Rural Target Fund case study

The Rural Capitals (previously Renaissance Market Towns) Delegated Fund is designed to improve the quality of place in our market towns. Managed and delivered by the relevant local authority, projects put forwards for delegated funds must be included in the renaissance plans for the town and supported by the Town Team.

Independently these projects are small scale, yet together they have a measurable outcome across the region, have a significant impact locally and lever in substantial match funding. Often in our market towns it is the smaller projects which involves the community and sees volunteers participating.

The projects also win awards. The Ure Walks in Boroughbridge has won an Action for Market Towns award for Environment and Culture in 2008.

Ure Walks, Boroughbridge

Project need

The Renaissance Market Towns (RMT) process across North Yorkshire identified the need for a mechanism to support investment into small scale projects within the RMT towns. Lessons from the Market Towns Initiative (MTI) and other projects based within Yorkshire’s Market Towns have shown us the importance of supporting regeneration at a local level. The delegated fund is therefore integral to the successful delivery of RMT in North Yorkshire.

The aim of the fund is to enhance the quality and economic vibrancy of North Yorkshire’s RMT’s through a targeted package of local regeneration initiatives based on the RMT business plans.

Skipton

The fund

In the period 2006 – 2009 each RMT programme in North Yorkshire was allocated up to £10,000 per year under the title Rural Target Fund (RTF), and needed match funding. Town Teams were asked to make an expression of interest and working together with the RMT team a delivery plan was compiled. Projects had to be public realm or capital build. North Yorkshire County Council delivered the programme and managed the grant payments.

Whitby Skate Park

Selection of Projects and Delivery

There was no formal bidding process for this programme. Instead, a delivery plan was prepared for each financial year through which projects were commissioned from RMT Business Plans. Town Teams were asked to select and approve the submission of a project with indicative match funding to Yorkshire Forward’s RMT team in January of each year. In March of each year North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) asked for full project proposals and then assessed, oversaw and managed project delivery. NYCC then monitored delivery and reported spend and outputs to Yorkshire Forward.

Town Windows, Knaresborough

Project Eligibility

Up to £10,000 was available for each town in each financial year, though some towns were able to access more money if other towns could not spend their allocation. Projects had to be identified in the town’s delivery plan and capital funding based; either public realm or capital build. Up to 50% match funding could come from the
fund, the rest had to come from other sources, which could not include other Yorkshire Forward or European funding. This has been modified in the new Delegated Fund which operates from 2010 so that LEADER funding (which comes from Europe) can be used as match funding.

Assembly Rooms art panels, Bedale

Support was and continues to be provided by the RMT team and NYCC to assist towns in selecting projects and making applications. The towns included that were eligible to apply were:

Priority Towns
• Skipton – Craven District
• Richmond and Catterick Garrison
• Richmondshire District
• Knaresborough – Harrogate Borough
• Northallerton – Hambleton District
• Malton and Norton – Ryedale District
• Whitby – Scarborough Borough
Transition Towns
• Settle – Craven District
• Boroughbridge – Harrogate Borough
• Bedale – Hambleton District
• Helmsley – Ryedale District
• Pickering – Ryedale District
• Kirkbymoorside – Ryedale District
• Pateley Bridge – Harrogate District
• Thirsk – Hambleton District

Fleece Cottages ginnel, Bedale

Funded projects

The projects which have been supported under the RTF are very diverse and have included:

• Ure Walks, a series of way-marked trails in the Boroughbridge area;
• In Skipton, Weirside Gardens, canal side improvements, Kyber Pass footpath improvements including lighting and security, and footpath improvements to Tin Bridge;
• In Richmond, Trinity Church Tower lighting, Coronation Park lighting, and improvements to the appearance and marketing of Richmond Market.
• Ginnels in Bedale, including a key route into the town connecting central car parking with the town centre along Fleece Cottages, thereby improving the user experience for visitors and residents alike;
• Knaresborough Town Windows, trompe l’oeil paintings inserted into several of the town’s blind windows as part of the feva (Festival of Visual Arts) improving the visitor offer of the town;
• Improvements to Pickering Castle Walk;
• In Helmsley funding has been supported Helmsley in Bloom, the Arts Centre and the Sports and Community facility;
• In Malton and Norton a new public park was created, improvements to Commercial Street were made and facade improvements were made to the Palace Cinema;
• Whitby Skate Park.
• Money has also been spent in several towns, including Bedale, Northallerton, Settle and Thirsk, to improve signage for both road users entering the town and for pedestrians.

