Over the next five years, Pembrokeshire will benefit from £3.3 million of funding from the EU. Of that, £330,000 will be administered by Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Education and Development (PLANED). This was just one of the items of information that Steven Bradley, LEADER Implementation Officer, gave to Pembrokeshire South East Energy Group (PSEEG) recently. The LEADER programme is financed by the Welsh Government and the European Union and runs from 2014-2020. Overall, the poorer areas of Wales will receive £2 billion from Europe.

Many communities across Pembrokeshire have seen the very positive results of PLANED’s work since their inception as SPARC in 1991. They have used the skills, knowledge and experience of local communities to help them grow socially, economically and culturally. Looking around PSEEG’s area we see a number of examples of village halls renovated (including Saundersfoot), various community gardens, woodland walks, display boards giving historical information, support for renewable energy projects and Carew Community Association’s restoration of the Control Tower.

Steven has been very involved with the farming community over the last 20 years. He encouraged many farmers to successfully instal renewable energy schemes as a way to diversify their income - unfortunately, no longer viable.

The new EU funding is to be used to encourage community groups (geographical and thematic eg. agriculture, tourism) to come forward with project ideas. LEADER funding will be available to nurture local development: this could be local skills and/or better use of local resources to provide ‘new’ outcomes or product.

Although PLANED will not directly be making the financial decisions they will be acting as a gateway to the funding by assessing the ideas and projects put forward in order to consider their viability. Once funding is secured it can provide up to 70% of the projects costs. There are five LEADER themes. They are: adding value to local identity and natural and cultural resources: facilitating pre-commercial development, business partnerships and short supply chains: exploring new ways of providing non-statutory local services: renewable energy at community level and exploitation of digital technology.

An interesting discussion followed the talk. The NFU president was reported in a national newspaper to point out that ‘about 30 per cent of welsh lamb is exported to Europe’ whilst the FUW head of policy - in the same paper - says that ‘the average Welsh farmer receives around £11,000 a year through the common agricultural policy - equivalent to four-fifths of a farmers income.’

It may be interesting for visitors and residents to spot the EU and the PLANED logos within Saundersfoot alone to see the difference that funding has made to this small village.

PSEEG was originally set up by PLANED and it has given support and the opportunity of networking with many other community organisations. This new funding will enable PLANED to continue their great work with other communities and groups in order that they may benefit from the their expertise.