This paper presents an update on the 2015-20 LEADER programme.

4.1       Members received a report which provided an update on the 2015-20 LEADER programme.

4.2       The AONB Partnership Manager advised the meeting that the bid submitted to Defra for the AONB Partnership to deliver the LEADER programme in southern Shropshire had been successful and the programme budget had been confirmed at 2,540,000 euros which was the 13^th largest allocation among the 80 LAGS.  He commented that the sterling equivalent of the funding would be confirmed annually which could make planning ahead more difficult as the actual sterling programme budget would be dependent on fluctuations in the exchange rate during the period.

4.3       The AONB Partnership Manager informed the meeting that following confirmation of the programme budget, the operational arrangements had been planned in more detail, and a request had been made to DEFRA to enable the Partnership to operate the management and administration (M&A) at the maximum allowable rate of 18%.  He advised that the current Co-ordinator’s post would be upgraded to take account of the extra responsibility associated with the new programme, and there was a small amount of money in the budget which may be used to pay for a limited amount of work by other Partnership staff.  Ms Caffyn queried as to whether core staff could work outside the boundary of the AONB.  The AONB Manager said that there would only be a very limited amount of time available for this type of work, so this was unlikely to be a significant issue.

4.4       The AONB Partnership Manager advised that there was need to appoint Approvals and Appraisal Panels and these would need to include representatives from the wider working area of the LEADER programme, and that members would need to be appropriate to the priorities set out in the Natural Growth LDS.  He added that the recruitment adverts would be placed shortly. It was hoped that recruitment would be completed in time for members to take advantage of training provided by DEFRA but that if this was not possible, the information gained through this training could be cascaded down to members through local training.

4.5       Mrs Motley advised that she had been appointed to the RDPE Monitoring Board and would feed back any information to the Partnership team.

4.6       Ms Caffyn enquired as to whether the LEADER bid in North Shropshire had been successful.  The AONB Manager advised her that following the bid had been turned down and an appeal had been unsuccessful.  He added that there were a number of other small grant schemes where projects could submit bids to which may go some way to plugging the gap.

4.7       Mrs Carty queried the level of match funding that would be required and whether this would need to be in the form of cash.  The AONB Manager advised that the detail had not yet been received but that in the past “in kind” match funding had been allowed.  The intervention rates in this round of LEADER were however considerably lower than previous rounds, typically 40%, so more match funding would be required by projects.