Tin Bridge, Skipton

Community involvement

These projects have high visibility and are good at engaging the wider community in renaissance; additionally they are of a scale that facilitates town team involvement in project delivery and therefore promote local ambition and leadership. The Town Team will have been involved with the projects from an early stage as to be eligible for RTF funding the project must have been identified within the original master or business plan and have Town Team support. All of this promotes the longer term sustainability of RMT.

For all RMT towns it should be noted that the availability of funding for smaller projects often results in a greater involvement of the community in the development of those projects. This gives a greater sense of ownership than often results from the larger scale projects from which individuals can sometimes feel excluded; such inclusion is essential to creating strong community links and sustained engagement in the renaissance process. Without the flexibility to fund these small projects these additional outcomes would be lost.

Added value

The money given by the target fund will kick-start small projects for which funding cannot be gained from elsewhere. These projects provide measurable additional economic benefit to the local area which could not be achieved without initial public sector investment and this is why a second fund has been given approval. Yorkshire Forward investment often gives others potential funders (both public and private) the confidence to invest in these activities.

The Rural Capitals (previously Renaissance Market Towns) Delegated Fund is designed to improve the quality of place in our market towns. Managed and delivered by the relevant local authority, projects put forwards for delegated funds must be included in the renaissance plans for the town and supported by the Town Team.

Kirkbymoorside environment improvements

The way forwards

The Delegated Fund which runs from 2010 to 2012 will allow for continued renaissance activity in the six priority 1 towns and eight priority 2 towns where funding for larger scale capital projects is not available under the Rural Capitals programme.

The Delegated Fund will operate slightly differently to the RTF as it has two strands both aimed at creating an investment scheme to allow all RMT towns to continue the delivery of projects in their business plans.

Strand one will allow the priority 1 towns to apply for up to £10,000 per year as 50% match funding for smaller RMT projects. For them this is therefore a continuation of the successful RMT Rural Target Fund. This will be in addition to any major investment in large scale renaissance projects within these towns.

Strand two will allow the priority 2 towns to apply for £90,000 in total over 3 years as 50% match funding to further their RMT project delivery and promote sustainability of the RMT process. This is the only RMT funding that the priority 2 towns will be able to receive from Yorkshire Forward whereas the priority 1 towns will be able to bring forward much larger projects for YF support and seek funding from the Rural Capitals budget.

Recent work undertaken by our Tourism team, looking at Tourism Futures, has shown that work needs to be done to increase visitor stay and spend within the region. Many of the market towns within North Yorkshire depend on the tourism sector for a substantial part of their economic prosperity.

Castle Walk, Pickering

A significant number of the individual projects that are likely to be delivered through this project will be to improve the quality of place and visitor offer, thereby working towards increased visitor stay and spend. Additionally good quality places increase social cohesion and help create a sustainable local community; there is a strong evidence base which demonstrates that civic pride is stronger in economically successful places and vice versa.

The community involvement in these projects promotes local leadership and ambition and therefore supports the longer term sustainability of Renaissance in the priority 2 towns; enabling the process to continue after Yorkshire Forward funding ceases. These projects are often small in scale but when taken together give a real and measurable benefit.

Funding

In the years 2006 – 2009, Yorkshire Forward’s RMT programme contributed £441,000 which levered in a total of £553,543 match funding, the match funding attracted exceeds the target of 50% set out in the original business plan and shows the confidence created in the towns by Yorkshire Forward demonstrating their support through the RMT programme and the Delegated Fund.

Bedale Ginnel

Successes

• Several small scale projects where able to be delivered, which have made significant improvements to the towns. Without the commitment of funding from Yorkshire Forward, it is unlikely that these projects would have secured funding.
• The town teams were actively engaged in selecting projects to be delivered and in some cases involved in the actual delivery, this gave the team confidence in what they
were doing and has helped inspire many to continue working towards improving their towns.

Lessons Learnt

• There is still a need for some revenue funding for small scale projects this is being addressed by providing an opportunity for some revenue funding in 2011/12.

More about this success story
For information on the Rural Target Fund 2006 - 2009 or the Delegated Fund 2010 – 2012 please contact:
Jacquie Boulton
Yorkshire Forward
Spitfire House
Aviator Court
Clifton Moor
York
YO30 4GY
01904 696706
jacquie.boulton@yorkshire-forward.com