Rural Development Programme for England
RDPE Updates
Click here to read the monthly RDPE Update newsletter.
March 2010
Discover the Extraordinary
Discover the Extraordinary, a project to develop the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site through product development and marketing, is to receive almost £2 million of investment from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) as part of its Sustainable Rural Tourism investment theme.
The programme will invest £1.75 million in the project in Cornwall, (total project cost £2 million) and £208,000 in West Devon (total project cost £239,000) to encourage visitors to the far South West with resulting economic benefits to the wider rural economy, including increased visitor spend.
Discover the Extraordinary will include:
- Improvements to visitor facilities and interpretation resources at twelve World Heritage Site visitor gateway sites
- A web portal for visitors to the World Heritage Site
- Interpretive trail publications
- Interactive audio and AV interpretive trails about the World Heritage Site, downloadable from the new World Heritage Site web portal, themed for different audiences.
- A pilot project sending information about the World Heritage Site to visitors’ mobile phones.
- Marketing and PR activity to encourage more people to visit the World Heritage Site outside the peak tourist season.
- In addition, the project will provide touch screens with information about all the South West’s World Heritage Sites at tourist information centres, World Heritage Site gateway visitor centres and other relevant World Heritage Site attractions in the South West.
February 2010
Dairy expansion will create new jobs
Cornwall’s dairy sector was given a boost this week with the news that Trewithen Dairy – third largest buyer of milk in the county – is about to embark on a major expansion. With the aid of a record £5.7 million grant from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) in South West England, Trewithen is set to increase its production by 80 per cent from 25 million litres of milk a year to 44 million – more than 80 per cent from direct supply farms. Read more...
November 2009
Business led applications
The Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) has received a good level of business led applications to date, with the South West RDA’s regional targets for applications received being met.
Cornwall approvals
There have been 14 projects approved in Cornwall with a total allocation of £1,665,689 for the life of the scheme.
In appraisal
There are five applications in appraisal with a total grant request of £6,268,751.
COMMISSIONED REGION-WIDE PROJECTS INCLUDING CORNWALL
Community and Social Enterprise
More than £7 million of RDPE investment has been allocated to this theme, targeted in two ways:
- A grant to support projects from community and social enterprises for the improved delivery of, and access to, basic services.
- Advice and support for community and social enterprises that deliver basic services, in order to improve their overall viability.
Sustainable Rural Tourism
Two of the six applications have currently been approved with the remaining four due to complete the appraisal process by December. All projects have activities and spend allocated to Cornwall.
SW Healthy Livestock Initiative
The South West Healthy Livestock Initiative (SWHLI) grant opportunity was launched on 14 September and closed on 23 December 2009. The programme brief, guidance for applicants and supporting evidence base has all been published and is available at the SW Rural Gateway website.
SW Agricultural Resource Management
The SW Agricultural Resource Management (ARM) initiative is up and running. There have been on farm visits taking place through Soils for Profit and Resource Efficiency for Farms being managed by Natural England, the Environment Agency and Business Link. This has enabled the process to be checked and amended where necessary. Further information is available under Resource Management at the SW Rural Gateway. The scheme documentation is also available.
August 2009
Overview
Programme start-up has been steady, the recent increase in activity is expected to continue, reaching a plateau of around 10 projects per month by the end of 2009/10.
Commissioned activity
Approx 50% of the programme.
- Rural Enterprise Gateway (Business Link) – targeted specialist support for rural businesses
- Vocational Training Scheme (Duchy College) – demand-led training
- Agricultural Resource Management – specialist advice and capital grants to improve farm profitability, scheme is due to be launched later in the Summer
Business-led projects
Adding value to agricultural and woodland products or supporting farm diversification – approx 35% of the programme.
4 Local Action Groups
Approx 15% of the programme. Strengthening the rural economy, improving access to services, using the environment as an economic driver.
June 2009
Royal Cornwall Show
The South West RDA’s rural team will be attending the Royal Cornwall Show from 4 to 6 June – hopefully some of you will see them at stand 282.
May 2009
Crisp idea for Cornish spuds
A new business, the Cornish Crisp Company Ltd is about to set up in Callington - with the aim of 100,000 packets of crisps coming off the production line this year. The business is the brainchild of Sue Wolstenholme who decided that the good reputation of Cornish potatoes should not be restricted to crops straight from the fields, but could be used for high-quality processed foods as well. Investment of £120,000 from the Rural Development Programme for England has helped get the business up and running. Read more...
Choice cheese-maker to increase production
An award-winning Cornish cheese manufacturer is increasing production thanks to investment from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). There has been a steadily increasing demand for the premium cheeses produced by Whalesborough Farm Foods Ltd, of Launcells, near Bude, which have won regional and national awards. Investment of £17,000 from RDPE has helped move production to rented premises on other farms so production can increase. Read more...
April 2009
Six proposals cross the first hurdle
After a thorough review of the 53 projects seeking funding from the Sustainable Rural Tourism programme, six wide-ranging proposals are being encouraged to proceed to the full application stage. The competition was extremely high with projects looking for £40m of investment from a funding pot of £12.8m. If all proposals finally get the go-ahead they will see ambitious schemes taking place in every county in South West England from Cornwall to Gloucestershire.
For further information contact Annette Cole at South West Tourism on 01392 353229 or acole@swtourism.org.uk.
More Local Action Groups fully operational
Ten of the region’s fifteen Local Actions Groups are now fully operational. They include the three Cornwall groups – West Cornwall, Clay Country and East Cornwall – and, having signed contracts based on their delivery plans, the groups are finalising their first projects which should be going live over the next few weeks. There are maps and contact details for each of the Local Action Groups on the South West RDA website.
‘RDPE - One Year On’ conference
The ‘RDPE One Year On’ conference, held in April 2009 looked at the programme’s progress and outlined challenges overcome. To see copies of the four main presentations, together with a copy of the programme and the speaker biographies, please visit click here.
Copies of the South West Chamber of Rural Enterprise (SW CoRE) plenary presentations can also seen by clicking here.
For further information regarding RDPE in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly please contact:
James Glover
RDPE Adviser (Cornwall)
South West Regional Development Agency
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro
TR1 2UJ
Telephone: 01872 243782
email: james.glover@southwestrda.org.uk
Or visit the following websites:
