PARWICH.ORG

Last Friday Adele Metcalfe and Dan Yates (the Peak District National Park Authority’s Community Planning Officers) organised an inspirational Peak District National Park Villages Conference.  The day was intended to share ideas and experiences between villages.  Parwich Village Action Group sent along a member of our Environment Sub-Group who was struck by how much Parwich has achieved and the opportunities that are open to us.

This day also served to highlight how much the Village Action Group and Parwich have benefited from the support of the Community Planning Officers, who are currently funded by European money due to end in March.  At present further funding has not been identified, but the following report of the Conference illustrates how the Authority can not let this essential part of their work be lost – Peter Trewhitt (Village Action Group Chair):

Keynote speaker, Matthew Parris, Times correspondent and political journalist, fired off the opening salvo at a recent Peak District National Park Villages Conference by disagreeing with the quotation. In his own inimitable style he challenged us to consider the importance of local, regional and national government in facilitating the changes that communities at the grass root level need and require. It is neither a top down nor a bottom up process. It is by interweaving the will of people and communities to control their environment and lives with the appropriate mechanism that effects positive change. 

Over 60 village delegates and experts gathered at Losehill Hall in Castleton on Friday 12 Dec to celebrate their village achievements and share their knowledge and experience with groups embarking on similar projects. The day long program focused on a series of seminars covering Village Halls and Community Buildings, Allotments and Community Gardens, Sustainability, Village Planning, Sports and Children’s Play, Environment, Heritage and Arts.

A presentation by Daniel Yates and Adele Metcalfe, our Community officers at the Peak Park, gave an overview of their community work and the achievements of the village projects funded by the EU over the past 6 years. It was an impressive success story. Hathersage, Litton and Parwich, who featured prominently, have clearly demonstrated the initiative and drive required to improve the lives of communities in the Peak District.

Parwich was praised as an exemplar in developing their village plan and reaping the benefits of their identified objectives. These included our local low cost housing scheme, the repair and restoration of the brook course and the well on Creamery Lane, the benches, sporting facilities, the current village hall project and most recently our Blog which they strongly recommended as a must visit site for aspiring web design teams. Parwich should be positive and enormously proud of its widely applauded achievements and continue through the strength and drive of its citizens to be a shining star for others to follow.

Each seminar was conducted by two local experts and a facilitator with expertise in the subject. Short talks by the experts were followed by a question and answer period, with the topics and pertinent outcomes shared later in the day with the assembled conference attendees. It was an uplifting, enthusiastic and informative meeting. In the spirit of community, we headed home to village and friends through that magical, snowy landscape of a very special and unique place, The Peak District National Park.