£2,000 grant cheers flood-hit tea rooms

The town's Economic Recovery Group has helped the Chantry Tea Rooms access a £2,500 grant to help clean up its premises, replace damaged items and cover staff wages until the work is completed.

The money comes from a £500,000 One NorthEast fund being administered by Business Link brokers through the North East England Investment Centre.

Tea room owner, Christine Hardy, said: "The support has really helped us out. We are a small family business and the flood closed us down.

"Now we can see a future again and we are very grateful for this support. I am very impressed by the speed with which the support agencies have responded."

Christine has been running the busy tea room since 2005 and employs seven staff. When the flooding struck Morpeth the ground floor of the Chantry building was left under one and a half feet of filthy water.

The Economic Recovery Group comprises Castle Morpeth Borough Council, Business Link, Northumberland County Council, Northumberland Business Services, Castle Morpeth Business Forum, Morpeth Chamber of Trade and One NorthEast. It was established within days of the flooding to help local businesses get trading again as soon as possible.

Applications for grants will be fast-tracked to ensure quick payouts and the funding can be used to cover costs associated with the flooding, such as clean up, wages and insurance excesses.

Since being launched just over a week ago, 32 inquiries have been received from affected businesses, appointments have already been made and more applications for funding are already being processed. For more information about the flood support package, call Business Link on 0845 600 9006 or visit Morpeth Business Advice Centre on Newgate Street.

Business Link account manager, Ken Arnold, who dealt with the tea room application, said: "It's good to be part of a team that's providing a rapid response and a making a tangible difference to the companies and individuals that have been affected by the floods."

Castle Morpeth Borough Council's regeneration and partnerships manager, Ailsa Coverdale, who chairs the Economic Recovery Group, added: "It's encouraging to see another business getting back on its feet but more needs to be done to help others in the coming weeks.

"We would urge local people support their local businesses through this difficult period. The business community is certainly pulling together and by working in partnership we will recover from this crisis quicker."

One NorthEast's rural board member, Ian Brown, said: "It's great to see this funding making a real and rapid difference for businesses on the ground, at a time when they need it most."