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Jobs boost for Exmoor

From the Somerset County Gazette, first published Saturday 1st Apr 2006.

JOBS on Exmoor have received a boost thanks to grants and loans announced this week.

A water treatment firm has accepted £30,000 grant to market new cleansing technology, and a company making timber products has received a £10,000 loan to buy new machinery.

Aardvark EM, based near Wiveliscombe, will shortly be employing a new manager to run its Exmoor Water Quality Improvement pilot business.

Any Exmoor businesses with outflows in to streams and rivers, such as farmers and campsite owners, are being sought to test new mobile reedbeds technology.

Over the next 18 months, the £30,000 grant help pay for marketing studies to test the market for the product, which Aardvark says has global potential.

Brendon Hills company Kleen Kutt Forest Products has also accepted a £10,000 loan to buy machinery to make timber products from trees grown on Exmoor.

The machinery will enable two new people to be employed.

One of the first projects will be making a new, disabled access birdhide for Wimbleball Lake.

The Exmoor Horn Sheep Breeders Society have been offered £42,733 to work on a variety of projects over the next three years, to increase the value and sales of the traditional breed.

The money has come from the South West Regional Development Agency and the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Diana Mompoloki, rural development manager at the South West RDA said: "Our role is to support all business across the region helping them adapt and become more profitable."

Grants and loans are available until the end of 2007. Tel: 01398 323665 for an application form.

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