Sign up to FREE email alerts from NorthWalesLive - Anglesey News Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Councillors on both sides of the Menai Strait look set to ratify a £2m fund targeted towards the Welsh speaking communities of west Wales.

Cabinet meetings in both Anglesey and Gwynedd will seek formal recognition of the Arfor Innovation fund, which is a product of the Welsh Government’s budget agreement with Plaid Cymru.

According to ministers in Cardiff Bay, there will be a particular focus on areas where there is a high percentage of Welsh speakers and an inflow of older people and outflow of younger people.

The £2m pot has been designed to target support across the counties of Gwynedd, Anglesey, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire, with Gwynedd council responsible for its overall administration.

The funding will also look to facilitate new and innovative methods of supporting economic development in the region, by:

Promoting enterprise and supporting business growth in areas with a high proportion of Welsh speakers.

Generating more and better paid jobs to retain local people in these areas and encourage those who have left to return.

Promoting the wide ranging value of the use of Welsh and bilingualism in business creating a vibrant sense of place.

Encouraging the businesses and people who move to rural areas to value and use the Welsh language.

But before being formally adopted, meetings in both Anglesey and Gwynedd next week will ask decision makers to formally authorise officers to implement the scheme.

Each of the four authorities will be allocated £456,000 each over two years, after taking away the administrative costs, and will be expected to provide business grants that support the Welsh language.

On Anglesey it is expected that the scheme will see closer collaboration with the not for profit company, Menter Môn, in respect of their existing language in business work and enterprise hub.

“Menter Môn is responsible for Menter Iaith Môn and employs a number of language promotion officers, including language in business staff, but they do not currently have a language in business grant,” notes the report compiled by council officers.

“Menter Mônis also responsible for a business support hub based in MSParc which helps to develop business projects on Anglesey.

“It is intended to work in partnership with Menter Môn in order to add value and avoid duplication.”

In Gwynedd, meanwhile, the bulk of their funding has also been identified as providing practical and financial support to give businesses confidence to grow and create new jobs within communities.

The report notes, “The plan will respond to the need for more and better jobs in the Welsh language heartlands and, through this, it will keep local residents who speak Welsh within our local communities and will attract others to return.

“The plan will also contribute towards regenerating our towns and villages, and restoring them as places to live and work.”

Meetings of Anglesey’s Executive and Gwynedd’s Cabinet are set to delegate the necessary powers to officers when the councillors meet on Monday (July 15) and Tuesday (July 16) respectively.