Northumberland community seeks donations from holiday let owners to pay for £10,000 project

Craster Parish Council is seeking support in its efforts to establish a warm shelter which can be used during power outages.

It follows the events of Storm Arwen and Storm Malik last autumn which left many residents without power, heat and light.

The parish council, working in partnership with Craster Community Trust, is aiming to raise £10,000 to provide back up power to the memorial hall.

In a letter to holiday let owners, Cllr Martin Smith, parish council chairman, writes: “As a community, we recognise that holiday homes in the parish help to attract tourists and

sustain local employment.

"That being the case, in Craster and Dunstan, we are now in the position that a significant number of properties are being used as holiday lets.

"Many of these are now registered as commercial properties paying business rates, which the parish council does not receive towards providing local services.

“In the forthcoming financial year, the parish council precept has been set at £10,229; which equates to an average annual household contribution of approximately £67. This is the only source of income for the parish council and will only allow us to cover our basic commitments.

“Recent storms Arwen and Malik hit Craster hard and it has become clear to us that we really need to build our resilience as a community to these sorts of incidents, which leave residents without power, heat and light during power outages.

“We were delighted to negotiate an automatic compensation payment from Northern Powergrid to all residents and holiday let owners of our parish of £70 earlier this year, following the devastation of Storm Arwen.

“This year, we have a target of making our village hall in Craster a warm shelter with an alternative power source to support residents during power outages. We estimate this will cost us in the region of £10,000 and would be so grateful for any support you can offer to achieve this.”

Holiday let owners are being asked for a voluntary contribution to the precept with a suggested minimum contribution of £50 per property.