Partners

Audience at the Better School Dinners Conference. Photo: AONB unit The Wye Valley AONB is grant aided by Natural England and the Countryside Council for Wales, with core funding from Forest of Dean District Council , Gloucestershire County Council, Herefordshire Council and Monmouthshire County Council. Together, these bodies fund the core costs of the AONB unit and contribute towards the majority of the unit's activities.

However, many AONB projects depend for their success on the support of other partners, who provide additional funding or support in kind. The AONB works with a range of national, regional and local organisations, local societies, schools and community groups, parish and community councils and key individuals to develop projects and initiatives in the AONB. Many of these are represented on the Technical Officers Working Party (TOWP) and the AONB Topic Groups.

Partners not represented on TOWP or on Topic Groups include:

Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which provided a Project Planning Grant for preparation of a bid to the HLF Landscape Partnership Fund for up to £2 million to interpret the history and archaeology of the area. Development of the bid involved consultation with a range of prospective partners: all 46 schools in the area, all 42 parish and community councils and 78 local societies.

Sustain, the Alliance for Better Food and Farming, who sponsored the AONB's Better School Dinners Conference and Gloucestershire Foodlinks and Herefordshire Foodlinks, who alongside adventa, also gave this project their support;

Members of the Better School Dinners Working Party in Monmouthshire, including Mike German AM (South Wales East) and the heads of local schools involved in a pilot scheme: Cross Ash, Shirenewton, Overmonnow, Trellech, Llandogo and Deri View in Abergavenny.

WWF-UK a partner in the Ravine WoodLIFE project.

The Bulmer Foundation, Herefordshire Partnership, and Project Carrot, some of the partners in Making the CAP fit - the first regional conference on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reforms to be held in the UK. This discussed the effect of the reforms in Herefordshire.

Shirenewton Primary School, a partner in the Forest Schools initiative in the AONB in Monmouthshire

Mordiford Primary School, a partner in the Forest Schools initiative in the Herefordshire part of the AONB

The AONB also offers advice and help to community and local groups to help them develop initiatives which conserve and promote the unique landscape and character of the area. This work has included:

  • Helping Staunton Common community to raise funds to restore the Common to its original heathland/dry acid grassland state
  • Working with Brampton Abbotts Parish Council to secure funding for an interpretive map and panel for walking routes in the parish, together with some seating for the village
  • Working with the Ross and District Community Development Group and the Ross Area Partnership Environment Group
  • Involvement in the Greening Parish Plans group, helping with the preparation of Parish Plans
  • Helping Shirenewton Primary School to set up a tree nursery
  • Helping Parish Grasslands Project and Monmouthshire Meadows Group to develop interpretation panels and leaflets

AONB staff represent the interests of the Wye Valley AONB at the regular meetings of various groups working in the area including:

  • Forest of Dean Partnership Environment Task Group
  • Forest of Dean Partnership (Forestry Commission)
  • Forest Education Initiative (Monmouthshire cluster group)
  • Forest Education Initiative (Herefordshire cluster group)
  • Monmouth Partnership Forum
  • Central Monmouthshire Forum
  • Wye Valley Tourism Association
  • WyeMag (a management advisory group for the river Wye)
  • Walking the Way to Health (Step out Monmouthshire)
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