27/10/2008

£8m Lottery Funding Earmarked For Beauty Spots

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has earmarked seven of the UK's beauty spots with awards totalling £8m made through its Landscape Partnership Scheme.

These rural regeneration and landscape conservation schemes highlight the diversity of the UK's geography and its impact on our culture.

The areas which will benefit are Blaenavon, a World Heritage Site in South Wales, Sefton Coast, Merseyside's 'coastal green lung', the South Pennines, Applecross, in west Scotland, the Isle of Harris, The Ochils, a dramatic hill range located in Clackmannanshire and The Five Parishes, part of the Sperrins Mountain range in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Ray Mears, survival expert and broadcaster, said: "I grew up loving landscapes - they were the backdrop to my childhood and continue to be an essential part of my everyday life. I'm delighted to hear that such a significant amount of Heritage Lottery Fund money is being invested into protecting so many wonderful natural spaces; what a great way to spend Lottery money."

HLF's Landscape Partnerships have been running for the past four years and these new awards now bring the total invested to £48m. 29 landscapes across the UK are benefiting, from the remote Orkney archipelago to the cliffs of Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The schemes help forge public and community partnerships, enabling people to tackle the heritage needs of their local landscapes in a practical and effective way.

Jenny Abramsky, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund, said: "Our landscapes are as much under threat as other parts of our heritage yet we often take them for granted.

"This Landscape Partnership Scheme is helping protect some of the UK's most spectacular scenery by bringing together groups, with a shared passion for supporting the heritage of the surrounding natural environment, to form strong partnerships rather than working in isolation."

(GK/JM)

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