New eco project for North-East

11:05pm Saturday 17th May 2008

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WORK has started on a new eco-agriculture training project for young people at a farm outside Darlington.

National youth charity Ruskin Mill Educational Trust plans to open the centre at Clow Beck Farm, at Croft-on-Tees, near Darlington.

The site was previously home to the Clow Beck Eco Centre but a statement on the centre's website says the project is to be incorporated into the new eco-farm.

The new initiative, know as Clairveaux College, will offer courses for students aged between 16 and 19-years-old in all aspects of farming, including butchery, bakery and creamery.

The project will take over the Clow Beck Eco Centre, a 2m back to basics farm school, which opened in 2003 after farmer Bill Chaytor decided to set aside more than 30 acres of his land to create a rural haven and training initiative.

A message on the Clow Beck Eco Centres website from Mr Chaytor states: "We are undergoing exciting changes.

"Having run a wide range of courses and activities, we are in discussion with a very similar, but bigger and highly successful charity, concerning them absorbing us.

"Our activities are on hold - although there is a co-ordinator on site. As soon as our plans are firm we will tell you our news which I am sure you will find exciting and interesting."

The Ruskin Mill Educational Trust is based in Gloucestershire and also runs colleges in Nailsworth in the Cotswolds, Stourbridge in the West Midlands and Sheffield.

The new centre at Croft is also expected to offer training in arable farming.

Fishing rights have also been secured for a stretch of the river Tees, and students will be taught how to fish, and how to manage fish stocks in a sustainable way.

Project co-ordinator David Flower, said the college is now looking for volunteers to help out.

"We need practical people with initiative, strong backs, and open hearts, who are willing beings," said Mr Flower.

Anyone who wishes to volunteer is asked to call Lynn Blewitt at the Darlington adult learning project Evolution, at lynn.blewitt@evolutiondarlington.com or call 01325-266888.