With recent approval, Pembrokeshire’s new LEADER1 programme may be for you. There are two weeks left until the first deadline.

Arwain Benfro are inviting community groups to come forward with project ideas. It is becoming more expensive to deliver services at a local level in rural communities; users are increasingly having to travel further for post office, further education, childcare, leisure.

Arwain Sir Benfro may be able to help support your ideas for exploring solutions to deliver better local services that suit your community.

Arwain Sir Benfro - the Local Action Group (LAG) for Pembrokeshire (administered by PLANED) is looking to support new activities that test ideas which benefit communities.

“We hope that there will be a lot of interest in the LEADER programme which can support all kinds of activities, such as mentoring, training, feasibility studies or pilot projects that test an innovative new idea” said Jess Morgan, Local Action Group animator.

LEADER funded projects should aim to nurture local development. This could include the improvement of local skills, the better use of a local resource or realising the economic potential of part of the local culture leading to a ‘new’ outcome or product.

Priority for this application window will be given to projects which explore ways of providing local services. Examples include childcare, dependant care or the feasibility of taking on a service as a trust or partnership.

Projects which are considered to be eligible will be invited to submit a short Expression of Interest form to the Local Action Group. The current application window closes on January 31.

Further information about LEADER, which is part of the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014 -2020, which is financed by the Welsh Government and European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and Arwain Sir Benfro can be found on Facebook (Arwain Sir Benfro 2020).

If you have an idea you would like to discuss, please contact Jess or Steven at PLANED on 01834 860965 [email protected]