Follow the leader - and grow your business

TIME is fast running out for small High Peak businesses looking to grab cash from an EU funding programme that is about to end.

The alert was sounded this week by the Borough Council, which warned that firms employing fewer than 10 people – outside Glossop, Hadfield and Buxton’s central wards - had only until the end of May to apply for grants of £3,500 or more from the Peak District LEADER grant scheme.

Ian Huddlestone, executive councillor for regeneration, said: “Over the last five years, the scheme has supported firms ranging from a canine hydrotherapy centre and village tea rooms to a biotech business and various creative enterprises.

“Now, the Peak District has been given a final pot of money to help local firms grow – and employ more people in the process”, he explained.

Previous recipients include Chinley-based Paper Escape, which secured £7,748 towards equipment and office refurbishments that enabled it to take on four new employees.

Retrogenix Laboratory, a biotechnology company from Whaley Bridge, was awarded £11,747 to transform office space into a high-tech research lab that will create 4.5 full-time jobs while Rosie’s Tea Room, in Hayfield, received funding to refurbish its premises – a former hairdresser’s – and build a new, fully-accessible toilet.

“I’m keen for eligible High Peak firms to take advantage of this funding because when it’s gone, it’s gone”, added Cllr Huddlestone.

For more information, click here or call LEADER co-ordinator Amanda Brown on (01629) 538475. Alternatively, e-mail amandabrown2@derbyshire.gov.uk.

Note: LEADER grants are available across nearly all of High Peak. Eligible wards include Blackbrook, Burbage, Chapel East, Chapel West, Corbar, Dinting, Hayfield, Hope Valley, Limestone Peak, New Mills East, New Mills West, Padfield, St. John’s, Sett, Tintwistle and Whaley Bridge.