The Northern Heartlands Great Place Scheme

Northern Heartlands combines the catchments of two rivers in SW Durham – the Tees and the Wear – extending from their sources in the North Pennines to the lowland arc through which they flow. The area includes the market towns of Barnard Castle (pop 5,494), Bishop Auckland (pop 24,392) , Shildon (pop 9,976) and Crook (pop 10,019), all of which serve a hinterland of smaller towns and villages, isolated farms and wide expanses of open moorland. The area is delineated by four local authority area action partnership boundaries (Teesdale; Weardale; Three Towns and Bishop Auckland & Shildon ) sharing many community-focused strategic priorities.

Our Great Place also embraces three National Character Areas as defined by Natural England: Durham Coalfield Pennine Fringe (NCA 16), Pennine Dales Fringe (NCA 22) and North Pennines (NCA 10). A summary of Natural England’s descriptors of NCA 16 goes some way towards explaining the rationale behind our ‘cultural landscape’ approach to this application.

“The coal mining and steel industries have had a strong influence on the landscape and sense of place and many industrial historic features remain, such as railway lines, bridges, viaducts and coke works, along with several country houses built by wealthy colliery owners.”

To the west of this post-industrial landscape lies the North Pennines, an area with its own distinct identity characterised by remote upland moors divided by quiet dales. To quote the NCA10 definition:

“It is characterised by a sense of remoteness, with few settlements, slow change and cultural continuity. It comprises some of the highest and most exposed moorland summits in England”

Our Great Place is an area which, because of its geology, formed the rural cradle of the industrial revolution, which in turn has shaped current topography. What unites the communities who inhabit our Great Place is an awareness of landscape: a landscape which tells the story of a shared farming, quarrying, mining and railway heritage; a landscape driven by its role in servicing urban settlements across the country.

In recent years, with the closure of the coal mines and demise of heavy industry, combined with the economic struggles of hill-farmers, it has become an area suffering from a slow drip-feed of neglect, with both upland and lowland communities facing lack of investment, scant resources and economic hardship:

• The health of people in County Durham is generally worse than the England average. About 23% (19,800) of children live in low income families. Life expectancy for both men and women is lower than the England average (Public Health England) and some parts of the Northern Heartlands area fall well below average according to the 2015 Index of Multiple Deprivation.

• The Wear Valley is the 19th from bottom in England’s areas of least engagement (Active People survey).

• The area includes 29 ‘heritage at risk’ sites, from rock art and Romano-British hut circles to 19th century chapels and farm infrastructure, as well as a number of former lead mining and coalfield sites.

Yet from the ashes of this demolished past there has arisen more recently a small flourishing of arts and cultural activity ; assets have been sustained and developed – often with the support of private as well as public funding – including venues such as The Bowes Museum and Auckland Castle as well as local authority managed sites such as Killhope Lead Mining Museum, Bishop Auckland Town Hall and the Durham Dales Centre in Stanhope. The Witham in Barnard Castle is a recently renovated Victorian community building which is now a thriving arts venue. There has been significant investment in the creative industries over the last 5 years, with EU funding providing support for Durham Creatives. And Bishop Auckland has seen investment of a different kind with the philanthropist and entrepreneur Jonathan Ruffer establishing an ambitious programme of renovation to Auckland Castle and cultural regeneration in the town centre, alongside a volunteer based outdoor theatrical experience.

In 2011, HLF funding was secured for the Heart of Teesdale Landscape Partnership (HoT). This highly successful Landscape Partnership (2011-16) placed landscape, arts and culture at the heart of the local narrative, and culminated in the ‘Artists, Farmers and Philosophers’ Symposium (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/mccordcentre/research/projects/afp_symposium.htm). The Symposium set out to explore “types of grassroots expertise pertinent to understanding the character and dynamics of our cultural landscapes”. It is this focus on landscape, arts, culture and heritage, the relevance of a cultural landscape approach and our understanding that local voices can influence policy and decision-making which leads us to believe that we are ideally placed to become one of the first rural ‘Great Place’ schemes in England. We aim to establish an effective model of good practice which could be replicated in other rural contexts across England.

