Village caretaker scheme to expand

More than 20 parishes have already joined the scheme since it began a year ago across the Yorkshire Dales and Nidderdale.

There, communities receive as much as £5,000 from the Yorkshire Dales “Leader” programme so each can employ a parish caretaker to carry out a wide range of practical tasks to maintain villages and their surrounding countryside.

Now following the first year’s success, information is being distributed to more than 200 Dales parishes to inspire them to set up their own caretaker schemes.

Katy Penn, partnership manager at Nidderdale Plus which has helped spearhead the idea, said: “We are really pleased to have been able to help parish councils make such progress over this last year.

“Now that we have a tried and tested model, we want to make more parishes aware of the scheme and the support that is available, and to encourage shared learning and best practice across parishes.”

The most common village maintenance jobs carried out by the caretakers include picking up litter, playground and church yard maintenance, grass cutting and installing or maintaining notice boards.

Conservation and heritage work has also been carried out, with one parish even developing a woodland management plan.

Sue Ryding, parish clerk for one community that has already signed up, Burton-cum-Walden in Wensleydale, said: “The scheme has been a great help, not just financially, but also in allowing us to see how similar schemes work in other parishes and what could be achieved.”

“Leader” stands for the EU’s “Liaisons Entre de Development de l’Economie Rurale” initiative that has become part of the Rural Development Programme for England.