People living across a dispersed County Durham community will be coming together for Christmas with the help of funding from a local renewable energy developer.
The village of Great Stainton near Darlington stretches right across the surrounding countryside and includes several outlying farms, but no longer has any shared community buildings where people can meet up.
To give local people a chance to come together during the dark winter months, the Great Stainton Parish Meeting is organising a Christmas tree lighting event on the village green on Sunday 8 December at which many residents are expected to gather to sing carols and hopefully welcome Father Christmas into the village.
A £840 grant from the community fund linked to OnPath Energy’s nearby Moor House Wind Farm is being used to pay for the village Christmas tree, while it will also help cover the costs of 36 local people gathering at the Dun Cow pub in Sedgefield for their annual Christmas function later in the week.
It’s the third time that the village has received support from the Moor House Wind Farm Community Fund, with a £2,277 grant paying for the purchase and installation of a defibrillator outside the village’s former Kings Arms pub in 2019, which has proven invaluable on several occasions
A previous combined £2,988 grant given from the Moor House fund and the equivalent fund for OnPath Energy’s Lambs Hill Wind Farm near Stillington allowed for a speed monitoring system to be installed on the road running through Great Stainton. This has produced data which has highlighted the need for traffic calming measures to be installed along that road.
The village has purchased two gazebos from funding from the Moor House Wind Farm Fund to ensure that residents are able to socialise and come together on the village green whatever the weather. These have also been loaned to surrounding villages for charity functions.
Sue Bell, secretary of Great Stainton Parish Meeting, says: “Great Stainton stretches across a very wide rural area, and as we no longer have any community facilities available, it can be difficult for people to meet up, especially during the darker winter months.
“Our Christmas tree lighting event and carol service aims to give everyone the ideal opportunity to come together at this special time of the year, while we’re obviously all very excited to be welcoming Santa Claus into the village.
“This event will be one of the highlights of the village’s year and the funding we’ve received from OnPath Energy has been a real lifeline in turning our plans for it into reality.”
Lynsey Stephenson, communication manager at OnPath Energy (formerly Banks Renewables), adds: “Christmas is all about spending time with family, friends and neighbours, and the village green carol service will be a wonderful way for people across the community to come together.
“The Moor House Wind Farm Community Fund was designed to provide direct benefits to nearby communities like Great Stainton. We’re really pleased to be extending the support it has enabled us to provide to village projects and to this project in particular, which really captures the spirit of the festive season.”
Environmental and community projects in the vicinity of the Moor House Wind Farm which are interested in applying to its community fund should first contact the fund manager via apply@onpathcommunityfund.co.uk or on 0191 378 6342 to confirm that their group or project is eligible.