Rural Flintshire can still cash in on £1.2 million European cash pot

The Flintshire countryside can still cash in on almost £1.2 million of European funding over the next two years – despite looming Brexit negotiations.

That’s the amount of money left in the coffers of the Flintshire Local Action Group, one of three voluntary organisations covering the counties of North East Wales.

The money is from a pot of almost £8 million of funding which is being administered by Corwen-based agency, Cadwyn Clwyd and from part of the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

The cash is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Welsh Government as part of a six-year plan to revitalise rural communities and their economies.

To date Cadwyn Clwyd has allocated over £5 million on LEADER projects across Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham and liaising with Local Action Groups who have had the final say on funding.

Lowri Owain, the Manager of Cadwyn Clwyd, said:

“We have been successful in attracting funding since 1995 and that’s because we have been able to bring projects to completion which have had a positive impact on the rural economies and on the quality of life of the people living there.

“The LEADER projects launched over two years ago are already having a major impact and because local people are part of the process it means the money can really be targeted very effectively.”

To date £1.7 million each has been committed in Flintshire and Wrexham and £1.6 million in Denbighshire on a wide variety of schemes.

A project to find new uses for red telephone boxes has run across all three counties and a number of the iconic structures are now back in use as local information points and even to house defibrillators to treat heart attack victims.

CADWYN CLWYD….Pictured are Sarah Jones, Cadwyn Clwyd; Sharon Newell, Denbighshire LAG; Wendy Sime, Wrexham Local Action Group vice-chair and Adrian Barsby, Flintshire LAG.

In Flintshire other schemes include the use of Flintshire’s historic artefacts like the Mold gold cape to boost visitor numbers, a rural business network centred on Mold and training in business skills for the county’s young farmers.

Vanessa Warrington, of Halkyn Castle Wood Caravan Park, a member of the Flintshire LAG, said:

“The Cadwyn Clwyd Local Action Groups are made up of volunteers with a range of expertise and experience from every sector of the rural communities and we decide if a project is viable and then Cadwyn Clwyd makes it happen.

Our shared expertise and enthusiasm encourages and supports micro businesses and community enterprise.

North East Wales has the giant Wrexham Industrial Estate and Deeside Enterprise Zone as well as the Airbus factory at Broughton but alongside these hubs of hi-tech industry we have beautiful countryside which is equally important to the life of the area.

Cadwyn Clwyd has a real will and the expertise to bring jobs, innovation, community cohesion and visitors to keep the rural economies of Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham healthy.

The three Groups often approve collaborative projects across the whole of rural North East Wales while projects that are successful in one county can easily be rolled out in the others.

Across the three counties we have been encouraged by the quality and variety of projects that have been developed and at the real difference they are making to people’s lives.”

Since 1995 Cadwyn Clwyd has attracted over £20 million in European funding for North East Wales’s rural areas and has also successfully rolled out the Prince of Wales’s favourite charity, Pub is the Hub, across eight counties of Wales, bringing new life to many rural pubs and their communities.

They have also run the Welsh Government’s Glastir agri-environment scheme with partner organisations Menter Mon, from Anglesey, and Planed, Pembrokeshire, which ploughed £35m into the Welsh rural economy between 2011 and 2015 to help farmers and graziers on common land.

Lowri Owain added:

“As a company, we’ve been very successful in attracting funding and in helping to get projects realised and we work with a wide range of organisations and communities.

The current programme is an extension of the successful work which we have been carrying out in Denbighshire and Flintshire and now Wrexham and which will continue through to the end of 2020.

It extends across all aspects of rural life from tourism, food production and job creation to improving community facilities, kick-starting renewable energy projects and encouraging the arts.

We work in partnership with the three County Councils representing Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham and with organisations like the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.”

Cadwyn Clwyd has helped secure the future of major local events like the Hamper Llangollen and Mold Food Festival as well as encouraging local food producers, launching the award-winning Pwllglas Community Shop near Ruthin, while their bursaries have given a kickstart to small businesses and young entrepreneurs in Flintshire and Denbighshire as well.

They have helped Corwen set up its own hydro-electric power station and they funded a Strategy and Action Plan which secured the Europarc Charter Status of sustainable Tourism for the Clwydian Range and Dee Valley AONB.