Welcome to the LEADER Programme

LEADER stands for Liasons Entre Actions de Development de L’economie Rurale/ Links between actions for the development of the rural community.

LEADER is part of the new Scottish Rural Development Programme, which is funded by the European Commission and will run from 2007-2013. It replaces the Leader+ programme that ran from 2000 to 2006.

LEADER is a mainstream part of the Scotland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 and is funded through the European Commission with £41 million available for programmes across Scotland.

The programme is designed to bring about a grass roots form of local governance aimed at empowering rural communities to develop their own area using innovative approaches and co-operation. In order to achieve this, funding is to be awarded to Local Action Groups with partners from the public, private and third sectors to take decisions on projects which are community driven, have a wide community benefit and will lead to achieving some of the desired outcomes of the LEADER Programme.

Funding Round News

The first funding round deadline for project applications passed on 8 December 2008.  Six applications from a range of partners and covering a range of measures were approved. The grants offered totalled £170,676 which was 30.4% of the grant available. Successful projects included:

The second round deadline for applicants was April 17th 2009. In this round, 8 of the applicant’s projects were approved for funding. The grants offered in this round totalled £167,697 and approved projects included:

The application deadline for the third funding round will be on Sept 4th 2009.

News Updates - Funding Surgeries

The LEADER Co-ordination Team has planned 2 funding surgeries for those groups interested in applying for funding in the third round. The dates, times and locations are listed below.

If you belong to a community or voluntary group and would like to come along to discuss any funding issues, to seek funding or to find out more about the Kelvin Valley LEADER programme, which funds rural community projects, please contact Gillian Wightman on 01698 302696 to arrange an appointment.

However, if you cannot attend a surgery in your area please contact us and we can arrange to come and visit you at your convenience. For more information contact a member of the Kelvin Valley LEADER team to discuss potential project ideas and eligibility.

All surgeries operate from 5pm – 7pm:

3rd August 2009:                                          4th August 2009:

Croy Miners Welfare                                            TBC                

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