A COUNCIL grant has enabled a Lake District village with links to Beatrix Potter to ‘really kickstart’ its economic recovery.

Westmorland and Furness councillor Suzanne Pender (Coniston and Hawkshead, Lib Dems) spoke at the South Lakeland locality board meeting about how a grant of £16,620 given to Hawkshead Parish Council has been used to help rejuvenate the village.

Councillor Pender spoke of how a joint working group of The National Trust, Westmorland and Furness Council, local businesses, the national park authority, Cumbria Tourism and several other partners has enabled the development of a destination marketing strategy and other objectives.

Councillor Pender said: “I’m really pleased to report in my interim report that we’ve made good progress against all our objectives, notably social media improvements, a leaflet, a map and free short-term parking from the Lake District National Park Authority.”

The Destination Hawkshead campaign has an objective of by 2027, the village will be within the top 10 most visited Cumbrian destinations.

A report prepared for the board meeting said in 2022 Hawkshead was the 11th most visited location in Cumbria but local businesses had been reporting a year-on-year fall in visitor numbers and spend.

Councillor Pender said: “It first started off about a year ago when I was approached as a new councillor and asked by a group of local businesses to say Hawkshead was experiencing an economic downturn of around 10 to 20 per cent and there’s around 50 micro businesses in Hawkshead so it was having a significant impact.”

A report prepared for a locality board meeting in October added: “The village is scoring in the highest indices of rural deprivation nationally in terms of access to services and homes and is looking tired and run-down, needing more care and investment.”

A community meeting was held that considered issues and subsequently a grant application was made which was then approved by councillors in October.

Councillor Pender added: “The benefit of the grant has not only been the delivery of activities such as an audit and review of existing plans, development of a destination plan, upgrade of social media presence, there have also been expediential gains from the focus on Hawkshead, particularly collaborative working among partners that has led to benefits beyond the original intent of the grant.”

She also told the board businesses are reporting they are doing ‘reasonably well’ in the daytime but added: “The restaurant economy in the evening is still really struggling and that’s something in this final phase we need to look at again.”