18/01/2012
News

The Yorkshire Dales LEADER Management Group has approved funding applications for twelve rural community projects in the Yorkshire Dales, awarding nearly £263,000 in total.

The successful applications include improvement works to St Michael's Church in Spennithorne, to Long Preston Village Hall and to the community facility at Hudson House in Reeth. A project led by the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes to celebrate local food heritage, and enhancement works along the Way of the Roses cycleway also received the funding from LEADER that they vitally needed.

Also successful was an innovative project which will build on work previously funded by LEADER with the Wharfedale Beekeepers Association. The project forms part of the long term vision for the group at the Tarn Moor Apiary site, near Skipton, improving access to the site, creating interpretation panels for visitors, and extending the foraging season for the bees at the apiary. It will also create an additional unique training opportunity, teaching rural skills to disadvantaged unemployed groups from the surrounding area, who may not have considered employment in the rural skills sector.

Rima Berry, the Dales LEADER Co-ordinator, said, “The Wharfedale Beekeepers Tarn Moor project was unanimously approved by the Local Action Group, testament to both the successful outcome of their previous project and the impact it is having for conservation and within the community.”

In the Yorkshire Dales region the LEADER Local Action Group has awarded over £2 million since the launch of the fund in June 2009. Nearly all available funding has now been awarded, however applications are currently being invited for projects aimed at small scale enhancement schemes around villages, community facilities and amenity spaces. Further detail can be found on the Local Action Group website at www.yorkshiredalesleader.co.uk.

LEADER is a community-led rural development programme which aims to improve the quality of life and prosperity in rural communities through locally driven rural development initiatives and projects.

In the Yorkshire Dales area, Clapham-based charity Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust is the lead partner in the multi-agency partnership that is the LEADER programme.

For full details please contact YDMT’s Rima Berry at rima.berry@ydmt.org or call 015242 51002.