This bid is being driven by the independent ‘HoT Legacy Group’. Our experience in delivering a successful £2.7 million HLF Landscape Partnership means we are in a strong position to roll out this model with a range of partners who have informed and shaped our narrative, including key arts and cultural organisations as well as national landscape bodies, academics, and local community organisations who will share in the delivery of the Scheme. Lead partners are Visit County Durham (VCD) - the accountable body - The County Durham Cultural Partnership (CDCP) and the County Durham Community Foundation (CDCF) who will have a key distribution role. The concept for Northern Heartlands has been covered in the local press and we have consulted with local residents with a public open access meeting in Barnard Castle on 14 December 2016. We have received 30 letters of support from organisations across the region.

Northern Heartlands aligns with VCD priorities outlined in the destination management plan for Co Durham, the blueprint for development in support of economic growth. The project also aligns with the new place branding for the county, This is Durham - Place of Light, highlighting the residents and communities of Durham in order to attract the businesses, people and innovation needed for economic success.
Project Delivery

At the heart of our work we will be talking with and listening to local people. We are not presenting a fixed programme of projects but rather a process of engagement, response and activity with grass roots communities and with more strategic communities of interest .

Our programme will operate at two scales:

1. 
   Reaching out across the whole Northern Heartlands area, using a light-touch set of processes in partnership with CDCF and CDCP. This programme will be responsive and build on our experience of managing HoT’s popular small grants scheme (Community Initiative Fund). The CIF will provide us with the flexibility to be able to deliver projects when opportunity arises and where outcomes match those of the GPS.
   

2. 
   A more proactive and targeted approach working with two discrete areas:
   

1. 
   The remote upper dales, with their isolated settlements and marginal hill farming.
   
2. 
   The villages of the former Durham coalfield facing high levels of deprivation, disengagement and loss of purpose
   

Northern Heartlands will work with strategic partners such as NE Culture Partnership, Local Enterprise Partnership, Local Nature Partnership and the local authority to organise a rolling programme of speaker and discussion events to explore and develop a strategy which promotes the role of landscape, heritage, culture and the arts as drivers of social and economic change. We envisage a regular programme of event such as business breakfasts and creative gatherings across our area as a platform for cross fertilisation between knowledge networks and the exchange of ideas.

We will appoint 2 Community Liaison officers who will work closely with communities, identifying need and areas of interest and brokering relationships with appropriate artists. Poetry, filmmaking, crafts, sound recording, sculpture and photography are just some of the many avenues we will make available to communities to express their stories, their sense of place and identity and their understanding of the decisions which affect their lives. The fruits of these activities will contribute to the Headline Opportunities, outlined below, and feed into policy and decision making through the channels that the scheme puts in place. Training will be offered to artists, through arts organisation The Forge, to enable them to lead these participatory sessions effectively. Under this strand we will support and enhance existing projects such as the N Pennines AONB team’s work to celebrate geological heritage through the visual arts.

We will build on our relationships and work with regional universities and match communities to researchers where it is clear they can work to mutual benefit. Our emphasis will be on researchers from the Arts and Humanities whose insights are to become a bigger influence on landscape policy than they have been. For example, researchers in philosophy at Durham will work with farmers to critique the language of policy and develop arguments that give due account of local nous and local knowledge in policy. We already have strongly articulated support from Dr Liz McKinnell and Professor Holger Maehle from the Department of Philosophy at Durham University for this aspect of our work (see attachment: Letters of Support). We also have active engagement from the McCord Centre for Landscape Research, Newcastle University. Over the lifetime of the Scheme communities working with diverse researchers will establish the channels and methods by which to articulate their voices and their sense of place in the policy arena.

We will offer a range of exciting Headline Opportunities all contributing towards building a common purpose across the area. These include:

1. 
   Community Opera
   

2. 
   Countdown to 2025: Our Railway Heritage
   

3. 
   On The Farm
   

4. 
   The Museum at Large
   

This will be open to any group within our area whose projects support our objectives. Grants will be awarded to groups to develop and deliver concepts with minimal support from our staff. The fund will be managed by CDCF.

