A MULTI-million pound European Union-funded scheme to generate jobs and aid economic growth in and around a national park has fulfilled its aims, despite being repeatedly affected by Brexit.

Just months before the £2.3m North York Moors, Coast and Hills LEADER Programme winds up a year early due to Brexit, it has been revealed the funding helped created 54 jobs, benefitted 69 businesses, attracted 65,000 more visitors and aided more than 6,000 rural residents.

A total of £138m from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development was available in the England between 2015 and 2020 under the LEADER scheme, of which the North York Moors area received the third largest share.

In a final report on the scheme to the North York Moors National Park Authority, officers said it was decided to focus efforts around improving farm and forest productivity, small business and farm diversification, rural tourism, rural services, culture and heritage.

Officers said a huge range of projects, such farm productivity projects for mobile sheep or cattle handling systems, turnover crates and robotic milking systems, had been supported by the programme.

The largest proportion of funds were used to support both existing and new start-up businesses to grow, increase their turnover, access new markets, produce new products, and create additional employment opportunities in the area.

A total of £457,198 of the funding was allocated to rural tourism projects across the area, with the largest grant of £136,261 being provided to the footpath and access improvements works along the Cleveland Way at Boggle Hole.

Amy Thomas, the programme’s manager, said when considered alongside the preceding EU-funded LEADER scheme for the area, £4.8m had been allocated to projects which allowed for additional private and public sector match funding to be secured, making a total investment in the area of around £10.4m.

She said: “It has been able to support some fantastic projects, business, individuals and communities and in doing so will leave a lasting impact across the North York Moors and beyond. Rural development programmes can have enormous value and impact beyond that of the basic financial investment they can provide. The ability for communities and individuals to work together, develop skills, build capacity, promote volunteering, encourage entrepreneurialism, take a chance on something new and ultimately develop a solution which is appropriate for that particular situation is invaluable.”

However, the report also revealed that delivery of the programme between 2016 and early this year, when the final round of projects were approved, was “punctuated by several periods of inactivity”. Officers said the the first halt came in May 2016 when the purdah period initiated for the EU Referendum was extended until November 2016 due to the uncertainty that emerged as a result.

The report states: “The six-month hiatus ultimately meant momentum was lost and the programme effectively had to re-launch and re-issue the calls for projects.”

The programme was then hit in 2017 as a result of the purdah periods associated with Local Elections followed by the snap General Election.

The decision to leave the EU led to the programme being shortened by two years.