Nearly £2 million National Lottery funding has been announced for rural Wales

6 Sep 2017 10:19 AM

The Big Lottery Fund’s Rural Programme to help tackle poverty in rural Wales announce which groups it will be funding. Ten projects will receive a share of £1,992,834 with grants of between £76,000 and £350,000. The Big Lottery Fund’s grants are made possible thanks to the people who buy tickets for the National Lottery.

(See full details of all awards)

Pembrokeshire Association of Community Transport Organisation (PACTO) will use £311,276 to offer affordable transport, addressing unmet travel needs in rural areas by creating a system for lift-sharing across the county. Another five year long Pembrokeshire based project; Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise and Development (PLANED), received £349,847 to use village halls to deliver IT and digital support services within rural communities.

Tumble and Trimsaran Family Centres, based in the Gwendraeth Valley area of Carmarthenshire, will work in partnership to deliver a project for families with children under ten years old experiencing adverse effects from living in poverty. The grant of £252, 232 will be aimed at helping parents develop new skills.

South Denbighshire Community Partnership supported by Citizen’s Advice Denbighshire will receive £349,847 with a project primarily for older people and those unable to access services in eight villages surrounding Corwen in Denbighshire. The project will reduce isolation, improving wellbeing and resilience.

Some projects cross county borders,Tir Coed will create opportunities for disadvantaged people within rural parts of Pembrokeshire, Powys and Ceredigion to enjoy the woodland and also to access accredited and non-accredited woodland skills training courses.

Further grants will be used to improve skills and confidence in rural communities to deal with money and household energy costs. Other projects will tackle social isolation and address domestic abuse in isolated rural situations.

Rona Aldrich, Chair of Rural programme funding decision committee commented:

“This fund will help our rural communities to address those poverty related issues which they themselves have identified as important and going forward we are looking forward to seeing how they use the funding to build their confidence and experience.”

Details about the Rural Programme are available on our website