Land Rover and The Prince's Countryside Fund announce applications open for new bursary to help support British rural communities.
The Prince of Wales visited a Land Rover driver-training
programme, where applications for a new Bursary scheme that aims to
support British countryside communities, were officially opened.
During the visit The Prince of Wales again highlighted the urgent
need to help Britain's rural economy, and called for more support
for countryside communities.
Visiting Kitridding Farm, near Kirby Lonsdale, to meet a variety
of beneficiaries and experience training first hand, His Royal
Highness announced details of the new Land Rover Bursary in
partnership with The Countryside Fund. The scheme will offer a
bursary to five individuals or groups who can demonstrate that the
use of a Freelander 2 for a year would enable them to support their
rural community.
During the visit, The Prince spoke to a number of young people
currently benefiting from his charity about their ambitions and the
challenges they faced. Matthew Alexio, a hill farming
apprentice from Cumbria, said: "When you're brought up surrounded
by landscape like this, you never want to leave it. Hill
farming gives the satisfaction of rearing livestock and the peace
of mind that the landscape is being preserved. If we weren't
supported by apprentice schemes like this, there would be no one
our age entering hill farming. We are the future of farming
and have a responsibility to manage the countryside."
The Prince showed off his own skills by taking part in a
training session where he drove a vehicle on a mini-Terrapod, an
off-roading mobile unit that uses a combination of steep slopes,
low friction surfaces and other obstacles to emphasise the grip and
traction abilities of the vehicle.
In his speech HRH the Prince of Wales said: "I really want to
use this opportunity today to express my warmest possible gratitude
to Land Rover for their really remarkable generosity in ensuring we
now have this splendid scheme.
"Land Rover, as a fully-fledged supporter of the Prince's
Countryside Fund, is creating a bursary of its own with the gift of
five Freelander 2s for a year which can be won by five individuals
who can demonstrate that they will be using the cars for the rural
community.
"It is this sort of willingness to be involved that makes a
fantastic difference in ensuring we can maintain the priceless
national asset that is our British countryside."
The Countryside Fund beneficiaries learnt a variety of skills
from winching to how to drive safely off-road. Laura Schwab,
Marketing Director of Land Rover UK, said: "Having reliable and
dependable transport to work in the countryside is essential and we
hope these bursaries will benefit entrepreneurial farmers. Driving
skills such as towing and winching are crucial when it comes to
being able to use a vehicle such as a Land Rover Freelander 2 to
its full potential. At Land Rover Experience we aim to be
able to teach these specialist skills to anyone needing them,
either for day to day travelling around the countryside or more
specific working needs."
Victoria Harris, Director of The Prince's Countryside Fund said:
"We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for
our Land Rover vehicle bursary and are excited about the variety of
people and businesses that we are expecting to apply. 4x4 vehicles
are crucial in helping rural businesses get around the countryside
for their daily business needs and providing this opportunity to
our rural communities is a fantastic thing to be able to do."
Land Rover announced in January a three-year partnership with
The Prince's Countryside Fund. The partnership involves the support
of rural communities by offering Freelander 2 vehicles to five
groups or individuals who demonstrate how the use of the vehicle
will benefit their community. They could be a young
entrepreneur starting a rural enterprise, an apprentice hill farmer
or an organisation offering free transport to rurally isolated
people or access to training opportunities for young people
dedicated to building a sustainable future for rural
communities.
Courtesy of: Land Rover Media
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