Grants are available for small businesses and rural communities in East Hampshire.

Farmers, foresters and growers are also being invited to bid for a share of a £1.6m fund across the Eastleigh, East Hampshire, Havant and Winchester rural areas.

Grants have already been awarded since the programme re-opened in October 2015.

Organisers want to hear proposals for projects that will:

* Create jobs
* Increase farm or forestry productivity/efficiency
* Develop new markets
* Increase visitor spend in the area or
* Provide an essential rural service.

Fieldfare has scheduled five new calls for applications that cover land economy, visitor economy, local food and drink, rural communities and small and medium-sized enterprises and farm diversification.

For more information please visit the website under the 'transition' and 'events' page to find more information.

The grants are available as part of Defra's Rural Development Programme for England.

LEADER is the method of delivering funding to projects through Local Action Groups, ensuring that individuals with local knowledge are involved in key decisions about how funds are spent.

Further details about Fieldfare LEADER can be found at www.fieldfareleader.org.uk. For more information please contact Ken Brown on 01962 848 588 kbrown@winchester.gov.uk.