OVER £3.8MILLION HAS been approved for Moray to operate two funding programmes over the next five years.
The funds are being provided by the European Union and Scottish Government for the 2014-2020 LEADER fund and Fisheries Programme.
LEADER will be overseen by a Local Action Group (LAG) – and volunteers are now being sought to serve on the important funding system that will see the Moray LAG managing both the operational and strategic delivery of the LEADER programme.
It will also develop projects and oversee the programme’s administration, and will link with the Fisheries LAG being formed to deliver the Fisheries programme in Moray and Highland.
Members of the LAG are being sought from the public, private and voluntary sectors in order to provide representation over various sectors of the LAG. Additionally, members are being sought to fill a new advisory group on the Fisheries Programme for the coastal areas in Moray. A working group has been set up to develop the new programmes and to recruit new members.
Priscilla Gordon-Duff, who chairs the working group, said: “We are looking for hard-working, enthusiastic individuals with experience of rural economic, community or marine development and this includes representation from the renewables, tourism, farming, business and fishing sectors.
“A wide range of experience and skills is required, and we hope they will be provided from among active community representatives, businesses, social enterprises, land managers, farmers, fishermen, food producers and local agencies.”
The role of a LAG member is both rewarding and demanding and offers the opportunity of influencing rural and coastal development in Moray.
The LEADER programme covers the whole of Moray, except for the area in the Cairngorms National Park, which has its own LEADER LAG.
For more information and to get a recruitment pack please visit www.morayleader.org.uk or www.morayfisheriesfund.co.uk or contact Moray LEADER programme co-ordinator Iain Catto at iain.catto@moray.gov.uk or by calling 01343 563635.