North Pennine Dales LEADER delivers local rural development strategy at grass roots level. LEADER is a bottom-up community-led approach to the delivery of Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) funds, which is jointly funded by Defra and the European Union.
Funding has support 87 projecst that have improve the financial and environmental performance of rural communities and local businesses without damaging the countryside. The LEADER approach is a community-led method of delivering rural development. It contributes towards DEFRA's priorities of:
Making agriculture and forestry more competitive and sustainable
Enhancing the environment and countryside
Enhancing opportunities in rural areas
The North Pennine Dales Leader budget for the socio-economic aspects of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) is £2.2 million, the programme will run until 2013. This funding has been distributed to the following sectors:
Micro-Enterprise Development
Bioenergy
Sustainable Communities
Sustainable Farming
Tourism
Recreation
Local partner organisations, along with extensive support from the communities of the area, developed a bid to manage and administer the LEADER approach in the North Pennine Dales Area.
