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Local Action for Rural Communities - Update

Paul Chadwick at Somerset County Council has written an update to the 3 successful Somerset LARC bids;

Local Action for Rural Communities – Great news for Somerset!
By Paul Chadwick, Somerset County Council

Local Action for Rural Communities (LARC) is a new wave of European funding that the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) is administering. The aim of Local Action is to enable rural communities to look at new opportunities to strengthen their local economy and to improve the quality of life for people living in those communities.  Following a competitive bidding process the Regional Development Agency (RDA) has now allocated funds to 15 Schemes in the region. The Schemes will run from now until December 2013.

Serving Somerset, there are three Local Action Groups (LAG) made up of public, private and voluntary sector representatives that have secured an allocation:·       

Western Somerset  £2.25m

Levels & Moors  £1.8m

Blackdown Hills & East Devon AONB (part in Somerset) £2.4m

Each of the LAGs are also tasked with securing match funding from various sources to implement a range of projects.

These LAGs are to be formalised at public meetings this autumn. Somerset County Council is to be the accountable body for the Western Somerset and Levels and Moors partnerships, to help ensure good management and administration of the Schemes, whilst Devon County Council will provide the same service for the Blackdown Hills Group.

It is intended that new staff will be recruited as Scheme Managers and in post by the end of the calendar year. By the beginning of 2009, all three Local Action Groups should be open for business (in the sense of publishing detailed guidance and application forms for new project proposals to come forward).

Western Somerset

The geographical area includes the whole of West Somerset, the Somerset part of Exmoor National Park, the Quantock Hills and Wiveliscombe and its 10-parish hinterland. The total population to be served is 58,000.

The key aim of the programme is to move towards a low carbon economy, using this as a driver to provide new economic opportunities within the following areas:

·        consumption and production

·        resource management

·        transport

·        tourism

·        the environment

·        supporting rural communities.

Potential projects that match this aim and can deliver real benefits will be invited to bid for some of the funding.

Somerset Levels & Moors

The geographical area stretches from the coast in the west to Glastonbury in the east, and from the north western most border of Somerset to Martock in the South. It expands the existing Levels & Moors LEADER+ programme area around Langport, Somerton and Burnham. Total population of the area is 121,000.

Six theme areas for projects in the Somerset Levels & Moors are proposed with the first two being cross-cutting:

  • Local governance and ownership
  • Environmental sustainability

The following four Themes reflect subject areas for specific development and support using some of the grant allocation:

  • Small business and social enterprise development and support
  • Development of Local produce sectors
  • Sustainable tourism
  • Minimising impact: recycling; reducing; reusing.

Blackdown Hills & East Devon

This builds on the existing LEADER+ area of the Blackdown Hills, by incorporating the East Devon AONB and stretching down to the Devon coastline. It includes Chard and Wellington, market towns on the Somerset side.

The Scheme aims ‘to enhance opportunity within the area by using its unique environmental quality as a springboard to economic growth.’

It is envisaged that this enhanced opportunity will be realised through two key sub-aims:

  • To increase the number of well planned, productive, ambitious businesses through improving knowledge of local opportunities in relation to markets, training facilities and innovation.
  • To use the unique environmental quality of the Blackdown Hills and East Devon area as a springboard to sustainable economic growth through increased diversification, the development of local supply chains, the sustainable use of resources and the promotion of increased connectedness.

For More Information

Contacts for the next few months pending appointment of the new staff will be:

Western Somerset - Paul Chadwick 01823 358060 pchadwick@somerset.gov.uk & Angela Lamplough 01984 635 318 alamplough@westsomerset.gov.uk

Somerset Levels & Moors – Alex Sherman 01458 251309 asherman1@somerset.gov.uk

Blackdown Hills & East Devon

– Jenny Archard 01823 680626 jenny.archard@devon.gov.uk

Created on October 7th 2008

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