Councils secure £1.89 million to support rural communities

27 Aug 2008

South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse District Councils have successfully secured £1.89 million to help support rural communities in southern Oxfordshire.  The councils will use this funding from Government and the EU to help revitalise and support rural businesses and communities in southern Oxfordshire between now and 2013. 

The funding will provide support to a wide range of projects and training for farmers, growers, foresters, food businesses and rural communities.  Initial expressions of interest have so far included ideas for a food festival, conservation themed holiday breaks, and rural skills training.

An action group, with key members from the farming and forestry sector, will co-ordinate the project. South Oxfordshire District Council will support the group and will recruit a project manager to run the programme. Once the project manager is in place, applicants can make expressions of interest before presenting a full application to the group. Each project can receive a grant of up to £50,000. Projects will undergo a detailed assessment before the action group decides if the bid for funding is successful.

To be eligible for funding, organisations and businesses must lie within southern Oxfordshire, meet the criteria laid out in the application guidance, and fit in with the themes identified by the group as being priorities for improvement. Following consultation with local communities and stakeholders, the local action group has identified four main priority themes for the project:

• encouraging enterprise and business innovation
• improving tourism in rural locations and enhancing heritage and landscape
• addressing social exclusion
• skills development for rural areas

Rodney Mann, Cabinet member for economic development, said: “This grant of £1.89 million is excellent news for southern Oxfordshire, as it will provide much needed support for our rural communities, to help them become thriving and sustainable, and by improving the competitiveness of local business, providing more employment opportunities and addressing social exclusion. This is a great opportunity for local rural businesses and organisations, and I would encourage them to come forward and register an interest if they have ideas that could benefit from funding.”

Cllr Mary de Vere, Executive Member for the Vale with Portfolio Responsibility for Planning and Community Strategy, said: “This money offers an exciting opportunity to support innovation which can put our rural communities on the map.  We already have some thriving businesses which provide jobs and services for the rural community and this money will expand that success.”

Contact:

• South Oxfordshire District Council communications team on 01491 823108
• Vale of White Horse District Council communications team on 01235 540376