Community cash makes history

Dumfries and Galloway LEADER secured the five years of funding from the Scottish Government.
Programme manager Nicola Hill said: “We are entering a very exciting time in rural development for Dumfries and Galloway.
“This allocation of funding presents us with a fantastic opportunity to support local groups, businesses and organisations in developing creative and innovative solutions to the challenges facing many of our small rural and coastal communities.”
Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Aileen McLeod congratulated the team behind the bid.
She said: “I would like to congratulate Dumfries and Galloway on being the first part of Scotland to launch their new LEADER programme and I look forward to seeing it build on the success of previous initiatives, such as Day of the Region and Capacity for Change, as they implement their Local Development Strategy over the next five years.”
LEADER in Dumfries and Galloway has been supporting rural communities for over 20 years and during that time has awarded over £10.5 million in grants to 208 projects.
This latest injection of cash is for the 2014-2020 programme.