Capital Grant scheme open for listed places of worship

A one-off capital grant scheme worth £1.1m has been made available for listed places of worship until April 2013. The Church of England and the National Churches Trust will distribute the funds. The Church of England has received £781,000 which it will allocate across its dioceses.
The National Churches Trust has received £319,000 and will run a grant scheme open to all listed places of worship that are not in the Church of England’s care. For more information, please visit http://nationalchurchestrust.org/supporting-you/grants/community-grants-new.php

English Heritage send out nationwide survey of farmers to look at heritage at risk

English Heritage estimates that there are some 1,600 Scheduled Monuments at risk from cultivation on farms across England. To tackle this problem and save these precious archaeological sites for future generations, it is sending out a nationwide questionnaire to farmers and land managers about farming and management practices on their land.

See http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/nationwide-survey-farmers/ for more information

UK Landscape Award 2012 Open to entries

Showcasing the best projects in the UK

The UK Landscape Award celebrates the power of the local landscape to benefit communities within it. Not only will the winner of the award represent the quality of UK projects but the winner and commended projects will be promoted as good examples of what can be achieved.

A landscape for Europe

The UK Landscape Award was created by the European Landscape Convention and helps to implement it in the UK. The winner will become the UK's entry to the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe (COE) which will be decided by the COE in 2013.

All kinds of landscapes are eligible to enter

The landscape might be newly-created, it could be the improvement or renewal of an existing landscape or perhaps it has brought new life or community involvement to an existing place. All types of landscape - urban, rural, peri-urban (urban edge), suburban, coastal, agricultural, industrial, designed, natural, cultural, appealing to or designed for children - might be eligible to enter.

Who can enter

To be eligible to enter the UK landscape Award, the project must have been carried out by a local or regional authority, a non governmental organisation (NGO), a registered charity or a partnership with or between the above. The project will also need to be available to the public for 3 years before the final submission date.

A great opportunity

The Award is a great opportunity for organisations to demonstrate how they work with communities to make better places for all to enjoy.

Important dates

Entries close at 12 noon on 19 October 2012. The winner will be announced in November 2012. The UK winner will then be submitted to the Council of Europe’s European Landscape Award for 2013.

Natural England reveals next steps for Marine Conservation Zones

The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and Natural England have presented the formal Advice Package on 127 recommended Marine Conservation Zones to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

This advice marks the latest step towards the Government’s objective to create a well-managed network of Marine Protected Areas to help protect the range of habitats and species in our seas by the end of 2016. The Advice Package is being provided to Defra to support the decisions the Environment Minister will make on the designation of MCZs after a formal public consultation is held (the consultation will start in December 2012).

See http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/about_us/news/2012/190712.aspx for more information

HLF launches new Strategic Framework 2013-18

As reported in the Heritage Alliance Update

Last week at a launch event at the British Museum, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) set out its plans for investing £375m a year of lottery money over the next five years, with the publication of its Strategic Framework 2013-18.

HLF Chair Dame Jenny Abramsky pledged to work with heritage organisations and other partners across the UK to build a resilient heritage economy, and outlined details of new funding streams designed to enable a strong, robust sector to rise to the challenging conditions it now faces.

The strategic framework for 2013-2018 includes plans to: run a further round of the Skills for the Future programme; offer development funding and professional mentoring, and introduce start-up grants and transition funding for organisations needing to cope with new challenges; kick start philanthropy through providing endowments and smaller grants for capacity building, and support for fundraising training; stimulate local economic growth with a new Heritage Enterprise scheme designed to fund partnerships – including social and private enterprises – to develop sustainable new uses for the most challenging historic sites; encourage the sector to use digital technology, by asking HLF-supported projects to make their digital content widely available at no charge and funding stand-alone digital projects; and extend HLF support for heritage in private ownership under the Our Heritage programme (£10,000 to £100,000) for physical works to heritage, provided they achieve a “step-change” in terms of public access and engagement. HLF also plans to continue to make the application process more straightforward, with the introduction of Sharing Heritage – a new grant programme for smaller projects needing £3,000-£10,000.

For further details and information on all the funding streams and initiatives, see the full Strategic Framework here. To see The Alliance's response to the HLF Strategic Framework, click here.

Natural England publishes Monitor of Engagement with the Natural Environment (MENE) survey

This study provides a wealth of useful evidence and sampled 47, 000 people in 2011/12, providing a unique data set on long term trends in countryside usage.

This year’s results show that:

• Volumes of visits to urban parks have increased 13 per cent and visits to paths, cycleways and bridleways have increased by 20 per cent since 2010/11.
• 68 per cent of visits were to places within two miles of the respondent’s home.
• 93 per cent of the population agreed that having open green spaces close to where they live is important. Also 86 per cent agreed that spending time out of doors was an important part of their life.
• Nearly 2.7 billion visits were made to English countryside, coast and open spaces last year - around 65 visits per adult.
• An estimated £20 billion was spent during visits to the natural environment in 2011/12.
• Nearly 1 in 6 people (16%) only visit the natural environment twice or less a year.

http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/about_us/news/2012/020712a.aspx

Check out our sister blog Wyvern Archaeology and History Update

This blog Features events, news and facts of relevance to the history, archaeology of North East Dorset, South Wiltshire and the Cranborne Chase.

http://www.historiclandscape.blogspot.co.uk/