The Scottish Government

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ANNEX 2
PARTNERSHIP DETAILS

1.1 This should be completed by 22 August, using Section A of the template ( Annex 1).

1.2 A LAG must target rural areas and population. It should comprise a balanced and representative group of partners from local communities and socio-economic sectors. At least 50% of the partnership at the decision making level will comprise partners from a wide range of industry and social partnership bodies in addition to other representatives of civil society, eg, land managers, women and youth organisations. The remainder will be from public organisations and agencies with a direct involvement and interest in rural development.

1.3 Each LAG area will be internally coherent, have sufficient critical mass in terms of human resources, other resources and local economy to ensure that a sustainable development strategy is implemented. Areas appropriate for LEADER funding should be essentially rural areas which are relatively homogenous from the point of view of administrative arrangements, geography, economy or socio-cultural aspects. As a general rule, towns of up to 10,000 inhabitants are accepted for LEADER purposes, but major urban centres are excluded. An exception to this would be where a project was based in a town of more than 10,000 people, but where its beneficiaries were outwith the town. LAG areas should normally fit within the "On the Ground" regions (below) which are being used for Rural Development Contract regional prioritisation and delivery, though the requirement for a coherent LAG area offering sufficient critical mass may lead to a cross-boundary approach in certain areas, such as Scotland's national parks. There may also be more than one LAG within a region, based around Local Authority boundaries so that Community Planning Partnerships are closely involved. These "On the Ground" regions constitute the maximum boundaries within which a LAG area can be selected.

1.4 The boundaries of the area must lie within, but do not need to coincide directly with "On the Ground" administrative boundaries, but may for example define an area with a unifying cultural inheritance, or an area with particular natural heritage features, or a geographically coherent area. The boundaries of the area must be defined clearly in the Local Development Strategy. An area or a part of an area cannot be covered by more than one Local Action Group.

1.5 In order to retain and ensure an area's regional and rural character, the population of each area should not exceed 150,000 inhabitants. Breaches of this principle may be permitted in exceptional cases where there is sufficient and clear evidence of the case for doing so. LAG area populations may be less than the ceiling. However, in order to ensure a sufficient critical mass for a satisfactory development process, the guide size of an area should be around 25,000 inhabitants minimum. It is recognised that there are island exceptions, but LAGs are strongly guided towards minimum populations of at least 25,000 inhabitants.

1.6 Any LAG area must be consistent with small area geographies (data zones). The data-zone geography covers the whole of Scotland and nests within local authority boundaries. There are 6,505 data zones across Scotland. Data zones are groups of 2001 Census output areas and a single data zone has a population of between 500 and 1,000 household residents. Where possible, they have been made to respect physical boundaries and natural communities. They have a regular shape and, as far as possible, contain households with similar social characteristics.

1.7 The advantage of using data zones as the building blocks for defining a LAG area is that it will facilitate monitoring and evaluation. Data zones constitute the main geography for disseminating government statistics. A wide range of statistics is therefore available on population and the labour market.

1.8 Areas successful at this first stage will be notified, and details put on the website.

1.9 The map and table below detail the "on the Ground" regions and their population

Populations of 'On the Ground 'Regions

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