Grant themes

Rural grants

Rural Revival

Kent County Council's rural grant scheme offers grants up to £10,000. Small grants are available to projects that encourage local employment and community involvement in rural areas of Kent. Applications are considered from community groups, voluntary organisations and business acting in a community orientated way.

Telephone: 01622 221548.

Leader+

European Funding which offers a maximum grant of £60,000 and a small grant scheme of up to £10,000.

The Mid Kent LEADER+ area covers the most rural part of Kent, stretching north to south in a broad band, from the North Kent Marshes to Romney Marsh, and includes the Detling, Hollingbourne and Harrietsham and Lenham Wards. In addition the parishes of Ulcombe and Boughton Malherbe qualify. (qualification on sparsness of population).

Leader + is a European Community initiative which aims to assist local people to develop and test small-scale, innovative pilot projects to meet their development needs in a sustainable way.

The initiative has 2 main themes:

The use of new ‘know how’ and new technologies to make the products and services of rural areas more competitive
‘improving the qulaity of life in rural areas’ projects must also include either or both Young people or older people 50+.

Email: dominic.spurrier@kent.gov.uk

Web: www.midkentleader.org.uk

Telephone:01622 221338

England Rural Development Programme

A vast government programme to assist farmers and foresters to repond better to consumer requirements and become more competitive, perse, flexible and environmentally responsible. Consists of Farm persification schemes, marketing and environmental schemes.

Web: www.defra.gov.uk/erdp

Community Initiatives in Rural Kent

Kent County Council fund administered by Kent Rural Community Council. Offers grants to community planning exercises or to projects that have come from those exercises.

Email: rural.revival@kent.gov.uk

Telephone: 01622 221548

Parish Plan Fund

The Parish Plans Grant scheme aims to involve local people across England by providing funding for rural communities to develop a Parish Plan.

Based on extensive consultation, a Parish Plan identifies the community’s needs. It includes an action plan that prioritises the issues raised, and sets out how they might be tackled. Parish Plans are an opportunity for Parish Councils and rural citizens to have a say in how their local area and services are managed. A Parish Plan that provides clear evidence of local priorities can be a key resource for decision-makers to guide future development.

The Parish and Town Plans Grant can provide a maximum of £5,000 to cover up to 75% of the cost of producing a Parish Plan. The parish council will need to contribute the remainder of the cost, although some of these costs (up to 20% of the final total for the plan) may be “in kind”.

Telephone: 01303 850816

Action with Communities in Rural Kent

The purpose of this voluntary organisation is to improve the quality of life of local communities, particularly for disadvantaged people, and to facilitate the development of thriving, diverse and sustainable communities.

The organisation aims to:

Provide direct advice and support to community organisation
Stimulate community action, particularly voluntary action, and encourage good practice
Develop and manage demonstration projects
Provide professional support and advice to key service providers
Raise awareness of rural issues and influence decision makers

Web: www.ruralkent.org.uk

The Phillips Fund

The scheme seeks to protect, conserve and enhance the use and character of the rural landscape and its communities in Kent & Medway. Grants of upto £500 are available to charities, voluntary and community groups for activities such as:

the protection of rural land threatened by development
the planting of trees and hedging in rural communities

Email: manjit@kentcf.org.uk

Telephone: 07812 555024

Rural Post Office Support

The Government's £300m package of support for the rural post office network over the next two years has been given state aid clearance by the European Commission.

The extension of this support to the rural Post Office network was dependent on EU approval and means funding can continue to be made available from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2008.