Wake Smith & Tofields has been appointed by local produce enterprise Taste Tideswell to provide legal advice in its quest to launch several community led business ventures.
Tideswell was recently awarded a £400,000 grant from Village SOS, an initiative from the BIG Lottery fund and the BBC. Taste Tideswell will use the funding to finance the building of a community kitchen and garden, to allow people to grow their own vegetables and use the professional facilities of the kitchen.
Lawyers at the Sheffield based firm are working with Taste Tideswell to manage the legal set up for several new business ventures, including a community cooking school, which will utilise local food produce and resources within the community.
The community kitchen will also accommodate a community cooking school, where local children can go to learn from older village residents about cookery and the importance of healthy eating. Adult villagers will also have the opportunity to take cooking lessons in the kitchen.
Experts from the commercial property and company commercial departments at Wake Smith & Tofields will be offering vital expertise to assist in the development of the scheme.
Company commercial partner David Ware and solicitor Nathan Bilton are helping with the legal aspects of the overall set up of the organisation, providing guidance and helping the project to achieve charity status.
Nathan Bilton said "In order for a project such as this to become a charity it must follow certain guidelines. Although the eleven directors involved in the project have a lot of skills to bring to the table, it is our job to offer advice to ensure they run the scheme effectively as a business.
"To achieve charity status, it is important that the business takes the form stipulated when the cash was granted. It is a complicated procedure, so we have been over-seeing the progress and ensuring all principles are adhered to."
Commercial property solicitor Ben Spencer will assist Taste Tideswell to organise the lease of the garden and the cookery school building.
Paul Thorn, partner and head of family department at Wake Smith & Tofields, is also a village resident in Tideswell and an active member of the board: "I am delighted as a resident of Tideswell to see the scheme to come to fruition. As a partner at Wake Smith I am also delighted to see that my esteemed colleagues are able to help with the legalities of formalising the project."
A nano-brewery will be developed, where small quantities of 'Tideswell Tipple' beer will be made. This beer, as well as all the home-grown produce from the project, will be sold under the Taste Tideswell brand and hopefully stocked by accommodation providers in the village.
By capitalising on the village's strengths of producing local food, the project aims to increase sales, attract more visitors, create new jobs and protect the village from further decline.
Taste Tideswell Group Chair, Pete Hawkins, said: "A lot of hard work has gone into receiving this grant and it is a tremendous tribute to everyone in the village who have got really behind it.
"The next steps of the campaign will pose new challenges and it is thanks to expertise and support from organisations like Wake Smith that we are able to progress and make our plans a reality."
Taste Tideswell is one of six ventures to have beaten off competition from other village projects across the UK in order to win their funding. The scheme aims to inspire a rural revival across the UK, offering support to new community-led business ventures that are set to breathe new life into their areas, create new jobs and improve the quality of life for local people.
