Jobs & Training Grants & Loans Delivering National Park Aims

Businesses across Exmoor are starting up and expanding thanks to grants and loans from the Exmoor Sustainable Development Fund (provided by the South West Regional Development Agency and Defra).

Kleen Kutt Forest Products Ltd., on the Brendon Hills, have accepted a £10,000 loan so they can buy machinery to make timber products from trees grown (to high standards approved by the Forest Stewardship Council) on Exmoor.  This machinery will enable 2 new people to be employed.  One of the first projects will be making the new, disabled access birdhide for Wimbleball Lake.

Aardvark EM Ltd., based near Wiveliscombe, will shortly be employing a new colleague to run their Exmoor Water Quality Improvement pilot business.  Any Exmoor businesses with outflows in to streams and rivers, e.g. farmers, campsite owners, are being sought to test the unique mobile reedbeds technology (www.rentareedbed.co.uk). Over the next 18 months, the £30,000 grant aid will test the practical and market robustness of the tested product, which has global potential.

Four men from Exford have received £500 towards a chainsaw course, so they can expand their businesses of looking after Exmoor’s hedges and woods.

The Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders Society have been offered £42,733 to work on a variety of projects over the next three years, to increase the value and sales of this traditional breed.

Commenting on the awards, Diana Mompoloki, Rural Development Manager at the South West RDA said: “Our role is to support all business across the region helping them adapt and become more profitable. This project is a great step forward and shows how local delivery partnerships can respond flexibly to local needs enabling communities to make their own decisions about how best to tackle the issues that affect their future.”

Grants and loans are available until the end of 2007 for proposals which, in furthering the aims of the Exmoor National Park Authority, will safeguard or create jobs, assist people towards getting a job and/or result in people over 16 enhancing their work skills (so long as Maths and English skills are improved too).

The aims of Exmoor National Park Authority are

• To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park
• To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park by the public.

For an application form, call 01398 323665 or click on “Sustainable Development”