KILNSEY Park has won a grant for £26,000.

Owners Anthony and Vanessa Roberts will use the money to market and expand their range of ready meals, focusing specifically on branded local game products.

Fifty per cent of the grant came from the Rural Enterprise Scheme.

Kilnsey Park began as a trout farm in 1980 but has since grown into a wide-ranging business, which includes a caf facility, a red squirrel breeding programme, an aquarium, trout farming, fishing and trout sales, a hydro-electric power scheme and a craft centre.

Mr and Mrs Roberts have produced and sold a variety of ready meals through the on-site caf for many years.

However, this part of the business suffered during the foot and mouth crisis. They identified the sale of ready meals through farmers markets and a delivery service to food outlets as a viable and secure means of expansion.

The grant has accelerated the changes that Mr and Mrs Roberts wanted to make and increased opportunities for co-operating with other Dales' producers, including farmers and neighbouring estates.

Mr Roberts said: "We hope that by developing branded local food products we will benefit the wider rural economy and safeguard a way of life. We have found it a stimulating challenge trying to capture the flavour of the Yorkshire Dales."

o A £4,000 grant to boost young people's interest in volunteering has been awarded to Skipton's Volunteer Bureau.

The cash will help develop a project being run among students from Ermysted's and Skipton Girls' High.

Dee Pollitt, Volunteer Bureau Co-ordinator, said: "This is exciting news. Since September we have recruited and placed around 50 pupils from the two schools in a variety of voluntary work placements. These include charity shops, conservation projects, working with older people and young children, and in offices of local voluntary groups.

"The schools use this as part of their Citizenship course, which is now a requirement of the National Curriculum."

The funding has been awarded by TimeBank - part of the ONE20 initiative from the Government's Active Community Unit.