AN innovative scheme for rural communities to promote tourism in their own villages is to be introduced across the northern region.

The scheme has won £20,000 backing from the Carnegie UK Trust to allow the Hidden Britain Centre (HBC) project to be extended.

The project was devised by the Arthur Rank Centre, which helps rural development, to encourage local communities to identify tourist attractions within their villages and then to promote them.

The project has been successfully piloted in Cumbria and is now being extended across the North, with a development officer to be appointed soon.

The Carnegie grant will assist in this process and provide financial help to local HBC projects, which will enable them to develop exhibition presentation materials, access training and engage in promotion.

A spokesman for the project said: "Hidden Britain Centres are all about economic and social regeneration through community action and development.

"Frequently centred on the local church as the heart of the village or the main attraction for visitors to an area, our pilot project in Cumbria has been a great success. We now have great hopes for the wider roll-out of the project.

"This has been greatly enhanced by this generous support from the Carnegie Trust. We are extremely grateful for their help, which will be of great benefit to rural communities across the north of the country."

* The Carnegie UK Trust is one of Britain's oldest trusts, set up by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish philanthropist, in 1913. In recent years, it has initiated influential national strategies relating to older people, youth participation, and the arts.