SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT FUND (SDF)

Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Notes to assist completion of application form

Please contact the Community Links Officer, details below, before completing the application form.

These notes are to help you with your application for grant aid to the Sustainable Development Fund (SDF) for the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Please read then in conjunction with the guidelines. The application form is available in paper or electronic format. Before filling in the application form you are strongly advised to discuss your ideas with AONB staff to ensure that you and your project are eligible for funding. Details of how to get in touch with the Wye Valley AONB Unit are at the end of these notes, on the application form and available on

Question 1. Contact Details

Please fill out all of this section and ensure that you include the contact details of the treasurer. If your project is awarded the funding, the initial payment will be sent to the treasurer.

Question 2. About your project

It is important to remember that the grant year follows the financial year running from April to March in each year. The application form reflects this and when you are asked to submit any information regarding time scales, you will need to bear this in mind.

If you require planning permission or any other statutory consent please provide copies of any received permissions.

The AONB management plan can be viewed on line at

Local strategies can be viewed at the relevant local authority web site.

Question 3. List the activities that will take place as a direct result of receiving the grant.

Please outline in your answer exactly what the grant is contributing towards. This should be reflected in the budget page.

For example if your project is ‘facilitating a training course in dry-stone walling.’ Detail the following: state the skills to be taught, the number of participants undertaking the training and the amount of wall to be re-instated. Detail any aspect that the project will fund e.g. marketing and/or tools.

Question 4. List the evidence you have gathered that supports the need for the project.

Evidence could take the form of a local consultation, strategy or report that has been undertaken, detailing the need for the project.

Question 5. List what you plan to achieve with your project.

In this question you may detail the broader vision for your project, both the intended and possible outcomes.

Using the dry-stone walling example, here you may state. ‘The training will raise awareness of this traditional skill and the value of traditional boundaries in the landscape among the participants. Ten participants from our community will receive training in ‘the basics’ of this skill.

Aim to demonstrate the sustainability of you project… for example…

‘The newly trained dry stone walling team will establish a community dry-stone group. We aim to repair 20meters of dry stone wall bounding the village hall after their initial training period.’

Question 6. Who will carry out the work and how will it be managed/supervised.

This question tests your capabilities to deliver the project. If your project is of a complex nature, it would be advisable to build in the cost of a project manager/professional to run specialist aspects of the project.

Question 7. Who will maintain the completed project and how will it be funded in the future?

This question is testing the sustainability of your project. Projects need to work towards becoming self –supporting.

Question 8. Does your project match the core criteria set down in the notes detailed below?

It is expected that projects will meet all of the core criteria

The core criteria referred to are:

a)Is located in the Wye Valley AONB or directly benefits the AONB (see map)

b)Conserves or enhances local characteristics of culture, wildlife, landscape. Land use and/ or community

c)Demonstrated good practice or innovation

d)Involves the local community and /or young people

Question 9Which of the other criteria detailed below?

Projects should meet as many of the following criteria as possible

a)Environmental criteria

  • Self-supporting, continues beyond the life of the SDF scheme
  • Biodiversityconserves or promotes biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of life – habitats and species, rare and common.
  • Promotes Natural Capital, the use of local timber for example in a wood fuel initiative.
  • Promotes ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ can be applied as a principle to any resource consumption
  • Raising awareness of Environmental issues, AONB purposes or sustainability.
  • Achieves aesthetic improvement to the built or natural heritage

b)Community Criteria

  • Can demonstrate local support (e.g. community consultation)
  • Involves young people and/or local community (either in working on the project itself or as an end product)
  • Breaks down social or cultural barriers/ promotes equality
  • Addresses local social need
  • Has appropriate community structures / networks in place to co-ordinate the project

c)Economic Criteria

  • Draws in funding from other sources
  • Demonstrates value for money
  • Contributes to the local economy by generating own income
  • Business plan in place
  • Contributes to local employment, training or volunteering

d)Cultural Criteria

  • Contributing towards maintaining local culture
  • Has cultural or historical links
  • Uses traditional materials or skills in managing the countryside and the built heritage
  • High quality design and use of sustainable materials / techniques
  • Provides interpretation
  • Involves using the arts

Question 10. List your partners and briefly describe their involvement in the project

This question builds on question 6, asking you to list which organisations individuals have been engaged in the development of your project.

