PROJECTS to boost tourism and rural businesses across South Oxfordshire are being urged to apply for a share of £1.89m of European Union funding.

The Southern Oxfordshire Leader (a French acronym, standing for ‘Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale’, meaning ‘Linking the rural economy and development action’) programme has already handed out £468,804 of its £1.89m budget to 23 community projects and businesses, including a new micro-brewery, a milking parlour and a community shop.

Now the group overseeing the project is urging people with ideas to boost visitor numbers to apply for money, which must be spent by 2013.

EU cash is available to most of the rural areas of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse districts, stretching from Shrivenham to Chinnor, and to the edge of Oxford.

Already Leader cash has part-funded Wallingford’s new boat moorings, and the town’s museum is to apply for a grant later this year.

In Horspath, the Shotover Brewing Company, which started brewing in November, also got a £20,000 boost, contributing 25 per cent of start-up costs.

Brewer Ed Murray said the business had gone from strength to strength during the first eight months, and now had beer permanently on sale in the White Horse, The Bear and the Rose and Crown in Oxford.

He said: “We only discovered the existence of Leader when in the planning process for the new brewery, but it did make life an awful lot easier, even though it was a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare to apply.

“At the end of the day it was well worth it.”

Last week, a new community shop in Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, near Wallingford, which was awarded £30,000, opened for business.

Village stores committee member Nick Spencer said the grant provided 15 per cent of project costs – money which would have been hard to find elsewhere.

Last year’s Children’s Food Festival at Wittenham Clumps, got £22,000, an extension to Upton Village Hall £27,000 towards, a milking parlour near Faringdon £17,220 and a farm in East Hanney near Wantage £8,028 for a home delivery vehicle.

Kate Forrest, who oversees the project for South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “There are quite a few strong ideas coming through, particularly ones supporting rural businesses and farming.

“What we are lacking is tourism and heritage projects.

“If you have that sort of project, this funding could be available for you, be they market town initiatives or ideas to help local visitors or support the rural economy.

“Oxford city is the tourism Mecca for the area, but this is to make people realise there is more to Oxfordshire than just Oxford.”