About Us
- Levels & Moors Local Action is a programme funded by the European Union to support the positive development of communities and businesses in specific rural areas through Local Action or community-led projects.
- Local Action is the name for this programme in the South West region of England, also known as the Leader Approach, which adopts 7 main principles:
- Area based approach (the Somerset Levels & Moors)
- Managed by a Local Action Group
- Multi sectoral - that is representing all the main sectors contributing to how a community works
- ‘Bottom-up' approach with decision making made at the local level
- Encouraging innovation and experimentation
- Co-operation - this may be locally between projects and partners, but also nationally and across Europe in some cases
- Using networking to encourage all of the above
- In the South West, the funding to the Local Action Group is through the local Regional Development Agency as part of the larger Regional Development Programme for England (RDPE).
The programme is operated by a large partnership of public and private organisations known as the Local Action Group with decisions made by a smaller Executive Group of stakeholders.