I’ve always loved to use this column to highlight the many ways the communities I represent make our towns and villages better places to live.
This week, I want to single out the village of Hudswell, near Richmond, for a special mention.
It is a small community which my predecessor as your MP William Hague enthused about when introducing me to the area over a decade ago.
He had backed what was then a novel idea – a group of local people banding together to buy their local pub.
Hudswell’s George & Dragon was established as a community pub in 2010 after a period being closed. It then went on to win multiple awards and become something of a template for similar community pub initiatives.
But the villagers didn’t stop there. Concerned about the lack of affordable housing in the village, they then embarked on a two-stage project to create homes which people with local connections could rent.
The first phase of three homes opened in 2017 and then earlier this year a further three were completed.
Amazingly, the community also had the capacity to take on another major project – the conversion of the former St Michael’s Church into a hostel for the many walkers and cyclists who come through this beautiful part of the world on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.
I visited the redundant church building before work started and then again to see the completed project earlier this month.
The conversion by the Hudswell Community Charity is superb – finding a great new use for a much-loved historic building which will bring more visitors to the first village venture I mentioned – the pub.
I was delighted that the Michael’s Lodge project was only possible because of the substantial grant assistance from the Community Ownership Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
These were two Government funding pots I established when Chancellor to help communities like Hudswell take control of local buildings and facilities and run them for the benefit of the community.
I had been inspired by what I had seen could be done when committed people came together in a common cause. I wanted to give them the help they needed to make projects develop from dream to reality.
I will continue to press the Government to ensure that communities like Hudswell have sources of finance for worthwhile projects like the ones I have outlined above.
Groups like the Hudswell Community Charity, made up entirely of volunteers, deserve support.
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I’ve just had an update from Mark Farrow of Scorton who recently returned from his second trip delivering four-wheel drive vehicles for use as ambulances in the Ukraine war zone.
I met Mark and his colleague Stephen White before their most recent journey and he tells me they are planning a third trip next month.
You can find out more about their incredible adventures at the Ukrainian Fair being held in Northallerton Town Hall tomorrow between 9am-2pm. Mark and Stephen will be there along with many members of the Ukrainian community who came to our part of North Yorkshire at the start of the war. It’s a celebration of their culture and spirit which I was very happy to support, both as a local MP and in Government.
