Hebden Bridge Web

And the winner is… Calder Valley Community Land Trust!

Local community organisation Calder Valley Community Land Trust is celebrating after walking off with first prize for Social Investment at the Awards ceremony in Leeds yesterday (March 12) organised by Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber.

The Award follows just two weeks after the Trust were celebrating the opening of their first development, with the successful completion of six independent-living bungalows at Birks Court, Walsden. 

The presentation of the award - 2 mins

Simon Brearley, Chair of the Community Land Trust, said, “We’re absolutely delighted to be the winners of this Award.  It’s very welcome external recognition of the work we’ve been doing in the upper Calder valley over the past six years.”

Luna Dizon of Big Society Capital, making the presentation at the ceremony, said,  “We really loved their sense of ownership in terms of tackling an issue in their area.  They demonstrated how you can use a mix of funding and finance options to bring a project to reality.”

One highly innovative aspect of the funding of the Walsden bungalows was the direct investment by local people in the funding package.  In total, £94,000 was contributed in community share capital.

Simon Brearley added: “The role of community share investors in our work demonstrates, in a very literal sense, local people’s buy-in to what we’re trying to achieve.”