Heart of Wessex Funding Advice Workshop

Do you run, or are you thinking of starting a rural business? Do you need financial investment to get a new project off to a flying start? The Heart of Wessex Local Action Group (LAG) could help.

We have recently submitted a bid, called a Local Development Strategy (LDS) to Defra, seeking about £2 million to invest in our LAG area until 2020 (see map here). If we are successful we expect to be able to start delivering our funding programme on 1st January 2015.

We want our project applicants to be in the best possible position to secure funding, so we are running a number of FREE to attend funding advice workshops. These are aimed at representatives from local businesses and communities to help them find out what types of projects will be eligible, help support applicants to submit a successful application and to signpost to other potential sources of funding where appropriate.

You will also learn about the dynamics of the Local Action Group (LAG), who is involved, how it functions at local level, and how it makes its decisions on who receives funding – all really important in order to ensure your application is appropriate and successful!

The events are being held at venues throughout the LAG area (see booking form here for details in all areas). In Wincanton the workshop takes place at the Balsam Centre on Thursday 27 November, from 2.00pm – 4.00pm.

Pre-booking is essential for all workshops and space is limited. So if you have a project you want to get off the ground and you live or work in the LAG area and would like to join us, please complete the booking form and email to as soon as possible. Please also forward this to people you know who may be interested

All projects supported by the LAG must be (and will need to clearly evidence that they will be) economically viable and environmentally sustainable. 70% of all projects must directly support the rural economy (e.g. through creating jobs and creating micro and small rural businesses). The remaining 30% of projects will also need to demonstrate that they are contributing to improving the local rural economy by, for example, increasing visitors to a particular area or providing an essential rural service, such as a village shop. Funding will be available for the following sectors:

• Rural touris
• Small and micro-businesses
• Local products, including food and drin
• Farming and farm diversificatio
• Forestr
• Cultural and heritag
• Rural services

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