At a Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) Committee meeting held earlier this month, seven projects received approval for funding which included:
• Talgarth Mill Green Energy Group receiving a further £6,000 towards the project to re-install their waterwheel to generate power from water on that site in the centre of Talgarth once more.
• The Myddfai, Made in a Great Tradition project were awarded a further £12,000 towards the installation of ground source heat pumps as part of their village hall and community regeneration project. Myddfai were recently awarded the “Rural Enterprise of the Year” from the Countryside Alliance.
• Theatr Brycheiniog will become the first theatre in Wales to use LED lights on stage which will reduce their energy consumption in this area by 80% – £3,000 of funding will help with this.
• Llangattock Green Valleys CiC will use £1,625 of funding to help develop a three year business plan.
• The Black Mountain Centre in Brynaman will use £5,000 of grant funding award to create a Tourist Information point and arts and crafts selling area.
• Arts Alive were awarded £3,923 to build on the successful Green Fire project which was based in the Uplands area of Brecon, reaching out in Talgarth to explore more sustainable ways of living by engaging creatively with the natural world.
• The SDF will also support the European Geopark Conference with a grant of £1,000.
Cllr Evan Morgan, Chairman of the Sustainable Development Fund said: “This has been another round of very successful SDF applications with projects committed to improving sustainability and supporting rural communities. I am delighted that the Committee has approved these grants, which reflects such a wide range of innovative and sustainable projects undertaken by the voluntary and community groups in the National Park. It’s also testament to the great weight the National Park Authority attaches to those little ideas that develop into much larger schemes with the potential to significantly shift behavioural change towards sustainability in other communities across the National Park.”
The SDF is a Welsh Assembly funded grant administered by the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. The SDF encourages National Park communities and individuals to put forward their ideas that can be turned into practical sustainable solutions to make a substantial difference in the areas of climate change mitigation and reducing our ecological footprint. All proposals have to demonstrate that they can contribute to achieving a low carbon environment by implementing sustainable ways of living and regenerating their local communities. Between 2000 and 2011, with funding from WAG, the SDF has awarded grants totalling £2.4m to 274 projects across the Bannau Brycheiniog National Park. This seed corn funding has brought in match funding for National Park communities of £7.6m.
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Pictures: Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority
Llangattock Community Allotments and the Talybont Electric Bike Scheme are just two community projects that have receiving funding support from the SDF.