REPRESENTATIVES from community projects across North Yorkshire are attending a conference today to celebrate achievements and plan strategies for the future.

The conference, at York Council for Voluntary Service, will be attended by more than 70 representatives. It will celebrate the production of 34 Community Investment Prospectuses (CIPs).

The CIPs cover local issues including services for elderly and young people, housing, economic development and the environment, and are produced after months of research and consultation.

They have enabled more than 120 community projects to gain £3.7m of Yorkshire Forward's single regeneration budget funding.

About 2,000 projects have been identified and today's event will encourage further development of initiatives.

Councillor Carl Les, North Yorkshire County Council's executive member for economic development, said: "The beauty of these consultations is that they are totally open-ended. The door is always open for people with their local communities at heart to become involved.

"This is an excellent initiative and I sincerely hope that this way of working with rural communities will become the norm for many years to come."

The CIPs will develop to represent changes in community needs. Some can be seen on York and North Yorkshire Partnership Unit's website www.ynypu.org.uk