At the end of May, three Gloucestershire Local Action Group bids for community investment programmes were submitted to the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) for the £28 million initiative for rural communities in the South West.

These were:

• A LAG covering most of the Tewkesbury and Stroud districts entitled ‘Cotswold Edge and Severn Vale’, co-ordinated by Gloucestershire First
• A LAG covering the Forest of Dean district entitled Securing the Future for the Forest of Dean, co-ordinated by FOD Local Strategic Partnership
• The Cotswold Inter-regional LAG, co-ordinated through Cotswold District and West Oxfordshire District Council Competition

A total of 19 bids have been submitted to SWRDA by Local Action Groups throughout the South West and the money sought totals nearly £60 million, so not all LAGs will be successful - see the 10th June news item on the SWRDA website www.southwestrda.org.uk.

What is the LAG?

‘Local Action’ is the community-led element of the Rural Development Programme for England. The total pot available in the South West is £28million and it aims to:

• address economic under performance
• improve provision and access to services as a means of tackling disadvantage
• harness wider economic value from sustainable environmental quality
• develop local governance and deliver capacity in rural areas

The guidelines state that the LAG areas should cover a population of between 5,000 and 150,000 people and that it should be a coherent area from a geographic, economic and social point of view.

The SWRDA website contains further information on the LAG guidelines.

What has happened so far in Gloucestershire?

Five expressions of interest were initially submitted from Gloucestershire by January 2008 and, following feedback from SWRDA, some of these have merged with others to create the three Local Action Groups.

Since February, statutory, voluntary and business sectors in each of the Gloucestershire LAGs have been working together to develop a proposal for an investment programme.

In each case, one organisation has taken the co-ordinating role to bring together all the partners, project ideas and forming a clear programme specification.

What happens next?

The Local Action Selection Panel will meet on the 3rd, 17th, 18th and 25th of July.

The panel will be chaired by Sir Harry Studholme (SWRDA Board Member). Members will be Ian Piper (Director of Sustainable Communities SWRDA), Gerry Hamersley (Area Manager Glos, Wilts, and West of England, Natural England), Mark Prior (Forestry Commission) and Andrew Slade (Deputy Regional Director Sustainability, Climate & Environment, Government Office for the South West). GOSW will be present to ensure that the process is open and transparent, national criteria is applied consistently, and that the process complies with EU and Defra requirements.

Members of the panel will receive: the application, a RDA technical appraisal, input from Natural England and Forestry Commission, input from Sub-Regional Economic Partnerships, and a risk assessment.

Three representatives from prospective LAGs may be called to make a presentation to panel on the 17th, 18th, or 25th of July. Individual groups will be notified in writing in the week following the 3rd of July if a presentation is required.

SWRDA will write to all applicants after the final selection panel meeting on the 25th of July to let them know the outcome of their bid.

If a Gloucestershire LAG bid is successful, the co-ordinating organisation will bring together partners to decide on the process for receiving applications for projects to develop and fund.

GRCC and the LAGs will keep you informed through a variety of means - email alerts, website content, newsletters and word of mouth.