FUNDING secured in the past three years has managed to make a difference to small businesses and services across Ceredigion, the Council has said.
£3.4m European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) Axis 3 money has been used by Ceredigion County Council over the last 3 years to bring about grass roots improvements to small businesses and services across the county. Finishing in December 2014, the Programme reporting shows that the initial open call undertaken by the Council in 2011 for activity proposals has paid dividends in the breadth and number of small scale improvements that have been made over the Programme period.
Reflecting on the success of the Programme, Cllr Gareth Lloyd, Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Tourism outlined some of the achievements: “Small businesses and tourism have been the focus for a lot of the investment. In total we have advised or assisted around 200 micro enterprises whilst giving small amounts of finance to 87 of them. This has led to the creation of 32 jobs and 14 new micro enterprises. We have managed to support 15 small scale tourism infrastructure improvements which have seen at least an additional 350,000 additional visitors. Some of these investments have been quite large, like the reinstated stations along the Rheidol Railway or the improved accommodation at the Urdd Camp, whilst others have been more modest – such as improvements to bridleways.
We haven’t ignored other important areas of rural life though, for instance we have been able to financially support 33 projects related to improving basic services such as village halls, community transport, play areas and even a broadband mast. Many villages have benefited from small scale improvements to public spaces through our Balchder Pentrefi scheme. When added together, all these individual actions have made a real contribution to the rural way of life and economy in Ceredigion.”
The Programme has now come to an end, and the County Council will be hoping that the Ceredigion will be able to benefit from the next round of EAFRD money which is mainly being delivered by the Welsh Government.
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