Those of you who were at the meeting of the North Pennines Smallholders Network in Allendale last April will remember that we discussed the need for members of the network to start taking a more active role. If we want the Network to continue beyond the lifetime of the AONB Partnership’s Nectarworks project, members need to ensure that they make that happen.

A small group of members met up a couple of weeks ago to discuss forming an initial committee and to discuss what we want the Network to do. The people there felt that the North Pennines Smallholder Network should provide the following:

• Networking opportunities for members
• Peer to peer learning and support
• Formal training courses
• Opportunities to share resources
• Opportunities to socialise

We felt that there should be a small annual membership fee and suggested to Ruth that training opportunities should probably incur a small charge too. We discussed whether there could be a discount for signed-up members but the group would need to be set up to take money first (i.e. has a bank account or another ‘above board’ way of taking money).

The people there were: Gordon Hoey, Graham Shore, Alistair Stevens, Richard Thompson, Ruth Starr-Keddle and Peter Samsom.

We’d obviously welcome comments and others wanting to join this initial committee. Gordon has agreed to investigate the options for a bank account, Graham wrote minutes of the meeting and Peter agreed to chair for the time being. Richard was already in control of the website and has created the Facebook group.

We hope to have a shared barbeque at Polly and Graham’s smallholding above Whitfield in Northumberland on Saturday 1 August 2015. More details will follow in due course.