In 2016 the North Pennines AONB Partnership (NPAP) in collaboration with The Friends of the North Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales National Park led a crowdfunding campaign to raise funds to support the re-surfacing of a section of a popular walking route on the Coast to Coast footpath.
Alfred Wainwright’s Coast to Coast walk stretches 190 miles from St. Bees in Cumbria to Robin Hood’s Bay in North Yorkshire. Parts of the popular route have become damaged due to the volume of foot traffic as it crosses some of the higher peat covered sections in the North Pennines AONB and Yorkshire Dales. To mitigate this, alternate routes were set up for walkers in the winter months. Despite this route change however, the area near Nine Standards Rigg has continued to deteriorate becoming a hazard to walkers and leading to significant damage to rare ‘blanket bog’ habitat. Blanket bog is an internationally important and protected habitat that needs to be protected and restored when necessary.
In March 2016, NPAP launched the five week long crowdfunding campaign ‘Raising the Standard’ with the aim of raising £15,000 to help towards paying for 280 metres of stone flags. These efforts raised £44,000 from crowdfunding and other traditional grants which became available during the campaign. One year on, work is now complete, 392m of flag stones have been laid (aerial view above), sign posts replaced, a boundary stone installed and staff have been able to treat the surrounding damaged blanket bog with brash and seed to restart the re-vegetation process.
The site crosses two counties, three estates, two protected areas, involved two planning applications, a Secretary of State application, SSSI, SPA and SAC consent and donations from over 120 individuals, organisations and companies; proving that partnerships and crowdfunding really can work. For more information, please visit: www.northpennines.org.uk/our-work/peatland-programme/raising-the-standard/
