Successes

The Leader 4 programme for Torridge and North Devon is now in its final phase as funding is almost fully allocated. Since its launch, the Programme has supported a wide range of innovative projects in the area. Below is an outline of just some of our successes so far:

Unlocking the Ravilious Archive
The photographs of James Ravilious (1939 – 1999) taken for the Beaford Archive, provide a detailed social and landscape documentary of northern Devon in the 1970’s and 1980’s.  The Archive has been described by Barry Lane, Secretary General, Royal Photographic Society in April 1998 as “…a unique body of work, unparalleled at least in this country for its scale and quality”. The Beaford Archive preserves and demonstrates the rural traditions and techniques of a time when a corner of England was on the brink of change.

Leader 4 helped to fund the specialist digitising of 1700 photographs from the Ravilious Archive through high resolution scanning of the original negatives, prevciously held in storage at the North Devon Records Office.  The selection of these  images (from the total Archive of some 70,000 images) were based on James Ravilious’ classification of his ‘best’ and ‘good’ work.  These images are now held digitally within a newly designed website (http://www.beaford-arts.org.uk/archive/), with an integral map showing the geographic location of each image.

This resource is freely available to communities and not-for-profit organisations seeking to document aspects of rural north Devon. In this way, communities associations are able to create new walks to encourage active participation in the environment in line with local and regional healthy living strategies. Such routes will also encourage visitors, in support of regional strategies aiming to boost the visitor economy.

North Devon Food and Drink Project

North Devon+, as applicant for the North Devon Food & Drink Project, has been granted £43,750 over two years. This project is helping food and drink producers in North Devon to raise the profile of quality local produce, encourage wider use and promotion through hotels, restaurants, retailers etc, and increase enjoyment through food tourism initiatives.

Applicant for the North Devon Food and Drink project, Helen Symons, states: "With buying and using local food being an increasing priority for our communities and visitors, it was great that the Local Action Group saw the potential of this project and the need in our area. Without Leader 4, there is currently very little funding that could develop our food businesses and services in the same way".

So far, the project has successfully achieved the following:

• Consultation with the sector in order for bespoke support - understanding needs of micro businesses
• Confirmation of the food & drink businesses on the food safety register within North Devon and Torridge
• Establish contact with Devon Food Group forum to ensure North Devon has a voice
• Key marketing and promotional platform The North Devon FoodFest, with national, regional and local PR. Trade contacts/contracts established
• Working to obtain market intelligence on the Local Food market and consumer spending behavior to assist businesses
• Constructing a bespoke training programme for food businesses

Business Growth Small Grant Scheme

The Business Growth Small Grant Scheme opened for grant submissions on 15th September 2009 and was fully allocated around a year later. Due to the high level of demand for funding, the amount available from the scheme was increased from £150,000 to £500,000 and over 100 businesses had their applications for funding approved, leading to increased business turnover, job creation, new services being made available and greater sustainability for many of our local businesses.