THREE social enterprises based in the Eden Valley achieved success at the first Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership awards, held at the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick.

Lazonby and District Swimming Pool Association scooped two awards as Environmental Social Enterprise of the Year 2008-9, with a prize of £300, and runner-up for the Social Enterprise of the Year title, with a prize of £100, both sponsored by CSEP.

Penrith based Eco-op came runner-up in the Environmental Social Enterprise of the Year section and the Moody Baker, from Alston, took the runner-up prize of £100 for Co-operative of the Year 2008-9, sponsored by Penrith Co-op.

Chairman of Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership Paul Dodson said: “Lazonby and District Swimming Pool Association has a passion for running its swimming pool. It is one of only a few public, open air pools left in Britain. The members work with local businesses and use local resources wherever possible and over the last two years have made a positive move to train local 16-18-year-olds as lifeguards.

“They have had the foresight to set up a range of initiatives, including on site recycling, a heat pump and utilising local tradesmen and businesses, so in turn reducing their carbon footprint.”

Meryl Baker received the certificate and cheque on behalf of the Moody Baker from the chief executive of Penrith Co-op, John Mills.

The judges said they were very impressed by the co-op model the Moody Baker worked to and its ability to manage the demand on products, quality of food, the way tasks are shared equally between colleagues and its achievement in increasing turnover and planning for the future.

The conference was chaired by fellow Alston social entrepreneur Daniel Heery, who set up the award winning Cybermoor social enterprise in 2002.

Daniel is actively involved in the Community Broadband Network which delivers broadband to isolated parts of the UK and, since 2007, he has been a Social Enterprise Ambassador sponsored by the Cabinet Office, promoting social enterprise to new groups of people.

In his opening speech he said: “The work we have done in Alston with Cybermoor has set a precedent for other rural communities.”

Chief officer of Social Enterprise North West Val Jones, social entrepreneur Craig Dearden-Phillips, who also runs “the naked entrepreneur” blog, and chairman of CSEP Paul Dodson were the key speakers at the event, which was attended by more than 75 delegates and funded by the NorthWest Regional Development Agency and Social Enterprise North West.

Social Enterprise of the Year and Co-operative of the Year honours were awarded to Whitehaven Credit Union. New Social Enterprise of the Year award was presented to North Allerdale Development Trust and runner-up was Fit4Life.

Kirkgate Arts was named Community Enterprise of the Year, with Ambleside parish centre as runner-up.