LATEST NEWS

North Antrim Leader is now winding down.The Cushendall Office will close on the 30th September 2008.All grants have now been paid and we are dealing with the remaining audit and project monitoring issues.

Overall NAL+ has been an outstanding success story for the North Antrim area, delivering a range of funds from the Leader, BSP, Interreg, Peace II and other sources to the local community. NAL+ also worked with a range of partners to ensure the maximum impact of funding. We also had a “customer driven” approach which attempted to simplify the over bureaucratic systems that are a barrier to rural communities. The programme is now closing at the end of September and the work of the voluntary directors, staff and all those who supported NAL+ should be acknowledged.

The outline below is a summary of the success of North Antrim Leader and identifies issues for the new programme.

NORTH ANTRIM LEADER+ - A LOCAL SUCCESS STORY

There is a wealth of experience of Leader and the rural development process in this area from the very start of the Leader and rural Development Programme in 1991. An initial project was set up in 1992 with the Antrim Glens Cottages Programme which involved self-catering properties and which is still operational today by our partners in North Antrim Community Network (NACN). North Antrim Leader Ltd was set up in 1995 as part of the Leader II Programme with the Lower Bann Leader area setting up an equivalent organisation up 2 years later (these two organisations merged to form North Antrim Leader+ Ltd (NAL+) in 2001) Leader II was a much more wide ranging programme covering agriculture, tourism, community development, small business and co-operation projects. All four of the present NAL+ Councils were involved in this programme. Over £1m in grant-aid was allocated to a wide range of projects and Leader II was seen by the EU as one of the top three Leader programmes in Europe .

Leader II then evolved into the present Leader+ programme which is a partnership between the four Councils of Ballymena, Ballymoney, Larne, Moyle and NACN. This commenced in May 2002 (late, which caused issues concerning spend – the infamous N+2 issue) and is due to finish in May 2008. This programme is very focussed on support for small local businesses – an unusual focus at EU level which in virtually all other countries was a much wider initiative, similar to the Leader II programme. Indeed this wide approach showed how Leader was the most effective method to deliver rural Development programmes throughout Europe in terms of outputs. Despite this narrowness of the NI programme its success demonstrated the flexibility of the Leader approach with the following outputs being achieved to date

•  Supported 181 businesses with grants of between £500 and £40,000

•  Supported over 230 business with small grants less than £200

•  Assisted 414 businesses in total

•  Created 186 jobs

•  Sustained a further 211 jobs

•  Distributed 2.4m in grant aid

•  Levered in over £3.8m

•  Total investment in North and East Antrim of over £6.2m

Networking

NAL+ could have simply taken its role as a rural business support agency and operated this programme without reference to other organisations in the sector and area. However NAL+ quickly identified that one of the strengths of Leader is its facility for networking. NAL+ thus has worked with all the agencies which operate in the small business area – LEA’s, Invest NI, local council’s economic development departments and many others such as private companies like Michelin Development. We also participated in meetings, seminars etc with any organisation which was working in North Antrim to maximise the input of our strategy and the other relevant strategies in the area.

Our community partner NACN, also ensured that even if our focus was not particularly relevant to the community sector, we were aware of the issues. 

This networking facility will enable any new LAG to have a model of the importance and relevance of good networking.

Co-operation

This has always been identified as an integral part of Leader, whereby new ideas and best practice could be drawn together from all over Europe . Again NAL+ has been to the forefront of this process with more projects (7 in all) that any other NI group covering the following areas.

Woolcraft – use of sheep products especially wool

Farmers Markets – operating in Ballymoney

Women into Enterprise – helping female entrepreneurs

Food & Cultural Tourism – highlighting local food and culture

Biker Tourism – encouraging bikers to visit area

Cutting costs/reducing risks – helping Health and Safety in small businesses

Enterprise International – helping small rural businesses to identify potential for export

We are also the only group to work outside UK and Ireland on transnational projects. Overall this meant NAL+ drew in an extra £220,000 in funding, again significantly more than other areas.

Co-operation will again be a vital part of the next programme and the NAL+ experience gives a good model. There is also a wealth of contacts made with good relationships with 14 other LAG’s in the UK , ROI and Europe in addition to the other 11 NI LAGS. All of these groups without exception would like to further develop linkages. Indeed some groups (our Scottish neighbours – Dumfries & Galloway and Argyll and the Islands are examples) have already formally named North Antrim as an area with which they wish to co-operate in the next round of rural development programmes.

Funding vehicle

Again this is an area where NAL+ has been innovative and successful. We set up a joint company (Imeall Tra Teo or Edge of the Shore Ltd) with the West Donegal Leader Group and this has drawn down over £1.8m to both areas with a range of funds being involved (Peace II, Interreg, Department of Foreign Affairs and others. The Northern Ireland Leader Groups also deliver a Farm diversification measure through BSP. This is worth approximately £120,000 to our area.

This flexibility has been possible because of the independent company status of NAL+. Again there is a lesson to be taken on board about making any delivery structure flexible enough to identify other funding sources and deliver them in a co-ordinated and integrated way

NAL+ has also linked the agricultural and rural development sectors with all of the staff and many of the directors coming from farming backgrounds. It is important that a rural programme is implemented that is inclusive and that the farming and others parts of the rural community work together. NAL+ is one of the few organisations that have successfully linked these sectors (e.g. over 55% of our grants were allocated to farmers or farm families). Leader also provides a mechanism which could help deliver large parts of Axis 1 – farm competiveness and even carry out programmes in Axis 2 (environmental sustainability).

It is also worth mentioning that The NI approach to Rural Development and the Leader delivery system is at variance with nearly every other EU state. EU legislation states (Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005) LAGs “must consist of either a group already qualified for. Leader+ or be a new group…..”). In NI we have insisted on a completely new system.

Programme Operation

At the close of the programme we had received and processed the following breakdown of applications and issued Letters of Offer.

Businesses Grant aided To Date

A list of businesses funded to date by North Antrim Leader+has been given and their respective Council areas and type of business/service which they provide.

This breakdown of the individuals and companies assisted proves just how even the spread of money was throughout the North Antrim region, with each of the four Councils receiving a fair share. 

Although this table does not show applicants who withdrew from the programme or who were successful but unable to proceed due to planning restrictions or matched funding issues it does provide an excellent overview of the types of projects and the variation of businesses which are in existence throughout the North Antrim area. 

Last updated on 4th September 2008