RURAL communities in Worcestershire affected by the foot-and-mouth epidemic are being urged to apply for help from Barclays £1m regeneration project.

The fund was set up to help community projects that deliver long-lasting and economic benefits by bringing jobs, visitors and sustainable businesses back to an area.

These might include retraining programmes to help re-employment, rebuilding rare breeds in heritage areas, local chamber of commerce conferences, newsletters or information packs and tourist activity.

Initiatives

"We've been working with a number of community organisations to identify projects which we can support from this fund," said David Roberts, chief executive of Business Banking at Barclays.

"But we're keen to cast our net as wide as possible to identify initiatives which will make a real difference in regenerating rural communities hit by the effects of foot-and-mouth, so we would encourage groups with ideas to come forward."