The Wrexham countryside can still cash in on almost £1 million of European funding over the next two years – despite looming Brexit negotiations.

That’s the amount of money left in the coffers of the Wrexham Local Action Group (LAG), one of three voluntary organisations covering the counties of north east Wales.

In Wrexham county the areas covered include the Ceiriog Valley and Chirk.

The money is from a pot of almost £8m of funding which is being administered by Corwen-based agency, Cadwyn Clwyd and from part of the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

The cash is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government as part of a six-year plan to revitalise rural communities and their economies.

To date Cadwyn Clwyd has allocated over £5 million on projects across Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham and liaising with Local Action Groups, made up of volunteers, who have had the final say on funding.

Lowri Owain, the manager of Cadwyn Clwyd, said: “We have been successful in attracting funding since 1995 and that’s because we have been able to bring projects to completion which have had a positive impact on the rural economies and on the quality of life of the people living there."

So far £1.7m has been committed in Wrexham on a variety of schemes, leaving £974,000 in the kitty.

A project to find new uses for red telephone boxes has run across all three counties and a number of the iconic structures are now back in use as local information points and even to house defibrillators to treat heart attack victims.

David Darlington, chairman of the Wrexham LAG, said: “Cadwyn Clwyd has a real will and the expertise to bring jobs, innovation, community cohesion and visitors to keep the rural economies of Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham healthy.

“Across the three counties we have been encouraged by the quality and variety of projects that have been developed and at the real difference they are making to people’s lives.”

Since 1995 Cadwyn Clwyd has attracted over £20m in European funding for north east Wales’s rural areas and has also successfully rolled out the Prince of Wales’s favourite charity, Pub is the Hub, across eight counties of Wales, bringing new life to many rural pubs and their communities.

For more information about Cadwyn Clwyd contact them on 01490 340500, email: admin@cadwynclwyd.co.uk or go to http://cadwynclwyd.co.uk/