October 2004

 

Phase I Update

All 40 projects technically complete, final report to WEFO written, just the final audit and the efficiency evaluation to go. We have reached or exceeded all our targets except "hectares of community woodland created" - the shortfall of this has been added to our Phase II target. We have given £3,986,295 in Cydcoed grants to community groups. This is £1,205 less than our original target.

Right up until the end of September we thought we would be giving slightly more than our original target, which would have been great. Unfortunately, at the last minute one of our groups had to pay us back some grant and there just was not time to spend it on another project. However, we got to within 99.97% of our target. Also, some of the grant we gave is not included in the overall Cydcoed programme calculation because it is not eligible for European Union funding (it was for tree planting on agricultural land - the original definition of agricultural land with which we were supplied turned out to be incorrect) so we have actually given £4,039,198. So the headline achievement is......

We have given £4,039,198 in grants to community groups - £51,698 more than our original target!

Looking at the European Union funded part of the programme only, we are £3,731 or 0.08% behind financial profile.

Phase II update

20 projects in progress. 5 launched since 15 September 2004. 1 project is approved and on offer to the group and 1 finalised bid is under consideration. We think this is a good rate of progress. £2.4M formally committed to community groups. An increase of £200K since September. 48 bids in progress totalling £3M. 68 other potential projects on our books totalling £5.5M. Total grant involved in all projects is £7.7M out of the £12M we have to give in grants. We are very keen to hear any ideas for new potential projects.

Looking at projects in progress only, we are ahead of target for 6 out of 9 physical outputs. We are slightly behind target for numbers of woods with community participation and number of sustainable woodland management schemes. We are still well behind on hectares of community woodland. However, looking at both bids in progress and projects in progress we are well ahead of target for all outputs. Nevertheless, woodland creation projects and projects with lots of woods will be a priority for the next few months. We have now given £669K in grants to community groups, £69K since September.