We will disseminate information widely, through local press, social media and our partnership organisations. In addition, we will link with local health centres, Durham Carers Association, Active Durham, Public Health, mental health groups and UTASS (Upper Teesdale Agricultural Support Services) to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to take part. We are keen to ensure diversity and equality, we will work with those who are least engaged, and will connect with the traveller community (both locally settled and en route through Barnard Castle to the Appleby Horse Fair every May) and with refugees. We will build on our track record in HoT of working with young people and older people in residential settings, and we will also endeavour to deliver work in Deerbolt YOI in Barnard Castle. We will ensure that we find consumer-friendly ways of collecting data about those who take part and ensure this information is disseminated and shared. The CIF will have 3 rounds of grant making which will enable people to get on board as the programme progresses. We will develop a Northern Heartlands brand and work with VCD on place marketing to develop a better integration of landscape and culture in attracting tourism and investment. We will ensure that Northern Heartlands also has a profile in places where local people meet – for example the popular Agricultural Shows which take place in a number of villages and market towns in the Dales every summer.

With VCD as lead partner we will ensure that the area is featured in the destination plans for County Durham as well as in neighbourhood plans for each parish, town and community. Neighbourhood plans are at a mixed stage of development; some are complete and some not yet started. This will be an opportunity to influence the shaping and review of those plans and to ensure that local people have a clear voice in their development. The mechanisms that exist through the AAPs will enable us to evidence the outcomes of our activity in measurable ways (eg number of people with improved well being) to a wide range of cross-agency organisations and services.

One of the key outcomes for our programme of debates and events is to encourage regional agencies to look at the potential for culture to be a driver of economic development in the region. We will continue to support the work of Durham Creatives, encouraging start-ups for SMEs and sole traders working in the creative industries. We will employ mechanisms used by VCD to measure the economic impact of our projects in terms of increased visitor numbers, overnight stays and impact on local businesses.

As a result of Northern Heartlands, local organisations will have a stronger profile. We will encourage and support local people to attend events, visit museums, galleries, libraries, arts and visitor centres and also find ways to support other organisations such as the AONB to promote activities such as TeeSwale and their Dark Skies Discovery project. There will also be a stronger dialogue and more opportunities for partnership working between organisations and we will encourage initiatives such as shared back office facilities for smaller organisations.

Arts, culture and heritage organisations will have built sustainable partnerships with other sectors, agencies and organisations in the local area, and culture will be reflected in local plans and strategies

We will ensure that the wide range of partners involved in this project will have the opportunity to engage with each other in active dialogue. Already we have generated a huge amount of interest from arts organisations, the local authority, the LEP, Durham and Newcastle Universities, North Pennines AONB and from local residents through the process of preparing this bid. We are confident that the dialogue resulting from the cross-fertilisation of these groups will be strong enough and loud enough, when articulated through artists, to affect real change.

We will lead in the debate about the role of culture, landscape and art in place making and its potential for social and economic development and we will engage with other Great Place Schemes (particularly those in rural areas) to reflect on learning and draw together a set of findings.

As well as culminating in a major arts event of national significance (the community opera), our Northern Heartlands Great Place Scheme will also conclude with a 3-day Symposium, extending the reach and profile of the first Artists, Farmers and Philosophers Symposium, which generated ideas about cultural landscape which we know were talked about and shared in University settings, amongst farmers and landowners, amongst artists, amongst local people - and in Westminster.

Our project will not end after three years. The County Durham Cultural Partnership will be well-placed to continue the work that has started; it will be recognised as the vehicle for all key organisations to join and share our vision: that the arts, culture and heritage can help to create a sense of place, create prosperous, healthy and cohesive communities and that this part of County Durham, so rich in landscape, in history, in heritage, can once again find its beating heart.

Northern Heartlands, Great Place Scheme

Project Management

A key strength of the Northern Heartlands Partnership lies in its independent structure.

This is the lead partner, applicant and accountable body for the project, the company is the destination management organisation for Durham, established in March 2006 and is a company limited by guarantee. Legally responsible for receiving and applying funds consistent with the contract between VCD Ltd and HLF. Employer of Northern Heartlands (NH) staff. Recruitment and procurement practices and diversity and access policies are as for Durham County Council.

Advising on policy and strategy of NH and its work plan but subject to the VCD Ltd/HLF contract and the delegated authority of VCD Ltd. Oversight of the overall NH project. Made up of representatives of key partners and interested individuals to feed in ideas and advice. The Managing Director of VCD Ltd will be a member of the NH Advisory Board and will be the link to the VCD Board. NH Director in attendance

Smaller group made up of members of the NH Board. More detailed engagement with plans and progress between Board Meetings. Concerned with the work of the project team, but not management of the staff. NH Director in attendance.

The VCD Ltd Managing Director will line manage the NH Director.

