Berwick Development Trust

About Berwick

Berwick Community Trust developed out the Market Town Initiative for Berwick Upon Tweed. Berwick is situated on the East Coast on the border of England with Scotland. The famous barracks and ramparts make the town historically important. It is a key service centre for the rural areas of North Northumberland and the Borders and a busy tourist destination. Key industries are agriculture and tourism with mean wage levels being some of the lowest in England and many jobs are seasonal leading to an annual winter spike in unemployment. The maintenance and development of Berwick as an economic and social centre is a key objective of the Trust.

Property and Services

The Trust owns the former job centre building in the centre of Berwick. This was initially purchased by a local benefactor who gave the Trust two years (at a peppercorn rent) to raise the necessary funding to buy and refurbish the building. The William Elder Building now provides a base for community and voluntary organisations and local businesses plus much needed meeting space.

A major undertaking for the Trust is provision of staffing for two local Sturestart centres under contract from Northumberland County Council. The scheme provides 200 childcare places per week and is an essential service for local people.

The Trust has engaged in a range of activities supporting job seekers to develop their skills and find work. This has included the provision of advice and guidance to individuals, the running of training courses to build qualifications and a job brokerage service with employers. In only nine months our staff were able to help 71 people into work, provide more than 200 training opportunities and support the start up of six new businesses.

The Trust runs the Border Green Festival in June each year. Attracting around 2,000 people, the Festival includes bands, drama, stalls and exhibits.

Strategic Plans

The Trust has a wide remit around the economic, social and environmental regeneration of Berwick. It worked closely with statutory partners on the development of the Berwick Master Plan, concentrating in particular on community consultation and involvement. It remains the only community partner and strives to advocate and lobby on behalf of residents in order to ensure that local voices are at the heart of the initiative.

At the same time the trust was considering its future strategy. The Board decided that Berwick should play a full part in preventing climate change and decided to focus strongly on the green agenda. Initiating the Berwick Local Actions project the Trust sought to stimulate a range of local actions in response to climate change and this included the loan of real time electricity monitors, home energy audits and advice along with a range of supports to local businesses. This has now developed into the Low Carbon Berwick project which seeks to install renewable energy generating equipment across Berwick and develop with partners and residents a comprehensive Low Carbon Strategy for the town which will guide the town’s transition to a lower carbon future. This challenging programme for Berwick the installation of included solar panels to local schools, the commissioning of a commercial scale wind turbine and feasibility work on an anaerobic digester. The Trust decided to work in partnership with Community Renewable Energy (CoRE), a North East social enterprise working to encourage the development of community renewables.

The wind turbine

The first stage of the strategic plan was the development of the wind turbine. An initial feasibility study was carried out in 2007 and the Trust agreed on a working relationship with CoRE at that time. The option to rent land on the outskirts of Berwick near an industrial estate was secured, planning permission was granted to erect a met mast and the mast installed in 2008. A met mast collects wind speed data to ensure that a turbine would be viable – this is an essential prerequisite for proceeding further with the development of a wind turbine project.

Data from the met mast showed that a turbine would be viable so work could begin on a planning application. This complex process requires a range of surveys including archaeology, wild-life, geology plus assessment of the impact of noise and flicker and simulations showing the visual impact.

From the start of the project, the Trust worked to ensure that the community was kept fully informed of its plans and understood the planned community benefits. As a result, there were only two local objections to the granting of planning permission. This is a considerable achievement in North Northumberland which is a much loved rural area where most applications for wind turbines are strenuously opposed. It made headlines in the local paper!

The grant of planning permission and the subsequent agreement of a grid connection makes the wind turbine fundable. The project will cost around £1.4 million and the Trust is in discussions with a range of specialist capital funders. The plan is to order the turbine within the next three months – which should mean that it is generating clean, safe electricity within a year.

Benefits

The benefits for the Trust and for the Town are significant. The turbine will earn between £80k and £100k per annum during the period of debt repayment. This will be used to provide a small grant fund for community projects in the town and to support the Trust to take forward its programme of economic, social and environmental regeneration.

Over the life of the turbine an income for the Trust of approximately £5M will be generated and this will be used to secure the Trust’s operations and allow it to develop the benefits it provides to residents.