Sarah Beeny comes to the rescue of whole villages

Aug 4 2011 by Roz Laws, Sunday Mercury

AFTER helping people do up houses – or save their homes from falling down – property expert Sarah Beeny tackles something rather larger.

She turns her hand to helping whole villages, although to be honest she’s more of an impartial observer while the villagers battle to save their rural way of life.

Sarah follows six villages who each received a six-figure sum from the Big Lottery Fund to start up rural businesses, with the aim of breathing life back into the area.

Traditional industries are in decline and local pubs, shops and farms are closing at an alarming rate.

But could the villagers do better if they were given the money and power to take matters into their own hands?

Even with the help of a village champion – an outside business expert willing to abandon their old life for a good cause and move into the area for a year – and a hoped-for army of volunteers, the six schemes face huge challenges.

Delayed planning permissions, a particularly harsh winter which threatens to derail building timetables and stubborn communities that aren’t ready for change are just some of the obstacles to overcome.

At the end of their first year’s work, will the brilliant ideas rejuvenate and reunite the community they were set up to serve, or will the challenge be a step too far?

And if it’s the latter, will Sarah pull her rather patronising face which implies ‘I told you so’?

Village SOS, BBC1, Wednesday, 8pm