4th September 2014
The Vale of Usk Local Action Group held a drop-in session at Pelham Hall last night where their representatives were available to explain the purpose of the group and to hear views of local residents. £3.2M is available to support projects in rural areas throughout the region and more information about this is given below.
Unfortunately, too little notice was given of this meeting and few Penallt residents could attend as a result. However, further meetings are being held elsewhere in the next few days (see list below) and interested residents are urged to complete an on-line survey too (survey closes on Monday 15th September).
Further background
Monmouthshire County Council and Newport City Council have recently come together to help form a Vale of Usk Local Action Group that will prepare a Local Development Strategy (LDS). This LDS will help the group maximise Rural Development Programme funding to deliver change in their rural areas but we need your help!
The strategy needs to set out a clear, logical, feasible and realistic direction for rural communities, businesses and rural agencies between 2014 and 2020. Activities will be funded via Europe, the Welsh Government, Monmouthshire County Council and Newport City Council along with private and community partners.
The purpose of this Local Development Strategy is to identify a series of actions and objectives, suggested and agreed collectively by our rural communities that will have the greatest chance of achieving results with the resource available. However to do this we need to identify:
- What people believe is most important for the development of the area?
- What issues the rural population consider to be the main challenges?
- How the future funds could be used to tackle them?
Key themes that could reflect some of the needs of the rural area include:
- Adding value to the local identity of the area including natural and cultural resources;
- Supporting local business development including pre-commercial development, business partnerships and short supply chains;
- Exploring new ways of providing local services through community action;
- Renewable energy at community level; and
- Exploitation of digital technology across the rural area.
We hope you can help us by filling in this on-line survey by Monday 15th September.
Drop-in sessions have been arranged as following (between 6pm and 8.30pm) where residents can find out more:-
- Parc Golf Club, Coedkernew, Newport – Tuesday, 2nd September
- Penallt (Pelham) Village Hall – Wednesday, 3rd September
- Monmouth Bridges Centre – Thursday, 4th September
- Christchurch Community Hall – Tuesday, 9th September
- Mathern Athletic Hall – Wednesday, 10th September
- Usk Centenary Hall – Thursday, 11th September