If you know that other groups / organisations are or have run similar projects to yours, then this is an opportunity to demonstrate how your project sits within that background. If your project is unique, yet touches work areas that other groups would be interested in, you could demonstrate that you have made partners or potential partners aware of your project.

Question 11. Delete as applicable

It is important to fill this section of the form accurately. If an organisation is applying for the funds, it needs to be constituted with a bank account.

Question 12. Detail the project budget - expenditure

Please itemise the costs and expenditure that you expect to incur with your project. For any costs in excess of £2,000 please provide written estimates. These may be attached as supporting documents with your application. If the project spans more than one financial year, detail the combined costs here.

In kind contributions, for example the value of loans of equipment/ machinery and/or donations of materials: you will need to provide a written record of these type of donations, should your project be successful in this funding application. These can be included in the project expenditure and the income section (Question 13)

Volunteer time should be included in this section and in the income section (Question 13).

Volunteer time should be calculated in the following way

Unskilled£6.25 per hour (£50 per day)

Supervisor/skilled£12.50 per hour (£100 per day)

Professional£37.50 per hour (£300 per day).

Applicants will need to provide details of those providing professional and skilled services, including their curriculum vitae and qualifications. It will be a condition of grant that they keep records of voluntary time given to the project as these will be required to provide evidence in support of grant claims.

The following associated rules will apply:

i. Whether the work of an individual is costed at supervisor/skilled or professional rates will depend on the nature of the work that the individual performs for the project (i.e. his or her qualifications of other employment outside the project will not be relevant).

ii. Professional rates will be deemed to be applicable if the work needs, for legal reasons or to provide an enforceable guarantee of high standards, to be carried out by someone with a relevant professional qualification and regulated by a professional body. Examples include architect, surveyor, solicitor and member of one of the chartered accountancy bodies.

iii. The Supervisory/skilled category will cover those in charge of staff and also individuals with technical skills e.g. botanist, ecological surveyor, countryside manager, reserve warden, interpretation specialist, book-keeper, construction tradesperson.

Question 13.Project Income. Please list the other sources of funding for your project.

In this section include all sources of funding (income) that you are allocating to this project. These ‘other sources of funding’ can include; volunteer time, in kind contributions, money from other grants and/ or the organisations/individuals own funds. Not all grant funds can be matched to SDF, please discuss with AONB staff and refer to the Guidelines page 4.

The year in the columns refer to the financial year. Please fill out the form to reflect this, do not follow the calendar year or any other time frame.

Question 14. Declaration

Please ensure that you have checked signed and include all relevant documentation before sending in your application.

How and when to apply

You are advised to discuss your ideas with the Wye Valley AONB staff before applying. Then fill in the application form, using the notes provided. Attach any supporting information, which will help the Assessment Panel when they consider your application. The Community Links Officer will let you know if the information you provide is suitable and if you need to supplement it. Once you are satisfied that you have provided all the relevant information please send your application to the address provided at the end of these guidelines.

The Assessment Panel particularly welcome relevant photographs of project sites, and would expect further photographs to be taken during and after the project by successful applicants.

There are no set dates for submission of applications. The Community Links Officer will inform you of the next Assessment Panel meeting, and when to submit your application. As the financial year progresses the money available for projects will decrease as allocations are made, therefore early application is advisable. If you are proposing a new project then you should not commence work until you have received a decision from the Assessment Panel as to whether your application has been successful.

Contact details:Sarah Sawyer

AONB Community Links Officer

Wye Valley AONB

Hadnock Road

Monmouth

NP25 3NG

Tel: 01600 710844

E-mail:

SDF/Notes July 2012Page 1