The NH Director will line manage the NH staff.

Reporting and Consultation

There will be a regular Partners Group and Public Meetings to report on progress, feed in ideas and comments and to participate in the evolving debate about the role of culture and landscape in the social and economic development of the region.

The project will employ six staff members with the following roles and responsibilities:

This will be a key outward-facing role, representing Northern Heartlands to outside agencies, decision makers and strategic partners and leading in the debate about the role of culture. The role will include:

• 
  managing all aspects of the Northern Heartlands Partnership (NHP) and reporting to the Advisory Board.
  
• 
  liaising with Visit County Durham as the lead Partner, recipient of the Great Place Scheme grant and employer of the NHP staff
  
• 
  managing the staff of NHP and overseeing outside service provider agreements.
  
• 
  representing NHP and its approach to outside bodies
  
• 
  leading in the debate about the role of culture, landscape and art in place making and its potential for social and economic development.
  

This will be a key resource to enable us to be ' talking to local people', 'exploring new ideas', 'creating new tools' and ' building capacity'.

• 
  To lead on the development and implementation of processes which will enable NH and the broader Great Place Scheme to learn from the experience of NH and other schemes where possible.
  
• 
  To engage with knowledge networks across different sectors including universities and other institutions who will facilitate our learning and enable them to engage with the NH dynamic at both local community and regional 'communities of interest' levels.
  
• 
  To engage with the external evaluators for NH to feed learning into evaluation and to enable NH and others to learn from the ongoing evaluation process.
  
• 
  To facilitate and feed learning into the debate about the role of culture, landscape and art in place making and its potential for social and economic development.
  
• 
  To facilitate and feed learning into the process of local communities understanding themselves and their heritage and having their voices heard.
  
• 
  To engage with other Great Place Schemes and particularly those in rural areas, to reflect on learning and draw together a set of findings.
  

The two community facilitators will work closely at grassroots level throughout the project. Their responsibilities will include:

• 
  Identifying suitable communities/groups to work with to achieve the Northern Heartland objectives.
  
• 
  Working work with selected communities to hear their interests and select suitable artist(s) to work with them and enable priorities, needs, concerns and aspirations to be articulated
  
• 
  Supporting the artists and communities in their work.
  
• 
  Facilitating the travel and linking of communities with each other and possible resources such as Museums, historic sites etc.
  
• 
  Feeding into joint activities and the debate about the role of culture, landscape and the arts in development and regeneration.
  
• 
  Feeding into policy and decision makers.
  

Responsible for all internal and external communications. Responsibilities will include:

• 
  Commissioning and managing the NHP website(s)
  
• 
  Writing website and social media content
  
• 
  Supporting internal communications with staff and partners
  
• 
  Maintaining links with local press and media
  
• 
  Overseeing printing and publications
  
• 
  Working on promotion of events
  
• 
  Photographing, documenting and report on events
  

The role will include:

• 
  Administration serving the workings of the NHP office.
  
• 
  Supporting the work of the NHP staff.
  
• 
  Undertaking book keeping for the NHP accounts under the guidance of the Visit County Durham ('responsible body' for the NHP grant) Finance Manager.
  
• 
  Minuting meetings of the NHP Advisory Board.
  
• 
  Organising meetings and travel.
  

Advisory Board Meetings will take place every two months throughout the lifetime of the project, ensuring key partners have continuing input to the programme.

The Programme Delivery Group (PDG) will be made up of Advisory Board members and will meet more regularly and have more detailed engagement with projects and progress.

Day to day project delivery will be undertaken by the project team, all newly employed on fixed term contracts through VCD and commissioned artists or other suppliers.

Members of the Advisory Board include Chief Executives and other senior managers who are responsible for their own organisations and many have been or are involved with the oversight of other large grants or projects.

Some members have been involved in the arts and arts management for many years. Others are responsible for place-shaping strategies or are involved in working with grass root community organisations.

Members will be made aware of the responsibilities of governance in the public sector and of the Nolan Principles.

Those serving on the Board and the PDG will be unpaid by Northern Heartlands for this role.

Equality and Accessibility

The Advisory Board will be governed by VCD Policies including their Equal Opportunities Policy and Equality Action Plans. Project delivery will sit within the framework of VCD Equality and Access guidelines. These policies and guidelines are consistent with DCC policies and guidelines.