An all-cheering, all-dancing troupe of cheerleaders is taking a Cornwall town by storm after leading welfare to work organisation Working Links helped a single mum to follow her dream. After four years out of work, super-fit cheer coach Mel Welch bounced back to set up Diva and Dudes Cheer, a group already proving a massive hit with children across St Austell.

> Read more

Lead on the NHS Health and Wellbeing review, Dr Steve Boorman, will visit the European Centre for Environment and Human Health (ECEHH) on 20th June 2011. During his visit Dr Boorman will give a talk focused on the health and wellbeing of staff in the NHS, based on his review. This talk will also consider the wider implications of health and wellbeing in the workplace and its potential impacts in a commercial environment.

> Read more

Cornwall is leading the way nationally in a drive to help the public sector buy low carbon goods and services. Clear About Carbon receives European Social Fund Convergence investment. It is delivered by a partnership between Cornwall Council, Cornwall Development Company, University of Exeter, Duchy College and the Eden Project. The project is all about embedding low carbon skills with public sector procurement and in private sector supply chains.

> Read more

A University College Falmouth journalism and public relations graduate has gone full circle and is now helping to teach current students about the industry. Sam Lynas, who now works for Barefoot Media, in St Wenn, specialised in public relations when on the journalism course at University College Falmouth. After graduating he was taken on as the first employee at Barefoot under the Unlocking Cornish Potential (UCP) scheme. UCP receives ESF (European Social Fund) Convergence investment and places graduates with businesses in Cornwall.

> Read more

Nigel Ashcroft, Programme Director, for Cornwall Development Company:

"We’ve now moved into the exciting delivery phase of the programme following our launch at the Eden Project on 27th May. Superfast broadband will be available in half of Cornwall’s telephone exchange areas by the autumn of next year.

“Details of where superfast broadband is already available and when it is planned to come to other areas across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are now available on our website www.superfastcornwall.org.

"As well as driving the roll out to people as quickly as possible, our ambition is to get record take-up levels of superfast broadband in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly. We’re also starting to develop a business support package to allow high growth businesses to grasp this once in a lifetime opportunity and kick-start our local economy.”

Ranulf Scarbrough, Programme Director, BT:

“The engineering challenge is immense. Whilst the broadband that most of us use today is provided by existing copper telephone lines, superfast broadband uses a new technology – fibre optic glass, not much more than a hair’s width - and an infrastructure on this scale has never been built in a rural area anywhere in Europe.

“More than 200 BT engineers will be working until 2014 to lay 130,000km of fibre optic cable - enough to circle the globe three times! Much of this will be laid in underground ducts connecting BT exchanges with homes and businesses.

“Fibre will be run from telephone exchanges across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly either to new green roadside cabinets or directly into customers’ premises. Speeds of up to 40 to 100 Mega bits per second will be possible and potentially much more in the future.

“We expect to bring superfast fibre broadband to at least 80% of people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly by 2014 and we are determined to bring faster broadband9 to everyone else through alternative technologies such as satellite, wireless and improved copper. We’re delighted that the first UK trial of 4G wireless broadband is taking place in Cornwall this autumn.

“The ambition and scale of this programme is huge, but early take up in pilot areas suggests that once again Cornwall and Isles of Scilly will rise to the challenge.”

In May 2011 over £48,000 of European Fisheries Fund (EFF) grants were approved in England by the Marine Management Organisation (MMO). The money will support improvements on fishing vessels, investments in fish processing and work which will benefit groups within the fishing industry.

Complex applications and those seeking over £100,000 from the EFF are reviewed by a judging panel. On 6 July the panel will consider more than 15 applications totaling over £1.8 million of potential investment from the scheme.

The deadline for applications to be considered at the next panel is 21 September however smaller applications can be made at any time. Contact the EFF team on 0300 123 1032 for more information.

For contact details and information about the fisheries programme visit:
> Convergence website

Information about the Rural Development Programme in the South West can be found on the SW Rural Gateway website and on the Convergence website.