According to the Sinn Féin man it heralds “one the most substantial ever capital investments in the rural economy and in rural communities throughout Limavady Omagh, Strabane and Derry council areas”.

Colr. Butcher was the inaugural chairperson of the North West cluster of the Rural Development Programme Joint Committee which governs the distribution of the £8.4million fund locally

“We have been working extremely hard over the last twelve months to ensure the speediest possible roll out of the programme measures locally and are delighted that we are now in a position to go live with the application process for Measures 3.1 (Diversification into Non -Agricultural Activities) and 3.2 (Business Creation and Development) under the Programme,” he explained.

“These two measures alone account for almost 60% of the total allocation of £18, 484,113 funding announced by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew for the North West Cluster Area and we want to make sure that business diversification and development projects throughout the borough of Limavady are in a position to secure maximum benefit from this major traunch of funding.

“The total programme is £500 million,” continued Clor Butcher “ £400 million under Axis 1 and 2 will be delivered direct to the farming sector by DARD. The balance Axis 3 will be delivered at local level by Local Action Groups (LAGs). There are seven LAGs across the North and Limavady Council is clustered with Derry City, Omagh and Strabane as the North West Group which is branded as ARC Northwest.”

“Sinn Féin has been networking with rural stakeholders throughout

“West the borough to ensure that interested parties would be in a state of readiness when the application process went live and we would now anticipate a major take up of this unprecedented opportunity for the regeneration of our rural communities.”