Look out for an annoucement about the official launch of our Sustainable Economies in Rural Communities (SERC) programme.

The exact date of the launch is still to be decided, but is likely to be in April, around the time of our second birthday.

The £2 million fund, which will help develop sustainable tourism and sustainable farming and food projects throughout rural Devon, and to provide business support in parts of rural Devon not covered by some of the existing European Objective 2 funding, has already attracted 20 proposals for projects.

The success of our support for community shops and rural Post Offices continues.

Our latest project is to support a new village shop and Post Office in Berrynarbor, in North Devon.The shop will be built in a corner of the village car park, close to the centre of the village with good access for motorists and pedestrians, including those with disabilities.

The shop will sell a wide variety of goods and produce, using local suppliers where possible, and there will also be a notice board and computer terminal if there is sufficient demand.

The Devon Wheels 2 Work initiative is about to be officially launched, and it brings together a number of very successful schemes and in addition extends the scope of this innovative project.

The new scheme will apply not just to 16 to 25 year olds, but to 16 to 65 year olds as a way of making work and training more accessible to all.  It provides short-term loans of scooters or mopeds and nationally accredited road-safety training,

A new range of scooters and mopeds has been bought for the project - in fact Devon Wheels 2Work is now an authorised motocycle dealer itself!

Max Jowett, director of Devon  Wheels 2 Work, said: "We have worked very hard to prepare for our county-wide launch, so watch this space for further details..."

Devon Renaissance has contributed £233,000 towards this £1.5 million project.

Devon Renaissance is the rural regeneration partnership organisation for the county. It is a not for profit partnership of the private sector, local authorities and community-based organisations. The organisation is funded by the South West Regional Development Agency and North Devon, Torridge, West Devon, South Hams, East Devon and Teignbridge district and borough councils. Devon Renaissance provides grant funding and works with projects to help create prosperity and jobs and improve access to services in rural areas. It has funding of £7 million over four years which is estimated to be worth £25 million to the Devon economy with match funding.

This is the third edition of our newsletter. We welcome your feedback and comments, and we also hope you will forward it to others who may be interested.

Our previous newsletter can be viewed here.

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