§ Sir Wyn RobertsTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he plans to announce his decision on the arrangements for the transfer of funding for small rural schemes from the Welsh Development Agency to local authorities. [9464]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansMy right hon. Friend announced in March as part of the Rural White Paper, "A Working Countryside for Wales," the Government's intention to transfer funding for small rural schemes from the Welsh Development Agency to local authorities. In September we issued a consultation paper on the proposed arrangements; we received 17 responses, most of which welcomed the proposal.
I have considered the various points made during consultation and decided that £5.4 million will be allocated to the eligible local authorities in 1997–98.
381WThose authorities are: Isle of Anglesey county council; Carmarthenshire county council; Conwy county borough council; Denbighshire county council; Gwynedd county council; and Pembrokeshire county council.
I have also decided that for 1997–98 the agency will retain £1.4 million of the £6.8 million being transferred in order to meet commitments to the Welsh national botanical gardens and to continue to support the Leader and Interreg II European programme groups. As the agency's commitments start to unwind from the end of 1997–98, an increasing amount will be available to local authorities.
In order to claim the funds, each local authority will need to develop an appropriate scheme which embodies the challenge principle, encourages the levering-in of private sector money and supports local partnerships in local communities.