kind.

Pennine Prospects Chief Executive, Helen Noble, explained: “This National Lottery support, with partnership funding of £11,000, will build on our enviable track record of collaborative partnerships and support Pennine Prospects sustainable growth to become more resilient, securing sustainable resources and investments. We want to nurture a vibrant socially purposed South Pennines Regional Park – a people’s park for the 21st century.”

The South Pennines embraces parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester – a land of steep-sided valleys, heather moorland, distinctive market towns, canals, rivers and reservoirs. Often described as ‘spectacular’, ‘breathtaking’ and ‘dramatic’ it has inspired artists and writers over the centuries, from the Brontes to Angela Smyth.

The region is also home to internationally important wildlife species and includes a significant percentage of the UK’s blanket bog resource.

Despite all this it is the only upland landscape in England not to have statutory protection.

The funding will enable Pennine Prospects to recast itself as an innovative, dynamic and enterprising organisation that brokers and coordinates resources, partners, organisations and people to realise the vision for a South Pennines Regional Park. Specifically it will enable the organisation to:

• Undertake a governance review and develop a new organisational structure.
• Develop communication and advocacy strategies and plans.
• Undertake a fundamental review of financial management systems.
• Produce a new five-year sustainable delivery/business plan and to develop a framework through the business plan to progress a 10 year management plan.
• Train directors/staff/volunteers in transition/change management, risk management, communications, partnerships, collaboration and management systems.

Helen Noble continued: “It is fantastic news to secure the long-term sustainable future and viability of the organisation. Distinctive landscapes such as the South Pennines are facing many management, development and funding pressures.

“With the support from HLF and our partners, we want to co-create, demonstrate and give confidence on how investment can be aligned to deliver environmental, social and economic benefits. We aim to be the ‘go-to’ organisation, exploring innovative ways to champion the importance of our uplands to deliver clean water, carbon capture, flood mitigation and rich habitats. Investment in our local economies to create inclusive growth and local distinctiveness are also key aims, plus better access for everyone to our wonderful open spaces.”

Pam Warhurst, CBE, and Chair of Pennine Prospects added: “The South Pennines is an incredibly important landscape. To have support from HLF to build a fit for purpose governance structure for our South Pennine Regional Park is a game changer for our countryside and the people who live here.”

Set up in 2005, Pennine Prospects has secured over £10m investment and has delivered a wide range of projects to care for the heritage and enhance access and the appreciation of the South Pennine landscape.