Scotland: National Rural Network
This is the first part of the event report on the Scottish National Rural Network Forth Valley and Lomond event that took place on 19th January 2010 at the McLaren Leisure Centre in Callander. In this part you can find information on the opening session and information sessions on LEADER, Rural Priorities and the SNRN. In Part 2 you can find details of two interesting project presentations and the lively discussion session.
Kate Sankey of Forth Environment Link, Loch Lomond & the Trossachs Community Partnership and National Park Authority chaired the event and gave the welcoming remarks. She made reference to the variety of roles she plays beyond running a business of an organic farm and traditional artisan centre and meeting place.
Ms Sankey said it was great to see such a range of information and materials on display for all to view throughout the day in the LEADER showcase exhibition. This was a great chance to get information from projects across the region. Stands were also taken by a range of support organisations including Stirling Council, NFU Scotland and Rural Direct.
With the main aim of the day to help those gathered to share their good practice, hear of others' projects and to make links fot the future, Ms Sankey said a great day was ahead.
Anne-Michelle Ketteridge, the LEADER Coordinator for Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER gave a refresher on what LEADER can offer and touched on some possible changes to the programme. She stressed the importance of local administration, and more crucially local decision making.
Ms Ketteridge said the Local Action Group thrives on the area's diversity, both geogrpahically and with the mix of skills in the LAG. Their two vice chairs, Gary Groves and Derek Fowles were both in attendance. Congratulations went to Mr Fowles who was awarded an MBE in recognition of his work with LEADER, and previous programmes, recently.
The Forth Valley and Lomond local development strategy is: "Improving the quality of life in Forth Valley and Lomond through revitalised communities and enhanced natural environment." The programme started allocating funding in April 2008 and over £750,000 has been allocated to 39 projects.
Support is available from Forth Valley and Lomond LEADER development officers to prepare applications, and they will work with you to ensure you have a robust application. They can also help you through the life of the project in a variety of ways, including identifying match funding.
Ms Ketteridge reminded delegates that LEADER is a European project and there are opportunities to share best practice, not just in Scotland, but also with other UK countries and further afield in Europe.
You can get more information by downloading Anne-Michelle's LEADER presentation from our documents library.
Iain Rennick, Chair of the Forth Rural Priorities Assessment Committee (RPAC) gave an update on the Rural Priorities programme. Rural Priorities makes up about 40 percent of the £1.6 billion Scotland Rural Development Programme and the scheme is administered by Scottish National Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland and Scottish Government. There are 11 RPACs and the Forth RPAC covers eight local authority areas.
Mr Rennick said there was no easy answer to the question: which programme should I apply to, LEADER or Rural Priorities? He said LEADER was better for smaller projects and Rural Priorities for larger more complex projects, and the Forth RPAC has close links with the four LEADER Local Action Groups in the RPAC area.
Mr Rennick said that although no-one would say Rural Priorities was easy it has got easier because there have been a number of improvements. These include ongoing approval for some cases, including some forestry cases, new support for case officers and aloowing applications to bypass the first stage of application.
There have been six rounds of approvals so far. Around £20 million has been awarded to projects in the Forth RPAC, of these around 60 projects were awarded £5.6 million in the Forth Valley and Lomond region. There have been projects around Sites of Special Scientific Interest, tourist accommodation and farm buildings. Most applicants have been from traditional rural industry, but there have been two successful community projects in Forth Valley and Lomond.
The Fintry Sport Club extension will see the community facility enhanced by increasing its capacity and flexibility. Also, the running costs and carbon footprint will be reduced by improving the effeciency of the heating system. Kippen Sports Field's proposal is to level the football pitch, lay a running track and install a sustainable drainage system to allow the facility to be used all year round.
Mr Rennick said that he expected a higher number of applications from communities in the next round. He said the key message is that regardless of whether projects are funded by Rural Priorities or LEADER in the future, funding support will continue to be made available for good ideas.
You can find out more by downloading Ian Rennick's Rural Priorities update presentation from our documents library.
The Scottish National Rural Network aims to connect rural Scotland in all its diversity in order to increase local and national economic development and promote community engagement and empowerment. Beverley Maclean, SNRN Regional Co-ordinator, delivered a brief update on the three key components being employed to achieve this aim - the Rural Gathering National event, the regional events programme being rolled out from November until May 2010 and the website.
Norette Ferns, SNRN Website Editor, then explained some of the key features of the Rural Network website, including the opportunity to add your own content, and features that share good practice - Featured Projects, Projects Database and Your Enterprise.
Graveyard projects have come up at the two regional events that have taken place so far. We've never had any articles on this kind of projects before, and we would love to hear from you if you're involved in a graveyard project or know about one in your area, especially if you have experience to share. Join in our Graveyard forum discussion.
The Forth Valley and Lomond event is one of a series of 20 taking place across Scotland. For more information go to our Regional Events section. You can get event reports from other events in our Rural Network Regional Events archive.
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