April 2004
Conference news Welsh Woodlands at the Heart of the Community Joint Coed Lleol/Cydcoed Conference, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Friday 4th June, 10am - 4pm We're getting a great response to this free conference so contact Marie soon if you want to apply for a place - marie.townsend@forestry.gsi.gov.uk, 10a Commercial Street Arcade, Abertillery NP13 1DH; Tel: 01495 320331. Amongst other interesting activities, the conference includes presentations on case studies of successful community woods and a workshop on how to run a Cydcoed project. If your group would like to be one of the case studies or help us demonstrate how to run a Cydcoed project please let me know - it would be great if we could have several groups showcasing their projects directly, rather than just us talking about them. We need at least 6 groups taking part to make this a success. Please let me know by Friday 14 May if you want to be involved in this way. We'll cover your reasonable travelling and subsistence expenses. Team news Cover for Mark Proctor, Cydcoed Project Officer, West Wales. We only held onto James Roseblade, who was providing cover, for 6 weeks before he was snapped up by another unit in Forestry Commission Wales. James did an excellent job while he was with us - progressing several projects and bringing Cwm Rhaeadr to bid stage. Luckily, we have secured the services of Gwyneth Davies and Vic Williams from Tir Coed. They can provide cover until Mark returns. Gwyneth and Vic have excellent track records and lots of skill so the quality of service should remain high - apart from the chopping and changing for which I apologise.
Gwyneth and Vic's contact details are: Vic Williams
Project Officer (West Wales: Pembrokeshire, South Carmarthenshire, South Ceredigion)
Tir Coed, Victoria Terrace, Aberystwyth, SY23 2DQ
Tel: 01970 626548
Mob : 07796 172645
vic.williams@forestry.gsi.gov.uk Gwyneth Davies
Project Officer (West Wales: Pembrokeshire, North Carmarthenshire, North Ceredigion)
Tir Coed, Ty Lisburne, Pontrhydygroes, Ystrad Meurig, Ceredigion, SY25 6DQ
Tel: 01974 282476
gwyneth@ystwyth-tircoed.fsnet.co.uk NB: they are covering Phase II only, contact Louise Jones louise.jones@forestry.gov.uk 01495 321884 if you have a question about Phase I projects in West Wales. Cydcoed interactive web-page We have set up an interactive webpage for Cydcoed funded groups, potential applicants, and other interested parties in The Woodland Trust's web-based community woodland network. I'd encourage you all join in (it is free) by going to www.woodland-trust.org.uk/communitywoodlandnetwork/ then click on "Discussion", "Enter", "Group folders" and follow the instructions to register. Happy chatting. Phase I Update 34 out of the 40 projects are now physically complete (3 completed since March report). 5 of the remaining 6 are due to complete before end June, 1 is due to complete in July. Although this timescale is within limits agreed with the Welsh European Funding Office we were hoping to complete Phase I earlier than this to enable us to concentrate on Phase II. We are particularly desparate to sign off completion reports for Phase I projects - please help us as much as you can to get these finalised. We are confident of over-achieving on all our targets apart from "hectares of community woodland created" - the shortfall of this will be added to our Phase II target. We have given £3,820,000 in grants to community groups (up from £3,700,000 in March report), about £172,000 to go. At end March 2004 we were 4% behind profile. We are forecast to be on profile by the end of the programme. Thanks to savings in running costs, particularly staff costs, we are due to give about £5,000 more in grants than our original target. For those running Phase I projects not yet financially complete: You should be aware that we have no funds to spare in Phase I so unless we have formally committed additional spend to you already we are most unlikely to be able to cover any expenditure over your current agreed budget. Phase II update 31 bids in progress (up from 10 in the March update). 5 projects in progress - same as March report but 2 bids are currently under consideration and 1 is approved. We're registering 56 potential projects, down from 120 in March - this is due to a current rationalisation exercise and we should have more potential projects registered by next report. All projects total £6.4M out of the £12M we have to give in grants - more project ideas are very welcome. Looking at all projects, we are doing well on all physical targets but we are keen to bring forward projects that include large areas of community woodland created on non-agricultural land (or lots of projects that each include small areas). If you have an idea for a project that would create woodland on non-agricultural land, please get in touch. We gave £44,412 in grants to community groups in March. We have now given £176,712. At 31/03/2004 we were 7% ahead of profile. This is less than the 25% I forecast in March because we held back a large grant payment to one group that had not yet made sufficient financial progress. Our target is to be 5-10% ahead of profile at the end of each financial year (until the last one when we need to be bang on!) so 7% is not bad. Contract changes for Phase II projects. Lessons learned in Phase I have led us to make several changes to the standard terms and conditions for Phase II. The most important ones are: - Absolute deadline for completion of all projects brought forward to 30 June 2008 from 30 September 2008. NB: this does not take the place of any project specific completion deadline we agree with you. - We will retain a small but significant amount of grant that we will only pay when your project completion report has been signed off. We will be writing to the five groups with Cydcoed Phase II projects in progress asking them if they wish to accept the changes - we have a contract with these groups so we would not wish to impose these changes. Other projects not yet approved will have the new terms and conditions applied in any contract - the amended documents are available from your Project Officer.
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