Investing in Carmarthenshire Communities

CARMARTHENSHIRE has brought in £15 of outside investment in community programmes for every £1 the county has put in itself.

The council’s community regeneration division has secured almost £16million of external programme funding with a county council investment of about £1million.

The good news has been reported to members of the county’s regeneration and leisure scrutiny committee.

The division has created or assisted 154 enterprises, created or safeguarded 21.5 jobs, helped or advised 1,068 community groups, and improved 108 community facilities. It also addressed issues of household debt of more than £1.4million.

The division’s achievements over the year include funding the Carmarthen Food Festival, tackling rural access to services and social exclusion, debt and benefit surgeries, the opening of Felinfoel Community Resource Centre, helping people to get online, and funding projects such as Garnant Family Centre, Burry Port Memorial Park, and Llandybie Public Memorial Hall.

The funding has come from a number of various sources such as the Rural Development Plan for Wales 2007-13, which is funded by the Welsh Government and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development; the Welsh Government’s Communities First programme and Tidy Towns programme, European Funded programmes such as Collaborative Communities and a number of other sources.

New programmes that the council hopes will come on stream this year include a new Communities First programme on the three key themes of Health and Wellbeing, Education and Skills, and Economy and Employment; taking forward the Debt and Benefit Project; and the second phase of the Communities 2.0 digital inclusion project to help people gain access to public services through online technology.

Carmarthenshire County Council’s Acting Community Regeneration Manager John Wilson said: “Community Regeneration has continued to respond to the difficult changing market conditions and has been able to achieve significant contributions to the economic renewal agendas on both a local and regional level.”

He said that the department was working in collaboration with others to bring as much outside investment as possible into the county for community projects.

He added: “This is highlighted by the overall achievement in programme funding ratio of approximately £15 of external funding to every £1 put in by Carmarthenshire County Council. Maximising the return of investment will remain a key priority.”