Cumbria Rural Panel
The ‘Cumbria Countryside Forum’ was set up in 1991, providing organisations and individuals with a place to come together and discuss issues of concern to rural life. In 2000 this became ‘Cumbria Rural Forum’. More recently in 2016, a review considered the Forum’s effectiveness for the future, and resulted in plans to establish the ‘Cumbrian Rural Panel’.
Download the Cumbria Rural Forum Review Report
The Panel is intended to provide a balance of interests and expertise across different sectors of our rural county to: engage in meaningful debates; identify solutions; disseminate information; and promote action.
We would like to invite you to join the Cumbria Rural Panel, to help us gather information on pressing rural issues and be part of an effective rural voice. To join, or for more information, please contact Dani Hall on Tel: 01228 817224 or Email: danihall@cumbriaaction.org.uk
We're asking rural Cumbrian residents what services are important to them. This brief survey will provide a focus for the first discussions of the Cumbria Rural Panel.
ACTion with communities in Cumbria has been working with participants from seven village halls to design a Managing Risks Toolkit for the 300 plus halls across Cumbria.
The project aims to assist village halls to deal with the challenges of extreme weather events and other risks such as loss of income, issues within committees and other situations. It is funded by the Prince’s Countryside Fund and was awarded after Storm Desmond when a number of halls in Carlisle, South Lakeland and Allerdale were flooded.
ACTion with Communities in Cumbria (ACT) is supporting community resilience and emergency planning activities across Cumbria, as part of a 3 year BIG Lottery funded programme. This includes helping people to get together to share their experiences, think about future risks and what they might do to be better prepared.
ACTion with Communities in Cumbria (ACT) is 70 in October and using this milestone as an opportunity to celebrate the organisation’s past and also look to the future.
ACT’s Chief Executive Lorrainne Smyth says “We’ve changed our name several times in those 70 years, settling on ACTion with Communities in Cumbria back in 2008, but it is striking how little our aims, priorities and ways of working have changed since the beginning. We still rely on a core group of committed people as our staff and our Trustees and it’s still about making a difference by championing rural issues and working with communities.”
Village Halls around the country have been celebrating the first national Village Halls Week between 22nd and 26th January. Here at ACT we’d like to say a huge thank you for all the work you do in your communities and to share a few of the highlights in Cumbria and around the country.
ACTion with Communities in Cumbria (ACT) is encouraging village halls across the county to get involved in the first ever national #VillageHallsWeek starting Monday 22nd January 2018. This is a week-long celebration to say a collective “thank-you” to all volunteers who work tirelessly to keep community buildings and village halls open for the benefit of their communities.
Volunteers from six Community Buildings around Cumbria were presented with achievement awards by ACTion with Communities in Cumbria (ACT) at their recent AGM. Over 50 people attended the event at Sedbergh People’s Hall, celebrating the enormous contribution which Village Hall volunteers make to the communities they serve.