A DALES cheesemaker has been given funding to grow its business from a pot of £2.7m designed to help rural projects.

Since the Yorkshire Dales LEADER programme opened to applicants in 2016, 80 projects have received grants totalling £2,723,640 for the rural area.

The final projects approved by the Yorkshire Dales LEADER Local Action Group (LAG) have now been allocated their funding, helping to improve prosperity and quality of life in the rural area.

One recent successful applicant is The Ribblesdale Cheese Company in Hawes, an award winning artisan cheese maker specialising in goat’s cheese. They received a grant towards a second-hand vacuum packing machine which has enabled the company to launch a new range of flavoured goat curd pots.

Iona Hill, owner and cheesemaker at The Ribblesdale Cheese Company, said: “We are very grateful to the LEADER project for helping us fund a new machine that lets us make gas flushed pots of flavoured goat curd. It is a very new thing to the market and we would not be able to do this without their help. We are very excited with the new product and are getting positive feedback from our customers.”

The LAG also awarded a grant to the award winning ice-cream makers Brymor, at High Jervaulx Farm in lower Wensleydale, to support the expansion of facilities onsite, including a farm shop and indoor play area for children, to develop the business as a year-round attraction.

Rima Berry, Yorkshire Dales LEADER Co-ordinator, said: "It is a privilege to be able to boost the legacy of businesses, help them start-up, prosper or expand."