Since 2006, the West Kent LEADER programme has awarded over £3 million grant funding to 112 projects, which has generated approximately £8 million of investment into West Kent.

A wide variety of applicants were supported with grants ranging from approximately £500 to £150,000.  Overall, LEADER grant funding will have created over 100 jobs in the West Kent area, with 35 jobs created during the first programme period (2006-13) and an additional 71 jobs projected to be created from project support during the last programme period (2014-20). 

Projects included farming and forestry business support and diversification, tourism ventures, rural business expansion and local community services.

Examples of some of our projects:
A collaborative venture between three farmers, who had diversified into lavender production, was to purchase specialist equipment from abroad to harvest the crop and ensure the best oil yield can be obtained from the flowers. Sharing the capital expenditure and the assistance of LEADER funding, helped make the project viable and enabled the partners to also provide a contract harvesting service to other existing lavender growers.
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Following the closure of the Village stores in 2011, a temporary shop was opened in a shipping container run entirely by volunteers while a permanent solution was sought. Planning permission was obtained and funds raised through the sale of shares to local residents. The award of a grant from West Kent LEADER ensured that the local community now has a shop serving locally produced foods, a post office and community hub with small café area.
Founded in 2004, the Westerham Brewery Company brought brewing back to the historic town of Westerham after the closure of the Black Eagle Brewery in 1965. The micro-brewery, producing craft beer for the local market, was looking to expand and LEADER funding helped towards increasing fermentation and storage capacity and improved efficiency with a new malt system, elevator and cask racking machine.
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The purchase of two second hand charcoal retorts, the construction of two new retorts and the purchase of ten steel storage bins was made possible with a LEADER grant enabling the Tregothnan Estate to start the in-house production of charcoal. Following the retirement of the external contractor, this enabled the estate to continue the production of local charcoal utilising the timber from the estate woodlands and using the existing estate labour.
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Mereworth Estate is an expanse of ancient woodland with a large diversity of plant and animal life carefully managed by a woodland team led by a father and son with a combined 75 years service with the estate. The project was to purchase a new timber trailer and crane to reduce the number of journeys required to extract the coppiced wood in its unprocessed form from the woodland.
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In January 2012 after a series of cuts in the price they were receiving for their bulk milk, the Bastable family decided to add value to the milk from their dairy herd and diversify into making cheese and ice cream on the farm. LEADER grant funding helped in the purchase of the cheese and ice cream making equipment as well as contributing to the website and marketing of the produce.
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Chiddingstone Castle can be traced back to the early 16th century and has been owned and lived in by an eclectic mix of people and families. The building is currently managed by Trustees who sought funding from LEADER to upgrade the car park, which is also used as a village resource, install brown Tourism signs to direct visitors to the castle and re-decorate a room to be used as a village archive facility.