Boost in funding award for moor entrepreneurs

YOUNG entrepreneurs with aspirations to set up a land-based business venture on Exmoor look set to receive extra support thanks to a local charity, writes Athwenna Irons.

The Exmoor Society, which works to promote and protect Exmoor’s unique character, has increased the value of grants offered through its Pinnacle Award from £3,000 to £5,000, as well as extending the applicant age range to those between 18 and 35 years old.

Open to an individual or group who lives, works or studies in the greater Exmoor area, previous applications have come from ideas as diverse as cider-making and developing a herd of pedigree cattle to country clothing, setting up an agricultural and forestry contracting business and bee-keeping with honey production and outdoor tourist activities.

Rachel Thomas, chairman of the Exmoor Society, said: “As a landscape conservation charity, we fully recognise the importance of providing opportunities for people to live in the area, undertaking jobs, showing beautiful landscapes and livelihoods can go together in National Parks.”

First set up in 2011 and previously open to young people aged from 18 to 27 years old, due to the coronavirus pandemic the closing date for this year’s Pinnacle Award has been moved from the end of June to midnight on Monday, November 2.

Since the early years of the 21st century, the Exmoor Society has played an important role in showing the inter-relationship between farming and National Park purposes. In 2004, it commissioned the ‘Moorlands at a Crossroads’ report, which identified the key role of moorland farmers in maintaining traditional practices and in the socio-economic life of the moor; while a reception in the House of Lords in 2008 raised the plight of hill farmers to ministers and MPs. More recently, its ‘Towards a Register of Exmoor’s Natural Capital’ report has indicated the wide range of public services that farmers provide for public payments and is now being tested and trialled for a new agri-environment scheme.

As well as the boost to the Pinnacle Award, the Exmoor Society has also announced that it will be making a £5,000 donation to the Exmoor Hill Farming Network, which works to bring information, training, demonstrations, grants and opportunities to upland farmers across Exmoor, from its base at Cutcombe Market in Wheddon Cross.

For further details about the Pinnacle Award visit www.exmoorsociety.com/content/competitionsawards/pinnacle-youth-award

Exmoor Society > Matthew Sharpe, who set up a business in woodland management, won the Exmoor Society’s Pinnacle Award in 2015