By Anna Burdett

Last updated 09:54, Friday, 03 October 2008

A cash injection has put the Pentalk computer bus back on the road to farmyards in Cumbria.

The Pentalk bus

Newton Rigg, then run by the University of Central Lancashire, stopped funding the bus two years ago at the same time as withdrawing most of its Pentalk courses.

But the bus is back on the road for six months over the winter thanks to a £20,000 funding grant from the Esme Fairbairn Foundation.

It will visit rural locations where farmers can board the bus and learn how to create invoices, keep accounts, download and edit photographs and much more.

Pentalk is a Cumbrian farming charity which was set up after the foot and mouth crisis. It has helped more than 2,000 farmers improve their computer skills.

Ann Risman from Pentalk said: “We’ll be targeting any area which has a cluster of people who want to do it. All the learning will have a farming context. We’ll teach a variety of things, anything to keep farmers using their computer.

“I would be disappointed if we did not reach at least 200 farmers with the computer bus over the winter.”

Mrs Risman said the University of Cumbria had shown no interest in reinstating the courses abolished at Newton Rigg by UCLan.

Pentalk is in talks with the Open University to run other courses for county farmers. The charity is also seeking funding to create an IT centre at junction 40 of the M6.

Tony Walker, who owns the computer bus, said: “Since the BBC bus has been withdrawn and other computer buses lie idle in garages through lack of funding, it is all the more important that the Pentalk computer bus is kept in service to train farmers and rural people who can’t easily travel many miles to a town-based training centre.”

The bus will park outside village halls, pubs, primary schools, golf clubs and farms. In remote valleys like Longsleddale, arrangements have been made to teach everyone.

The bus seats seven people at computers. Its small size means it can access remote Lakeland valleys.

The bus programme will be published soon and people wishing to enrol should contact the Pentalk office on 01768 840500.