News from the Blencathra Centre - October 2011

Centre Open Day

Thank you to those of you who attended the Open Day.   The weather was wet, the numbers were low but fun was had for those who were there!

Gold Awards

Over the last two months we have been accumulating gold awards:

· Green Tourism Business Scheme GOLD

· Northgate Safety Shield GOLD

· Cumbria Business Environmental Network Award GOLD

It is pleasing to receive these awards as it reflects the hard work and dedication of the staff at the Blencathra Centre.

These are external audits so it allows us to benchmark against other organizations and make improvements.  

As an environmental educational charity we try to practice what we preach – and we are not always successful.  I can assure you that we do get as many students as possible to walk to sites rather than use the minibus, though this would be difficult for our sites in Grasmere for example. We also encourage groups to use public transport – though that is rather difficult with the prohibitive charges. 

Question: Why is it cheaper for me to fly to Malaga than it is to travel by bus to Penrith?!

Brockhole

Due to cuts in National Park funding from DEFRA, the National Park have withdrawn funding from our day centre in Brockhole.  This has meant that we have relocated two of our FSC staff, Annie Duckworth and Laura Graham, to Blencathra.  They will continue to deliver high quality field teaching independently, with Blencathra as the administrative location.  This new function within Blencathra is called Lake District Day Courses.

Tim Foster, Head of Centre (79601)