Write a commentDARD Minister, Michelle O’Neill joined with SOAR earlier this month at a function in Armagh City Hotel in recognition of their achievements to date.
Southern Organisation for Action in Rural Areas (SOAR) which is the delivery agent for the Rural Development Programme within the Armagh Craigavon and Newry Council areas, recently marked nearly £14 million spend on local rural projects with a tremendous Celebration Event in the Armagh City Hotel on the 5th February 2015.
Craigavon Borough Council is the lead administrative body in the partnership with Newry and Armagh Councils. They are responsible for the contract to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The programme established in 2010 to deliver funding under 6 measures including Diversification into non-agricultural activities (Farm Diversification), Business creation and development, Encouragement of tourism activities, Basic services for the economy and rural population, Village renewal and Development and Conservation and upgrading of the rural heritage.
The compere for the evening was Mr Richard Wright, BBC Farming Correspondent. The celebration event was well supported with well over 240 attendees including the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michelle O’Neill, Local MLAs, Local MEPs, representatives from local Councils, DARD Officials, SOAR Local Action Group and Joint Committee and projects that SOAR funded under the different measures.
Job creation has been a key focus for SOAR. Supporting the development and growth of rural initiatives through grant support has been rewarded by enterprises directly creating 206 new jobs. We predict that this figure will continue to rise as more projects complete and through monitoring more data is captured.
Minister O’Neill commented “It is encouraging to see the vast, and very diverse, range of projects which have been delivered by SOAR. In total, 265 projects have benefitted from Axis 3 monies, with over 200 new rural jobs being created. Job creation is a key focus for SOAR and this figure will continue to rise as projects complete. This is a fantastic achievement. These new jobs offer a real opportunity to grow our rural economy and will help make the SOAR area a more attractive and prosperous place to live, work and invest.”
Spend under these measures has had a considerable impact on the lives and wellbeing of rural people. To date 265 projects have been funded. This intervention has helped these businesses, facilities, services to develop and prosper and have provided new opportunities for local people across the three council areas.
Under the Village Renewal and Development measure residents of settlements and surrounding areas were able to feed into integrated action plans to identify the needs of their area and explore funding avenues to enable regeneration. As a result of these plans a variety of projects were identified and over £1.5 million grant aid was awarded to enhance and improve 74 settlements throughout the three council areas.
Cllr Joe Nelson Chair of the Joint Council Committee Councillor stated “The projects we have supported are perfect examples of the indigenous entrepreneurship which exists within the rural business and community sectors. These ventures not only create new employment and provide much needed basic services but they will attract visitors into the area and increase spend.”
Under the Encouragement of Tourism Activity Measure just over £2 million of grant aid has been awarded and this has not only improved our tourist facilities for years to come it has also dramatically increased visitor number by132,354 tourism visits.
Chairperson of the Local Action Group Mr Miceal McCoy said “SOAR has achieved great things across the three council areas through the trusted local voices on the LAG and JCC. This funding has provided a real opportunity to support the economic and social sustainability for all of our rural areas.”
The delivery of this programme has been overseen by dedicated volunteers on the Local Action Group comprising of elected members and social representatives and the Joint Council Committee, made up of elected representatives. Members and staff will continue to facilitate the delivery of projects across the cluster area to insure full spend is achieved as we have still just over £1 million worth of claims to process.
