Charitable status bid to put Northumberland Coast Care project on sound financial footing

Plans are being put together to help put the Coast Care environmental initiative on a sounder financial footing.
The Coast Care team.The Coast Care team.
The Coast Care team.

The project, which sees volunteers carry out conservation tasks between Berwick and Amble, is now being managed by the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Partnership.

The scheme had previously been coordinated through a partnership also involving Northumberland Wildlife Trust and Seahouses Development Trust but support from the Heritage Lottery Fund came to an end in June.

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AONB manager Iain Robson, speaking at the organisation’s annual forum, said the transition period had been ‘relatively smooth’.

He added: “We’re about to establish a charity incorporated organisation which will help us bring in funding to make Coast Care a more sustainable operation in the future.”

The Bamburgh Bones initiative has been a success and thanks were given to project officer Jessica Turner who is leaving the AONB team.

Path wardens were working on the long-distance Coast Path and St Cuthbert’s Way, while it was hoped to build on the three parishes which already have path wardens.

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Mr Robson also revealed that plans are being scoped out for a large landscape project in the south of the AONB focused around the Aln and Coquet estuary areas but probably up to Longhoughton.

“There would be a broad range of projects within that looking at nature recovery, habitat improvement, understanding more about our historic environment and better access to the countryside but, more importantly, to connect people in that area with the landscape that’s on their doorstep,” he explained.

There had been 240 planning applications handled by the team during the year, close to three-quarters of them tourism-related.

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